Thread: D700

Originally Posted by dm_td5

All I can say Simon is "you pay for quality" Get a RRS ball head and you be amazed.

+1 to that. I had been using a (not at all cheap) Manfrotto head, but even so had to be really careful when shooting HDR and panoramas. Now I've got a RRS BH-55 head with panorama clamps and slides ... and there's no way I'll use anything else if I can help it. Not cheap, but I figure it's a once-off investment.

slt

Originally Posted by slt

Now I've got a RRS BH-55 head with panorama clamps and slides ... and there's no way I'll use anything else if I can help it.

... and being made from aluminium they are also incredibly light aren't they

Which Pano setup have you got? I'm looking at getting another PCL and rail to do multi-pass pano's and build on the PCL and rail setup I presently use.

another vote for the 70-200 2.8VR. Especially on FF its a wonderful unit, poetic infact. Solid glass but not too heavy so can still hold it all day.

I buy second hand, but only from reputable dealers. I've found ECS in Sydney to be fantastic. When they say something is mint, it is. I got my 70-200 from there 2nd hand, it came in box as new with manuals. To be honest, they could have sold it as new and no one would ever have known.

I'll get a D700 one day, most likely when the next one comes out and they drop in value by $1000 over night

The things which will really improve your shots are:

Great tripod. Get the best first - save a heap of money.
CP filter. A quality one, not a super thin ulta $$$ one.
A good flash. SB800's are cheap as now, use it for daylight portraits to lighten the shadows and bring out the colour.

When you've got good / controllable light, you can make it so you get the best out of your lenses. I've got a totally horrid, ancient Tamron 70-300 zoom that I've got really sharp tonal images from when i've used it in a studio with top quality lighting.. I knew the sweet spot in the lens and worked with it.

The above accessories will do the same for your 50* and any other lens you get.. and you can say "look, I've just saved myself $15k in lenses!"

*just don't open it up past f4 unless you want 'a soft moody tone'.....

Originally Posted by dm_td5

... and being made from aluminium they are also incredibly light aren't they

Which Pano setup have you got? I'm looking at getting another PCL and rail to do multi-pass pano's and build on the PCL and rail setup I presently use.

I have the BH-55 with the PCL clamp and the MPR-192 rail/clamp package. I also have an L-plate for my D700, which is great for mounting the camera in portrait-mode, and I shoot most of my panos in portrait mode these days, giving me extra pixels along the vertical. Haven't got round to doing multi-row stuff yet, though the exchange rate right now makes it tempting to get another PCL and rail . But having just sprung for the 130 puma and camper, it will probably have to wait a little

Finally got it right on ebay - after three returns of lenses advertised as fungus free and without damage.

Mint condition - 2 rolls - 50mm 1.4D and a 7-210 4-5.6, on an F80 in a Pelican-ish case. $250. We won't add the cost of driving down to pick it up, or the return postage costs for the lenses that had to be returned; that'd take all the fun out of it.

I'm a little bit stoked.

70-210 is very nice but tooooo slow.

Don'tcha hate that?

Swore I didn't need a tripod so I don't know why I bought this -

Red mist, ebay, Gitzo, bargain.

And Manfrotto legs.

Originally Posted by slt

slt

Wow.

Originally Posted by 300+

Wow.

Which one?

D700, 24-70mm and a decent tripod/head (except the last one, which was handheld) and good software...