Another New Lens?

At last, My dslr is almost perfect. Perfect as for what? perfect as I got one of the near perfect lens to attach on the D700 body. As a wedding photojournalist, this is one of the vital items on my full frame body. So what was it? well...

One of the big issue with wide zoom range such as the Nikon 18-200mm is that it has some softness on the focussed subject at certain distance. I can't prove it here since I don't have the lens to test and make a review, but according to most reviews which you can easily find via google, wide zoom range has some tolerance in sharpness. Kenrockwell has one of the best review I ever read. His experience and reviews on most lens are worth reading and believing. I find my decision to choose certain lens and accesories are halfly influenced by this site. SO whenever you get across camera reviews by kenrockwell, dont simply ignore it.

So what lens? its the 24-70mm f/2.8 that cost about $1800. Man this is hugely expensive for me 5 years ago, but right now, when photography is most that matters, I could no longer tolerate with focussing accuracy and I need to get it right! This lens sure did ate my wallet away, but I'm going to get it back.

Performance? it matched very well, and is actually a must buy for full framers... You can't never get the best out of your full frame if you don't let it work along with the best equipments. Sharpness is admittedly damn darn great (by experience handling it for just 3 days). Low light shooting was also easy at ISO400-800 with no fear of shake. Focussing speed? fast enough to lock accurately under dim light.

Disadvantage? well ofcourse its the weight. It is almost twice heavier than my Pentax K10D with 18-55kit. And coupled with a D700 body with the MB-D10 batery grip, it really requires strong muscle for a 10 hour daily lift. I think I need to do more hand workouts later... phew!~

But aside from the weight, everything else was darn good. The weight itself was good for stabilizing the camera and thus reducing handshake. I counted blur takes was nearly less then 10% for shutter speed at 1/30. most of the time it went sharp. as expected.

Even so, I'm still lacking another lens. I need another "skodeng-zoom"(hehe) for distance shoot. There's sure limitation for a 24-70, but 70-200 will do the Job. When coupled with the least D300, it can reach the length of around 300mm in APS-C format sensor (mostly Nikon d90-d300). Another lens I need is an ultra wide angle zoom and a APS-C sized Nikon body. I think I'm going for D90 with Tokina's wide angle 11-16mm f/2.8 for its outstanding performance and perfect U-wide angle match.

Why D90? well, I can go wide with a cheaper quality lens Tokina 11-16mm and go long with a 70-200mm which will turn out to be a 105-300mm when used on D90... so its all... perfect I should say. I know I couldn't afford another expensive D700 or D3 (perhaps a year from now), but just wait... someday...