Equipment Transitions:
1st (March)
D80
SB 900
18-70mm 3.5-4.5
55-200mm 4-5.6
50mm 1.8
During this time, I was still new to the DSLR world, being used to the Panasonic prosumer FZ-18, I was tempted by the IT fair and went ahead and bought my first kit. BIG MISTAKE. They knock me out the pricing of the 55-200 (street $200, Selling $355), the camera itself was not a bad deal, plus i got my sb-900 for 599 (street 650 +/-). I bought the 50mm 1.8 shortly and loved the bokeh created. I still had no idea how to use my flash, and it's freaking huge on my D80.
I shot everything around me, achieving 8000 + shots within 1 months of using it. The experience was good, I read alot online and offline (books). It helped me to have a better eye for composition.
2nd (April)
D80
SB900 Lightsphere Universal Clear
Tokina 28-70mm 2.8
Tokina 80-200mm 2.8
Sigma 10-20mm
50mm 1.8
My entry into my unit led me to have some opportunity to shoot for the events. Turning a inexperienced dude like me into a events photographer, I had to learn fast. By then I was all riled up by 2.8 lense and tokina 2nd hands ones are really cheap. 28-70 was $400 and 80-200 was $700. The bokeh was cool, the constant aperture was cool. But tokina cant be as sharp as nikon, that was what i felt was lacking. I tot it was me, that was true to an extent but it is rather soft at 2.8 for these tokinas.
It was during this time I experienced the truth of CROP FACTOR. Cos d80 is using crop sensor, the actuall focal length is 1.5x. I though 28-70 would be alright, losing 10mm to my 18-70. But I was dead wrong. I could no longer shoot landscapes or wide group photos without moving super far back. 28-70 is actually 42-105 and 18-70 is actually 28-105. So I actually lost 14mm, I have realized that's quite a bit. Btw, I hated the loud AF sound of the tokinas, now I appreciate AF-S better.
So I got the Sigma 10-20 for $600 and it was good. Landscapes was awesome but I realized group photos with UWA you got to be careful not to distort their bodies man, Some shots I made them look fat. Besides, switching lenses between events is just quite troublesome.
Cos of events, I gotten better grasp of my flash together with the lightsphere, yielding very impressive images (in my opinion), Thanks to a Chris recommendation, the lightsphere was a good investment ($90). I understood what's TTL, Auto Aperture, Distance priority, compensation bah bah. Also had a good feel of how light from my flash will fall on my subjects.
Lastly, I realized the painful truth of the decisive moment. As a events photographer, missing a photo is painful man. But I will and am learning.
3rd (May)
D300
Metz 58 Af-1 Lightsphere Universal Clear
18-55 VR
50mm 1.8
35mm 1.8
Before I got pissed off and sold my tokinas, I upgraded to d300 and was amazed by the complex AF module in it, took me some time to get used to (and the weight too), I attended Flash and event photography course from Knowledge Bowl and I thought it was helpful (though I admit the instructor is a bit too old fashion for his own good, he's kinda biased against new technologies).
I was pissed with the softness and also wanted to try out VR. I sold my Sb-900 for a METZ to try to out its kinda like dual flash system. One for fill light one for bounce. It was cool to be able to get the catchlight from it in the day. The flash is lighter than Sb-900 to boot. Nikon's UI still wins though. Metz flash are a bit too basic, lacking in some useful though non critical functions. 18-55 VR was a sharp lens, but I really missed 2.8 constant after a while.
Thereafter, I wanted to train my compositional skills by shooting prime only, that's when I got the 35mm 1.8. I got inspired to take up street photography and went full speed with high ISO on my d300 (for the grain like film effect) and 35/50mm 1.8. I got the 35mm as I wanted to see what seeing 50mm standard feels like. 50mm lens is effectively 75mm on DX so that's kinda different.
It was hard as hell, I tried shooting my cousin's wedding candidly with this combo and it was hard with flash helping you out with the AF sensors and lighting. Not to mentioned no zoom, had to use "sneaker zoom".
D300 isn't very suitable for street due to its size and I was not very happy with its ISO performance(very soft! but definitely better than D80). As you might have noticed, I realized long end telephoto lens are a rarity for me. I don't seem to need them often, I like going up close, so far I have not met in situations when I need long end telephoto for events.
4th (June)
D5000
Metz 58 AF-1
18-55 VR
35mm 1.8
I was rather disillusioned by the difficulty of training using prime lens but things took a turn when I decided to downgrade to a D5000.
I was attracted by its size, good for streets and ISO performance (same sensor as D90 but smaller). Also it had some novelty features like the variangle LCD, so far I'm loving it, good for self portraits with my girlfriend (haha) and also sneaky from the hip shots.
I love shots taken at hip level, brings a interesting perspective as people don't see things from that level.
35mm + D5000 is pretty much stuck with my camera so far. I don't get noticed too much when I'm taking it out to the streets and it's a small cutely designed camera with a cool list of features. Features i like are like the LCD, auto distortion correction, expanded picture ctrl, able to select auto (lacking in d300) for active d-lighting. But ultimately, just simply amazed by the ISO performance man AND QUIET MODE. I'm shooting at 3200 ISO most of the time and the slight grain produced is pleasant when NR is set to low. That's the best settings for me. Quiet mode is great for street so people would not notice you taking pictures of them.
18-55 VR is great kit lens, super sharp and well, It's good for general purpose or even events. It's super light though it's durability will suffer. But if you take care of it I don't see how this lens will not last. I was tempted to 17-55mm 2.8 but due to the cost and size, I have decided against it. 18-55(on DX) is a best focal length range for events in my opinion. It took me a while to get that into my head.
It's an irony, when I first started out, I wanted everything big and pro-ish. But now, I just want small and low profiles, it's the image you produce as a photographer that matters more. Unless you're doing paid jobs all the time, you don't need to impress by looking all pro-ish with your gear. 2.8 constant aperture can be overly rated sometimes.
5th (Coming July)
D5000
SB-600 (carry around flash) + Metz 58 Af-1 (When in need of CLS)
18-55 VR
35mm 1.8
The metz flash is towering over my D5000, looking for a light flash (sb-600) to balance the weight. At the same time, time to take a next step towards off camera flash.
This is my journey so far in a pretty long article. It's been like 3 months + since I got a DSLR, I felt that I really learned alot. It's kinda crazy but photography is kinda addictive.
Laters!
