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Today's Featured Head-Fi Blog: A Japanese headfier's monologue (Sasaki)
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I have a D200, and it's a great camera. But if I was buying right now, I would buy a D90 and not a D200. It's a better sensor.
The lens kit I decided on are very similar to your choices there... The trick is to try to do everything in as few lenses as possible. When I go out to shoot, I never take more than two lenses with me. I want to be shooting pictures, not swapping lenses in and out.
I have the Nikon 18-200 VR for an all around lens, a cheap lightweight Nikon 18-55 f3.5-5.6 VR for bumming around, a Tokina 11-16 f2.8 ultra wide, Sigma 50mm f1.4 for low light, and a Tokina 100mm f2.8 macro for studio portraits and close up. The only other lens I think I'd like is the Sigma 30mm 1.4.
By the way, my Sigma 50mm f1.4 is sharper wide open than the Zeiss or the Nikon equivalents and it has much better contrast than either of them. You can't necessarily judge by brand names. It's all in the optical design. There are great third party lenses out there.
The main purpose of a fisheye is to stitch together Quicktime VRs. If you aren't doing that, a good ultrawide is a lot more useful and fun than a fish. You can still get wonky distortion if you point up or down, but you get good straight lines straight on. More versatile.
I'd also suggest starting with a D90 and the 18-200 VR. That will get you going. You might even find you don't need any more lenses.
One other tip... Don't underestimate the value of a point and shoot or pocket camera. A good small camera will get pictures you'll never get with a DSLR. The camera that takes the best pictures is the one that isn't at home in a camera bag in the closet.
There are some sample shots of a couple of my lenses on my personal blog Late Night Coffee Shops
That Nikon 18-200 VR really does seem like the perfect all-rounder/starter lense. I confess that I did gravitate to that 50mm based mainly on the Zeiss name, but also because of its focal length. Not sure if I've been reading biased opinions, but everything I've read so far seems to say that Sigma has some serious reliability issues with its lenses. I'll keep that Nikkor 50mm in mind as well. I thought the fisheye would be fun for some artsy shots from my balcony or the rooftop patio, but I guess I could do similar stuff with an ultrawide lense. I have a high interest in doing macro shots, and that manual Zeiss lense just looks pretty. Would I be able to do decent macro shots using the Nikon 18-200 VR in a pinch?
The D90 is nice, but I'm not sure I'd be able to find a used one as cheap as the D200. A better sensor is all well and good, but I'm not looking to chase megapixels. The D90 can do video, which is cool, but I'd imagine I would miss out on some of the 'pro' features of the D200?
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I would get a D90 over a D200. The D90/D300/D700/D3 are a generation above, and a HUGE step over every Nikon DSLR that came before them thanks to the addition of Active Dynamic Range and the new High ISO capabilities. They legitamitely, honest-to-goodness take better pictures inherently. I'll confess that dirt-cheap prices have made me at least think of replacing my D50 with a D200, but I'm waiting and saving for a D90 or D300 because I've shot with them, looked at the results, and they honestly are a leap ahead.
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Any comments or suggestions? Some old lenses would be great as well, but there are so many that it is kind of daunting.
I've done a little reading and it seems the Zeiss primes aren't as special as I thought they were. Wide-open performance will be very good, but stopped down, you'd be hard pushed to see any difference between a Nikon or Sigma 50/1.4. I'm also fighting over which prime to get at the moment and am waiting for more info re: the new AF-S 50/1.4.
Originally Posted by Arainach
I would get a D90 over a D200. The D90/D300/D700/D3 are a generation above, and a HUGE step over every Nikon DSLR that came before them thanks to the addition of Active Dynamic Range and the new High ISO capabilities. They legitamitely, honest-to-goodness take better pictures inherently. I'll confess that dirt-cheap prices have made me at least think of replacing my D50 with a D200, but I'm waiting and saving for a D90 or D300 because I've shot with them, looked at the results, and they honestly are a leap ahead.
The newer generation are also much easier to use. The menu/button system makes more sense. The large, high-res LCD screen is also much nicer than the previous generations'.
I've done a little reading and it seems the Zeiss primes aren't as special as I thought they were. Wide-open performance will be very good, but stopped down, you'd be hard pushed to see any difference between a Nikon or Sigma 50/1.4. I'm also fighting over which prime to get at the moment and am waiting for more info re: the new AF-S 50/1.4.
The value of a large aperture lens lies inherently in its large aperture. Ziess lenses command such a premium because they offer a more even performance than equivalent Nikon lenses wide open. Sure, at mainstream apertures like f/5.6, the differences are marginal; but you didn't buy an f/1.4 lens to stop it down constantly.
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It's funny that you keep saying that, but I don't think a lot of people have an issue with the weight of the camera and lens. I wonder...
It's not the weight. It's whether you have a camera with you every moment of the day or not. I have a camera in my pocket right now. If I stumble across a picture I want to take, I can take it. I don't have to plan to carry a camera, and I don't have to worry about having a couple of grand worth of gear hanging around my neck when I walk down the street.
