My future equipments

Hi,
After thinking for a while, I have decided what camera and lens I'm gonna get next time or my dream set!

Cameras:
D700 for light travel

D3 for my kids' sports

D3x for serious landscape/portrait

Lenses:
Nikon 14mm-24mm f/2.8 for ultra-wide angle zoom

Nikon 17-35mm f/2.8 for convenient wide angle coverage

Nikon 24mm-70mm f/2.8 for normal zoom

Nikon 70mm-200mm f/2.8 for mid telephoto soom

Nikon 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6 for convenient telephoto zoom when on travel

Nikon 50mm f/1.4 for low light (I hope Nikon would have a f/1.2 lens . Canon has it already!)

Nikon 70-180mm f/4.5-5.6 for macro on homegrounds

Nikon 105mm f/2.8 for macro when I am travelling

Nikon 135mm f/2 DC for serious portraits (DC stands for defocus control)

Nikon 200mm f/2 for indoor sports and ultra-fast focusing

Nikon 400mm f/2.8 for outdoor sports

Teleconverters:
Nikon 1.4x converter
Nikon 2x converter

Why I chose these?
Cameras
I would want a light and good FX camera when I am travelling so I would get the D700. It produces fantastic images with its full-frame CCD sensor yet is lighter than the D3.

For my kids' sports (I hope my children will join sports CCAs), I would want a camera that can run fast. Thus I chose the Nikon D3. It runs at 9 frames per second on its full frame sensor.

Lastly, I would also do serious landscape work. For that, I am too lazy to get a Tachira so I would choose the D3x. Though it is not the perfect body for digital landscape photography, at least it produces superb high-quality images and another body to put behind my lenses.

Lenses
For ultra-wide angle for serious landscape, I want the super low distortion, super sharp Nikon 14mm-24mm f2.8. It is one of the best professional ultra-wide lens Nikon makes. '

What if I want a wide-angle when I am travelling? I would get this 17mm-35mm f/2.8 lens. It gives me a good coverage.

Next, for family gatherings or new year events, I would like the 24mm-70mm f/2.8. It is a pretty versatile lens and has a large aperture for low light.

When I want to photograph in a theatre, I would want the 70mm-200mm f/2.8 lens for its large and bright aperture, zoom range and size. I wouldn't want to be hauling a rocket launcher sized lens along the aisle!

To travel light yet covering a long zoom range, I want the 80mm-400mm because it is not very large and its usability due to its 5x optical zoom. With this, I do not have to change lens every now and then.

I also want a 50mm f/1.4 for low light and as a normal lens I fix on my cameras. Its super small, super light and focuses fast! I own a 50mm f/1.8 and I like it so much. I bet the 50mm f/1.4 would be even better!

For studio work or serious macro works, I would use this versatile 70mm-180mm macro lens for its zoom. I can easily zoom in or out from my subject without moving my tripod.

But when I am travelling, I want a smaller and lighter macro lens. Thus I would choose the 105mm f/2.8 macro lens.

Portrait work is also one that I want to focus on. So, I would get the 135mm f/2 DC for bokeh optimisation. Which means I can blur the background even more and give my subject or object my prominence.

If my son is in basketball, I would like to photograph him with this ultra-fast 200mm f/2 lens. I would be able to capture every motion and action on the indoor courts.

What if I want to shoot more action outdoors? I am getting the 400mm f/2.8. With this, I can easily capture outdoor action or even wildlife photography. Birds or simply a safari trip.

Teleconverters
I am getting the 1.4x converter because I can easily convert my 200mm f/2 lens into a 280mm f/2.8 lens. Pretty close to 300mm. I can also convert my 400mmf/2.8 lens into a 600mm f/4 lens!

I wouldn't want to stop at 600mm only. So, I am getting the 2x teleconverter beacuse I can convert my 400mm f/2.8 into a 800mm f/5.6!

What would be in my camera bag when I travel?
In my camera bag, I would have:
D700
24mm-70mm f/2.8
80mm-400mm f/4.5-5.6
105mm f/2.8 micro
50mmf/1.4

In my luggage, I would have these:
135mm f/2 DC
17mm-35mm f/2.8

What would be in my camera bag when I am shooting sports or wildlife?
For indoors:
D3
70mm-200mmf/2.8
200mm f/2
14mm-24mm f/2.8
50mmf/1.4
2x converter
1.4x converter

For outdoors:
D3
17mm-35mm f/2.8
70mm-200mm f/2.8
400mmf/2.8
50mmf/1.4
2x converter
1.4x converter

What would I have in my camera bag if I am shooting serious landscape or portraits?
D3x
14mm-24mm f/2.8
135mmf/2 DC

What would I have in my camera bag when I am shooting on a family outing?
D700
17mm-35mm f/2.8
135mm f/2 DC
50mm f/1.4

Thanks for reading suck a long post. Bye,
Tyy

I'm wowed

Look at this:

Voigtlander Super Wide Heliar 15mm f/4.5 M Mount Lens

I'm so tempted to buy this. It cost even less than a tokina 12-24 DX that. When you convert the tokina 12-24 to 35mm focal length, the widest it could go is 18mm. But this lens is 15mm!!

