2 Questions Regarding my Nikon D90

ThornleyGroves

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Hello all, I have a Nikon D90 with the 18-105mm f3.5 VR Lens Kit, i'm into a lot of sports and like Bmx, Soccer, Snowboarding etc, so i'm going to buy the Sigma 70-200mm f2.8 Lens as i hear this is a very good lens with fast shutter speed and ill make me happy when shooting water sports, soccer etc.

1. I want a nice macro lens a fairly standard one for my camera, but good enoguh to bring out the best features of say a close flower with a bee on it, so should have a good shutter speed too... which one do you suggest

2. I am looking into getting some off camera flash for BMX shoots as this would help my images alot and i could get some quality pictures, i have no experience with off camera flash but am wondering, what would be suitible for the reasons i mentioned before.


if you could help answer the above it would be greatly appreciated,
Thanks Tom.
 
Okay, I think there might be a little confusion here. Lenses, regardless of their minimum/maximum aperture do not have shutter speeds of their own; they have an effect on the shutter speed by controlling the amount of light they admit through the lens. That control is your aperture or 'f' number. The higher the number the smaller the hole (iris) through which light can be admitted and the slower the required shutter speed will be.

The Sigma 70-200 is, by all reports a good lens and with it's large minimum aperture (f2.8 meaning it can let a lot of light) it will allow you to use higher shutter speeds. It's not quite as good as the Nikon 70-200, but it's also nowhere near the price. I think it will do just fine.

With respect to macro lenses, these are a whole 'nother breed. First off, know that not all lenses which call themselves 'macro' are true macro lenses. A true macro lens is one which will allow you to focus on a subject closely enough to produce a 1:1 capture, that is, 1mm of subject size will be recorded as 1mm on your sensor. All of the third-party manufacturers make genunine and quasi-macro lenses. The two best are the Nikkor 60mmm and Nikkor 105mm, but they're also expensive.

If budget is a concern consider looking at either close-up filters or extension tubes. The quality won't be as good as a genuine macro lens, but it will get you shooting close up for a fraction of the cost.

For your flash, look to either the SB-900, 800, or 600. I would recommend either the 900 or 800 for their higher guide numbers (stronger output) and their ability to act as a 'Commander' (wirelessly control other flashes).
 
Okay, i knew that lens' did not have their own shutter speed, and that it is the f number which at the end of the day controls how fast the shutter speed is, thank you for the explanation also its helped me understand more!

The sigma sounds my ideal choice then, and i will look into those two macro lens'. Appreciate it alot.

With regards to the flash, i currently have an SB-800, however i was asking with regards to like off camera flash, so flash that i can say put two up at each side of a bmx jump, and get a more rounded flash so 'off' camera flash as i thought they were called!

thanks alot!
 
i currently have an SB-800, however i was asking with regards to like off camera flash, so flash that i can say put two up at each side of a bmx jump, and get a more rounded flash so 'off' camera flash as i thought they were called!
"Off-camera flash is indeed the correct term. If you already have an SB-800, than I would suggest using that on-camera and picking up two more SB-600s to use in the slave mode. Assuming that is, that you would be able to set them up closely enough to be triggered by your SB-800. If you need to get significant distance, then you will have to look into remote RF triggers like the Cactus or similar.
 
I would deffinately use the Sb800 as a master, and pick up a couple of sb600's as slaves for doing what you want. The Nikon CLS system is a very nice system. As far as the macro goes. I would look at the Tamron 70-200 2.8 instead of the Sigma. The Tamron isn't a true "macro" but it focuses damn close. It may do what you need macro wise and allow you to do both things with one lens...
 
Just checking the manual and it appears that the D90's inbuilt flash can operate in commander mode (P.188 of the manual) so you could already use the SB800 as an off camera flash and perhaps just buy a single SB600 to compliment it.
 
I have a D90 as well and would definitely recommend the SB-800 flash on the camera and an SB-600 as a secondary flash.

As for the macro, Nikon makes good macro lenses, but they're often expensive. You could save a little cash by picking up a Sigma 105mm Macro, Sigma 150mm Macro, or a Tamron 90mm just to name a few. All of which are sharp, fast, and fall in the $400-$600 price range.
 

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