Learning what equipment to take.......and when

[goodguy]

Just came back from an amazing trip at the West side of Canada and US.
One of the places we visited was Portland.
Armed with the D750 and 70-200mm we went to a market, I always take a long lens for market photography, the most interesting people go to markets and the pictures I get there are always challenging and rewarding.
Of course with such a big setup I am very noticeable and stick out like a soar thumb.

Anyways at the end of the walk a young guy in his late teen or early 20's approaches me asking me if I can give him my camera for a second, I wasn't sure if to be shocked or amused from his request.
He was very persistent but of course the only way he could get my camera was by wrestling it away from me and he didn't seem to want to do that.
Continued walking still pretty shocked I get yelled out by a bunch of thugs getting comments about my camera, I felt like I am attracting too much attention so I put my gear in my bag, it wasn't a big deal as we were on our way out anyways and everybody were packing up their merchandise anyways but this experience has made me think about what to take for next time for such an event again.

Taking my D5100 will be good to such place, I will enjoy the crop factor of the APS-C sensor and the camera is smaller which is good to be less visible.
Also the fact markets are open in day time means the added low light performance of the D750 is not needed.
Only problem is the lens, if I will stick the Tamron 70-200mm on it I will still be super visible so my only option is get a smaller more desecrate lens.

I would love to get your feedback on what lens do you think I should get an way.

Currently I am thinking of 4 options
1.Nikon 55-200mm DX
2.Nikon 55-300mm DX
3/4.Nikon/Tamron 70-300mm VR/VC

The 55-200mm will be the cheapest and most discreet as its the smallest and as a bonus is the cheapest. Minus is that with 200mm I will have less reach and I believe the optics on it is not as good as the other lenses.
Option 2 is not likely because if I go with a bigger and heavier lens I might as well go with an FX lens so I have the option to mount it on the D750
Option 3/4 is good as optics is better then the 55-200mm and as I said I can use it on my main camera but it is much bigger so I will loose on the stealthiness which I want to such event.

What do you think and do you have any other lens I didn't think of as an option ?

 

[gsgary]

I like shooting in markets but only use a very small Voigtlander 35F2.5 on my Leica and nobody notices me because my camera is by my side and only raised if I see a shot, but you have to get close but looking at your lenses you don't like being close

 

[goodguy]

I like shooting in markets but only use a very small Voigtlander 35F2.5 on my Leica and nobody notices me because my camera is by my side and only raised if I see a shot, but you have to get close but looking at your lenses you don't like being close

Its not me, its the boyfriends that wouldn't appreciate me getting to close to their girls

 

[gsgary]

Don't worry about that just don't touch

 

[fjrabon]

I usually use the Fuji x100t or the Nikon A in situations like this. Every now and again I'll use the d7000 with the tokina 11-16 to get a bit different perspective.

1) I don't like compression from a telephoto in market/street shots. They lose all sense of depth and 9/10 that's a bad thing for shots in a market/street, IMHO

2) a big dslr with a big telephoto lens means that you can't interact with the world. You can't pick up a piece of fruit because you need two hands to hold your camera. It pulls you out of the scene. You get pictures that have the feel of an outsider, not pictures that have the feel of being there. Most people prefer pictures that make you feel like you were there.

3) I try not to take pictures that people don't want taken. I get a lot of help with this simply by smiling and not trying to sneak around with a telephoto lens. With the Fuji I can just walk around and people don't mind being photographed by it. Smile, talk to them, print them out a Polaroid with the instax printer. Smile. Lurking furtively with a telephoto and a scowl from 50 feet away makes you stand out more and seem more creepy than simply taking a shot openly from 5 feet away with a smile and a hello.

Now that's not to say that shooting with a telephoto for street/market shots is wrong, that's just how I feel about it. Also try taking some pictures of guys with their girlfriends. That's generally more interesting and less creepy that an isolated shot of a pretty girl from 60 feet who obviously has no idea she's being photographed.

 

[TCampbell]

There are a few pancake lens options for Nikon, but the options I've seen are manual focus lenses (that may put you off.)

I don't own a pancake lens myself (Canon makes a couple of them... I just don't own any). When I want to avoid attracting too much attention I bring a smaller camera.

 

[jaomul]

Expensive looking equipment that is big will get you noticed. It is hard to avoid with a dslr and unfortunate but there are times when the attention you feel not safe.

