Tell me about your dream setup!

[480sparky]

You're hilarious man. Poor dude, "lugging around" a 2-ounce motor in exchange for 10x better focusing performance...BTW, Pep Boys auto parts sells that crank starter kit to retroactively "Model-T" your vehicles! People with Luddite hangups are not charged extra at pep Boys, nor at Nikon. I am kidding you because I suspect you're deliberately being obstinate about a HUGE improvement in focusing method and technology that has been around for over twenty years now!!! Sorry, but silent wave motors are like autofocus: here to STAY. Deal with it.

None are so blind as those who refuse to see. I'll leave it at that.

Aristotle or So-Crates?!

To be is to do. Socrates
To do is to be. Plato
Do be do be do. Sinatra

 

[snerd]

Hee hee......... Strangers in the night, doo be doo be doo...... a childhood friend's father was a Sinatra aficionado. Heard that one so many times!

 

[Derrel]

None are so blind as those who refuse to see. I'll leave it at that.

Oh goodie--you own a mirror!!!

Nikon is going to roll back the clock JUST for YOU, Sparky!

Your complaints and lamentations have been heard, and answered. Next up: rotary dial telephones in alllll the hotels in Iowa! Corn cobs in all the outhouses!

 

[shefjr]

 

[480sparky]

None are so blind as those who refuse to see. I'll leave it at that.

Oh goodie--you own a mirror!!!

Maybe you should buy one instead of taking selfies.

I guess you've totally missed the entire point of this thread.





Completely and absolutely.



Try going back and reading the TITLE.






Now explain to me why I should be using ISO 64,000,000 all the time.

 

[shefjr]

Last time someone posted up a similar thread I said I would acquire my dream setup... Then my wife and I had our first child (3/22/14) and everything changed.
The list back then was,
D800(I think) got it now
Nikon 12-24 2.8 don't have it yet
Nikon 24-70 2.8 got it love it
Nikon 70-200 2.8 vrII got it love it
Nikon 200-400 maybe someday
Nikon 500 f4 in my dreams.

I have a wife who supports me and my expensive hobbies so I may be blessed in the future to be able to acquire some of the times I don't have. That's if our wonderful lil' man Raylan isn't in need of anything. He will always come first now and that is fine by me. I would trade all the gear in the world for him. Sorry probably TMI.

 

[Derrel]

Moving on to the "dream setup", one lens I think EVERY serious shooter wants to have is this: a 300mm f/4 lens with AF-S or HSM or USM type silent focusing telephoto. I've owned, lemme see...four different 300mm lenses since 1984...and the new 300 f/4 AF-S is the one I use the most often.

I bought this one the year it came out, about a decade ago, when this review was written Nikon 300mm f/4D AF-S Review by Thom Hogan

The thing is, a 300mm f/4 lens from Nikon, or Canon, is very SHARP, and it's also not a huge PITA to carry or to actually deploy in the real world. Older, manual focus 300mm lenmses like the 300mm Ai-S had very heavy,stiff focusing action; the 300mm f/4.5 ED~IF is small and light but has a very bad light fall-off at the edges of the frame; a 300 f/2.8 is superb optically, but very BIG, very heavy, and gets left at home a LOT--as in "much of the time", unless you really make a commitment to carrying and using a 7-pound lens.

Canon offers a lens like this, a 300 f/4 L IS USM,and I think they have both IS, and non-IS models. The Nikkor focuses VERY close for a 300mm lens, and it works well with the TC 1.4x unit, to make a very sharp 420mm f/5.6 lens, AND it can also be used with a high-quality, two-element closeup lens like the Canon 500D, or a Raynox, or an AF extension tube like the Kenko AF tubes, for very good field type "macro" stuff. This lens focuses downh to 1.45 meters or about 5 feet, and with a 300mm focal length, that makes a pretty good-sized close-up image.

The best thing about this lens is that it also can be carried in the factory-issued tube cases made by Canon and Nikon for their 70-200mm f/2.8 AF-S or USM type lenses. Overall size is pretty similar to a 70-200 f/2.8 lens, so I think a 300mm f/4 lens, plus a top-grade 1.4x converter is part of a "dream system". The difference between a roughly 50-ounce lens like this and a 7 to 7.5 pound 300/2.8 is really HUGE. One lens you just do NOT want to carry on day-trip outings, while the other one you DO because it's both a telephoto AND a 420mm tele, and it can serve as a long-distance "macro" lens, either with or without the converter added.

 

[runnah]

Pretty happy with what I have. Short of technology that doesn't exist yet, and a 10k lens I am now more concerned about dream locations and subjects.

 

[JeremyD]

canon 70-200 2.8 IS USM
50mm 1.2
canon 16-35 2.8
canon 1dx, canon 5dmki, c500

so much more...

 

[Derrel]

Another lens that MUST be in a "dream system" is a wide-aperture 85mm lens. Here are the three I currently have. I used to own the Nikon 85mm f/1.8 AF, the pre-D model. I've also had the two of the older 85mm f/2 Ai lenses, which tended to get older and develop a squeak in the focusing system on basically every one I've ever seen. The newer 85mm f/2 Ai-S shown at the far right is NOT much longer or larger or heavier than the 35mm f/2 Ai-S (basically identical looks and size as the 35mm f/2 Ai-S), or a 50mm f/1.4 Ai-S.

[ DSC_4931_85mm trio.jpg photo - Derrel photos at pbase.com ]

You WANT an 85mm f/1.4 or f/1.8 for its wide aperture, and sharpness, and the ability when the light sucks to be able to get a SHARP image, which can later be cropped in on, if need be. The new 85/1.8 AF-S G (shown above in the center) was the second-sharpest lens tested by DxO Mark out of 72 lenses tested on the D3x and D800 Nikons. #1 was the much more expensive Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 AF-S G, and third was the Sigmas 35mm f/1.4 ART lens.

The old 85mm f/1.4 AF-D, shown far left in the shot above, is very sharp in the center, and has softer edges, and creates lovely bokeh. Its nickname was The Cream Machine, for the creamy bokeh it produces. The 85/1.8 AF-S G might as well be called The Razor, for its clinically sharp performance almost edge-to-edge. The 85/2 Ai-S is the "mighty mini". It is tiny! It uses 52mm filters and lens caps.

 

[robbins.photo]

Well sounds nice but you know what I could really use at this point in my life is a mountain dew. Hey, come to think of it there's a 12 pack in the fridge. Nirvana achieved. Back momentarily. Sent from my LG-LG730 using Tapatalk

uke: soda is disgusting. And Mountain Dew is the most disgusting of them all. :yuck: one mans nirvana is another lady's hell.....

That's ok, not everyone likes Mountain Dew. Granted, it's usually an indication that they are soulless, much like Gingers - Lol

 

[chuasam]

Empty room with pure white walls, lots of windows and really high ceilings.
Well it depends on what I was supposed to photograph.
I'm very fond of my 85mm f/1.8 but I'd really like the 1.4
Also want a stylist and a makeup artist built in.


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