The price: US$540 S$800

Sadly, there's no point for me to buy cos first, I don't have a 35mm camera. Second, it can't mount on any nikon or canon unless I get a converter which I doubt anybody makes them.

I still remembered when my dad almost bought a Leica lens when I reminded him that we do not have a Leica!

That's all for now. Bye,

Tyy

Some unusual stuff

Hi,

I had a little convo with Jeremy over msn about some lenses and I realise that beginners like him don't really know of some stuff. I shall just put it up here.

There are three types of format for cameras:

DX

Full Frame/FX

Medium Format

Large Format

Superb lens/camera brand that are better than NIKON/CANON:

(Most of them are film)

Leica

Zeiss

Voigtländer

And one last thing:

Do you know Nikon and Canon make lenses called tilt shaft lens?

Bye,

Tyy

New equipment

Hi,
Here's just a list of what I'm gonna buy this year to add to my camera equipment.

Tokina 12mm-24mm lens $800
Think Tank camera bag $150
MB-D200 battery grip $270
SB-400 $150

If possible:
A Tamron macro lens
Nikon D5000

All these would be possible as long as I get super good results. Gonna mug now.
bye(:
Tyy

What are wide-angle lens?

Hi,
Jeremy asked so I post. His question
What kind of lens are wide-angle lens?
I going to explain crop factor. I will try to put it as simple as possible.
For cameras that you see in stalls now.
Crop Factor
Nikon DX: 1.5x
Nikon Full Frame: 1x

Canon DX: 1.6x
Canon Full Frame: 1x

So, what kind of lens fall under wide-angle?
Every lens have a focal length e.g. Nikon and Canon kit lens are 18-55
So, you take the focal length multiply by the crop factor.
If the number falls below 28mm, it should be a wide-angle lens.

Next, there are also ultra wide-angle lens. I'm not sure for the range for ultra wide-angle lens but an example is the Nikon DX 12mm-24mm. When mounted on a DX camera say the D90, u multiply 12 and 1.5. Do some simple calculation and you get 18mm. Which is very wide!
To go even wider...
Mount the Nikon's ultra-rare 13mm f/5.6 manual focus lens on an FX camera. That's wide! If you want to get the same focal length on DX, it would have to be a 8.6 lens!

Just a side note, Nikon have made only about a few hundred of this 13mm f/5.6 over the years. If you can get one now under $10000, you have just picked up a super deal. The average price is about $30000 +... Too expensive for me.
At least now.

Tyy

Beginers getting a DSLR

Hi,
Today Jeremy asked me what cameras I recommend for him. I just told him, "Your LX3 is good enough, master photo composition than move on to DSLR." But due to continuous pestering, I gave in a give him a list of suggestions. I think of the benefit of others, let me post it here. (it would be very "Nikon" as I'm a nikon user.)

Camera:
Get the D5000 if you don't really have a budget.
Get the D40 if you want to spend more on other important stuff.

D5000:
US$849.95 with 18-55 kit lens
12MP
4 frames per second
1/200 sync flash
2.7 inch tilt LCD
11 AF points
HD movie recording

D40:
US$599 with 18-55 kit lens
6.1 MP
2.5 frames per second
1/500 sync flash!!!
2.5 inch LCD
3 AF points
i-TTL flash

Flash:
SB-400 (US$110)

Lens:
18mm-200mm (Nikon: US$800 Sigma:US$400)
50mm f/1.8 (Nikon: S$177)
Just a bit more (if you wanna cover ultra-wide and wanna splurge a bit more):
12-24 f/4(Nikon:US$915 Tokina: US$500) or Tokina 11-16f/2.8 (US$623)

These are about all you need unless you got special needs. I even covered wide-angle! Erm oh yah, fisheye lens. They are fun but not necessary. But however, I leave a last word like what I have always said, Its the person behind the camera and not the camera that affects the picture.

Tyy

To compromise my previous post

Hi,
Look at this pictures, they might not be good but if you didn't believe me in my previous post. Its ok, just guess this pictures' settings or camera or whatever related to all the tech stuff.

This pic courtesy to Richard my cousin shot on his Sony W910i handphone camera

See all these pictures? My DSLR? No, its not. Its my handphone camera and not the fancy 8 megapixels one, but the 2 megapixel K530i and W910i.

Theres no such things like...erm digital zooming, auto... as said in Digital Life. Its just a handphone camera!

For better pictures, go to this web. This guy shoots them with his iPhone camera and they are dam nice. Obviously nicer than mine. Perhaps even nicer than pictures I shoot on my DSLR!

http://www.chasejarvis.com/index.php#mi=2&pt=1&pi=10000&s=0&p=5&a=0&at=0

(it may lag a bit)

Tyy