Even though the best pictures are often made by using creativity alone, capturing that creativity requires gear. For me, photography is one of those hobbies where you keep collecting more and more of this stuff.
Here's a short list of equipment I'm currently using, and how each individual item helps me with what I do. The pictures on the right are taken or aided by each individual piece of equipment.
Of course one should buy Nikon and not Canon ;-)
Gear I currently use
- Nikon D90. My main body. I bought this mainly because of its strong qualities with high-ISO pictures, and because it's relatively light. The D200 has some more advanced features, but, because of that, also heavier. This camera allows me to take great pictures without weighing too much, and at locations where I cannot use a flash and still want to have a small aperture this camera does wonders!
- My studio. I like shooting at locations a lot, but sometimes I find need for having a consistent dependable (big) light source with a neutral background. For this I have a small at home studio, which I've also transformed into a portible installation. Gear related my studio consists of 2 400W/s strobes, a 60x90cm softbox, white and silver umbrellas, several stands and a background system with multiple neutral colours.
- Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VR. A fantastic telezoom, though somewhat heavy ;) It is ideal for outdoor work since the shallow DOF allows me to take the subject out of the background when needed. It works wonders in less light situations, and it also does well for capturing portraits in a pinch.
- Nikon 35mm f/1.8 G, a 35mm prime lens which I find ideal for low light conditions or group shots with shallow depth of field. It's also the sharpest lens I own, so you'll see me using it often. On top of that: it's light. The D90 + 35mm weights almost nothing, so when I don't want to carry much I only bring these two. It has a build in silent focussing motor and no moving parts, so it's also ideal in dusty conditions where I really do not want to get dirt inside my camera.
- Nikon 50mm f/1.8 D, a 50mm prime lens which is ideal for making portraits or for photographing in low light conditions. It doesn't have zoom, so zoom with your feed, and it doesn't have VR, so don't shake the camera. Also, I like the the way the bokeh of this lens, it can look like little soft raindrops. Oh, and though this lens is cheap, it is definitely very useful, a must-have if you consider the value for money!
- Nikon AF-S VR 18-200mm F/3.5-5.6. I call it the king of lenses. It does everything from wide angle to very decent zoom, so no more swapping. It focusses on everything from 40cm, even at high zoom levels, which means that nobody is safe when I have this one with me. :-)
- Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8, a wide angle zoom, which is extremely sturdy and feels unbreakable. On top of that it allows the camera to catch enough light so I can also use it in darker environments. Wide angle lenses are ideal in small spaces or when I want to capture something huge.
- Nikon SB-900 flash. My new main flash, an ideal flash to have. It's bright. It's fast. It works. The new off/on/slave/commander toggle (that Canon had for years on their flashes btw) really helps quickly setting it to what you need. I keep this flash either as the on camera commander or as my main key light.
- Nikon SB-800 flash. My secondary flash, usually in slave mode on channel B, though it has commander mode too. This flash is the first thing I mount somewhere, or place behind a soft box or umbrella, since I prefer to keep the SB-900 mobile.
- Nikon SB-600 flash. The oldest one in my arsenal. I usually use it for those few situations where I really require three lights. It just works, no questions asked. This makes it a relatively cheap helper flash.
- Zenitar 16mm fisheye, a manual fisheye lens for full frame cameras, so not really meant for DX cameras. I got it second hand, and it is the most wide-angle lens I have at the moment. Though it's full manual, that only means that you fire a few more shots before you get the correct settings. I first used it together with the D70 which only showed a focus indicator. The D200 does more than that: it also shows the aperture in the viewfinder, and it guestimates exposure times too!
- Kenko extension tube set, contains a 12, 20 and 36mm extension tube which can be stacked together to create even more macro. Definately a poor man's macro, but it works pretty nice. I've only used this with the 55-200mm so far.
Gear I used to have
- Nikon D200. I got this secondhand and in good shape, and I still have it! It's a briliant piece of camera, and my secondary body when I need one.
- Nikon D70, a very reliable, fast, easy to use, and overall fine camera body. Many people often complain about it's relatively tiny display, but I consider this an advantage, since I almost never had to recharge the battery.
- Nikon AF-S VR 55-200mm F/4-5.6G. My previous zoomlens. A perfect companion lens to the D70 18-70 kitlens. The Vibration Reduction function really works miracles in making sharp pictures in darker conditions.
- Nikon AF-S 18-70, the kitlens I got with the D70. A nice lens, though it is now obsolete since I've got the 18-200.
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Nikon MB-D200. The battery grip for the D200.
Allows me to a) hold the camera vertically with ease, which helps
a lot when shooting portraits b) use more batteries at once, the D200
eats quicker through batteries than my D70 used to do, and c) make
the camera obnoxiously big, which helps give the message that you're
serious about making pictures to whomever is around.
- Nokia N95, my phone. I guess the primary function of this device isn't that of a camera, but I do consider it a valuable asset since it is always with me. This is actually really important: the worst pictures are the ones not taken because you forget to bring a camera. Besides this it also allows real time uploading to Flickr from anywhere, and thanks to Zonetag it automatically embeds a GPS geotag to all my pictures. Nice!