I find horses (and donkeys) difficult subjects to shoot.
Their bodies are too long, easy to fail if not sharp at the right points.
Waiting for horses galloping in the wild or for a wide angle, I get (small) satisfactions by cropping tiny pieces of horses. Click and zoom to enjoy their hairiness.
I recently mounted on my D800 a new 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II lens. This tele, as expected, provides excellent results. Here are my first tests on quite dull, but distant, subjects (100% crop from full pictures shot in the same conditions with a 50mm f/1.4G and this tele). Colors, contrast and speed are exceptional at every length. Autofocus is ultra silent and ultra fast, as well the stabilizer worked solid with me also with slow times.
The lens weight is still acceptable, although I should try day-long hikes before writing anything about it. With its f/2.8 it’s easy to shoot fast moving objects and situations with poor light conditions (click here to watch).
However, such broad apertures (and, although less, even higher) are not really compatible with D800 still having the infamous left AF issue. Although my camera already went through service at Nikon Switzerland, at f/2.8 the image focused using the the left AF bank, whatever fine AF correction value used, is always blurred.
This is the second lens having such problem with my D800: time to ring Nikon Service Switzerland ? Click on the picture for a bigger version.
It is quite difficult choosing which gear to buy for a new camera. You are used to your old gears and, especially when switching brands, a whole new world has to be explored. First questions you have to answer are:
1) What do I need this new lens for?
2) What do I like to shoot with my camera?
3) How much do I wanna spend?
I previously used a Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM and a very nice Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS. The long tele was nothing special and I have seen it often equally compared to the Nikon 70-300mm. The 17-55mm was a precious toy but with the D800 I wanted to give a try to easy prime lenses. The D800, like many others, requires some field work to be fully appreciated and I wanted to focus on it more than on immediately learning a new lens.
So, what I did was:
1) Scavenging lens data online on Nikon photography blogs, something like Ken Rockwell and Nasim Mansurov and other forums, newsgroups and so on.
2) Avoiding pure technical test websites: boring and not really informative as I like to shoot something more than Siemens stars
3) Looking for ebay and new prices
The knowledge I hopefully gained pushed me to own, order or just dream the following lenses:
[Nikon AF-S 50mm f/1.4G]
Easy, light, small, very fast, no cons if stopped at 2, still ok if you go down to 1.4. I am very happy with it and the kind of dim light pictures I can shoot now I could dream with other lenses for this price.
[Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G ED-IF VR II]
Ordered and hopefully soon on my D800. I did not want another average 70-300 like the Canon I had, I could not spend so much money for the wonderful Nikon prime long lenses, I was not convinced by the quality of Sigma 50-500mm or equivalents. I really do not believe wonderful reviews on barrels like the Nikon 28-300mm being as sharp and fast: I stay far, far away from this all-round lenses … it is like when new “family-movies” are announced: you now it will be no good.
[Nikon AF-S 17-35mm F/2.8 IF-ED]
Still dreaming on it. One day I will get this excellent wide angle, I really want to go down to 17mm for landscapes, this time on a Fx camera! If you have one home and you do not use it donate it to me!
[Nikon AF 200mm F/4.0D IF ED MACRO]
Another wild dream. THE macro, as I could see and read around, with a long focus distance to have 1:1 whatever fearful subject you shoot.
[Nikon 135mm f/2 DC]
Many call it the portrait king … maybe one day when I will win the lottery I will finally buy also this one
So, I hope the several hours I spent online might be useful to you too in choosing the lenses you need, if your needs and wishes are similar to mine. Enjoy shooting!
Either you are hiking on the snow by night or high-speed skiing by day, shooting good pictures with no blur and deep focus field is often a problem. Not anymore now with a full frame camera (D800) with low ISO noise (pictures in the dark shot at ISO 4000) and a fast fixed lens (50 mm f/1.4). Enjoy a few day and night shots from the Swiss Alps by clicking here!
If you mount it on the D800, stopped at f/1.8 (to sharp the picture and avoid too thin focal depth), will you ever need a macro lens with you? This post pictures are 100% cropped from the relative framed images. Click on each picture to zoom: find the snail in the first picture …
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