You might not always need the very very best. I found with my 5d that a 24-105 did mostly what I wanted, but thats a big kit. Do you always print big or at all. What I am getting at is the fov from a 18-140mm on your d750 is about 27-210 ish on your d5100. All of this you know. Your d5100 with an 18-140mm wont be as good as your 750 with tammy 70-200, but it will be more flexible, lighter and less noticeable, and you have plenty cropability with 16mp for a lot of stuff. This would be my choice and i'd probably throw few bits of tape on camera to make it look old and lose the nikon brand strap for less stand out features

 

[goodguy]

Expensive looking equipment that is big will get you noticed. It is hard to avoid with a dslr and unfortunate but there are times when the attention you feel not safe.

You might not always need the very very best. I found with my 5d that a 24-105 did mostly what I wanted, but thats a big kit. Do you always print big or at all. What I am getting at is the fov from a 18-140mm on your d750 is about 27-210 ish on your d5100. All of this you know. Your d5100 with an 18-140mm wont be as good as your 750 with tammy 70-200, but it will be more flexible, lighter and less noticeable, and you have plenty cropability with 16mp for a lot of stuff. This would be my choice and i'd probably throw few bits of tape on camera to make it look old and lose the nikon brand strap for less stand out features

Thank you all for replies so far.

jamul I found your reply most helpful for me, I will look up to see how much used 18-140mm goes for and maybe add it to the lenses list I consider.

 

[fjrabon]

Expensive looking equipment that is big will get you noticed. It is hard to avoid with a dslr and unfortunate but there are times when the attention you feel not safe.

You might not always need the very very best. I found with my 5d that a 24-105 did mostly what I wanted, but thats a big kit. Do you always print big or at all. What I am getting at is the fov from a 18-140mm on your d750 is about 27-210 ish on your d5100. All of this you know. Your d5100 with an 18-140mm wont be as good as your 750 with tammy 70-200, but it will be more flexible, lighter and less noticeable, and you have plenty cropability with 16mp for a lot of stuff. This would be my choice and i'd probably throw few bits of tape on camera to make it look old and lose the nikon brand strap for less stand out features

It's not just size either though. I've used the 18-35 Sigma ART on the D7100 in street situations. It's the size of a telephoto. But just smiling at people and acting natural takes 95% of the edge off in my experience.

 

[table1349]

I take one of these with me.......

Never had an issue. But then in my line of work, someone may find themselves a new home if they are stupid.

 

[sashbar]

Welcome to the street photography.

 

[DarkShadow]

Well I am always packing 7 rounds of a 45 but in my state before the brandish of a weapon/firearm it better be life threatening or jail time and fines and the lose of a carry permit is highly likely.I don't do street shooting but if I did it wouldn't be with very expensive and bulky gear.I could understand you would want to use the top notch gear but a low profile is a much safer bet.A couple miles from where I reside on the streets your camera would have been gone is seconds and a lot of street thugs are packing to,illegally but still packing.If some one wants my gear while I am out birding,I will give it to them when I smash a large lens across there face when I swing it all my might from a black rapid strap.

 

[HaveCameraWillTravel]

I like shooting in markets but only use a very small Voigtlander 35F2.5 on my Leica and nobody notices me because my camera is by my side and only raised if I see a shot, but you have to get close but looking at your lenses you don't like being close

Its not me, its the boyfriends that wouldn't appreciate me getting to close to their girls

I made a joke a while ago about snapping photos of pretty girls without being noticed and got scolded by Solarflare for it.

 

[goodguy]

I like shooting in markets but only use a very small Voigtlander 35F2.5 on my Leica and nobody notices me because my camera is by my side and only raised if I see a shot, but you have to get close but looking at your lenses you don't like being close

Its not me, its the boyfriends that wouldn't appreciate me getting to close to their girls

I made a joke a while ago about snapping photos of pretty girls without being noticed and got scolded by Solarflare for it.

Well I don't go anywhere just to take pictures of pretty ladies, I am there to make interesting photography and sometimes I do take pictures of ladies but that is diffidently not my main issue.

 

[HaveCameraWillTravel]

The topic (in the other thread) was about being discrete in street photography (or something along those lines), I mentioned something about just holding my camera in my hand at my side and just turning my wrist and shooting without bringing it up to my face. The joke was I could get pics of hot girls without their boyfriends noticing. A few people understood it was a joke but one did not and I was told that was not street photography and I was giving "real photographers" a bad name.