I believe that is incorrect. The heaviest is the AF-S 80-200mm f/2.8 at 1550g.

The AF-D 80-200mm f/2.8 is the lightest at 1300g. The AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8 VR I is 1,470g and AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II is 1530g.

Shutter speeds are high but looks to me like camera shake?

Is this VR switched on or off. Try switching it off and shoot.

If you think your method of shooting with VR is incorrect, try and shoot again. The correct method of using VR lenses is that you need to wait for about a second or so after half-pressing the focus button to let the gyro in the VR lens to settle before actually pressing the shutter button fully to take the shot.

You are always encouraged to use the flash in daylight as fill flash.

If you're in bright sunlight and using big apertures like f/1.4 or f/2.8 with flash, you might run into slight problems. As your flash sync speed on the D7000 maxes out at 1/250, you need to set it to AutoFP which enables you to shoot at any shutter speed (at the given aperture) but at the expense of flash power loss (limited range) when going faster than 1/250.

Usually, the capacitor kongs out but it is an easy replacement.

It's actually simple. If you're shooting flash in tungsten lighting, use tungsten colour gel and set camera WB to tungsten.

If you're shooting flash in fluorescent lighting, use fluorescent colour gel and set camera WB to fluorescent.


That's correct. With mixed lighting and flash, it is always tricky to get it right.

The general rule is to get your flash colour output the same as the ambient lighting.

Yup. While Active D-Lighting is a nice feature, it is at the expense of reduced dynamic range and increased shadow noise in some cases.


Or.... Meter (M) your camera to expose (or underexpose slightly by 1 stop) for the background and let the flash illuminate your subject.

For skintones, try and turn the saturation down. Use neutral to get better skintones.

Histogram.

Photography is a very expensive hobby. As a newbie, you would not know what type of photography that you would like to go into. The kit lens would be able to accompany you on your photographic journey and along the way, you'll find your niche and also your interest (or not at all). During that time, chances are that you would also hit the limits of your kit lens and that is when you go for specialised lenses.

Example: If you find that you're getting closer and closer to your subject to get closer details but you're not able to do it with the kit lens, then you should be looking at the macro lens. If you're into night photography and everytime you hit the limit of your small lens aperture, you'd probably want to upgrade to larger aperture lenses.

I have not shot with mine a lot but wide open f/1.4 sharpness is fantastic.

I think I got mine about 4.9k thereabouts. Yes, wide open is nice but when the subject moves about, it's not the easiest to shoot with since DoF is very thin.

The 35mm f/1.8 is nice and affordable. Would have gone with that but I wanted FX. I already have the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 and I'm told it's pretty similar output with the 35mm f/1.8 except that the Sigma being less contrasty out of the camera but smoother bokeh.

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Added on May 25, 2011, 4:00 pm

I somehow don't have the love for the 50mm f/1.4.

24mm f/1.4, 35mm f/1.4 and 85mm f/1.4 is a different story.

This post has been edited by jchue73: May 25 2011, 04:00 PM

Wonder when the AF-S will be out... But even then, I would need to get used to the 50mm FoV.

Why 18-55 and not the 18-105? Should be better since 18-105 has longer reach?

Ok, good points. But if one was looking for a kit lens, distortion and MFD are not as important as reach, correct? If MFD and distortion were important, you would choose neither kit lens to begin with.

Yes, but depends on OP's budget.

$$$

That's correct. But if I were a casual shooter wanting to take excellent macro shots but not willing to spend a lot, I would invest in something like the G12 or XZ-1.

Anyway, I doubt that the primary reason for the OP to get the D5100 is to shoot macro. I'm guessing he's more into general photography which is quite a norm for a person just starting out with a DSLR. In my opinion, when starting out, reach is more often a wanted feature than getting shorter MFD. If he is a serious macro shooter, just buy the body only and couple it with a 60mm f/2.8, 105mm f/2.8 VR or the 200mm f/4.

Thom Hogan? Oh my. Heavy stuff. Not something to read late at night.

I figure your 1/1250 shutter speed should be more than sufficient. Are you on AF-Continuous or AF-Static? Subjects walking / moving in front?

Well anyway, it's an old lens. The newer VR *should* be better seeing the price and age.

Depends on which type of 80-200mm f/2.8 you are talking about... On a crop DX sensor, perhaps that your statement is true.

But on FX, the order of sharpness wide open is as follows;

VR2 > AF-S 80-200mm f/2.8 > VR1

I would assume the AF-D version to be the least sharp.

Like this?



The photo is a little small but from what I can see, shadows are a little blocked i.e. details in the shadows are non-existent.

The 200-400 was long overdue. A lot of nature photographers switched to Nikon because at that time, the Canon had no equivalent. Andy Rouse switched from Canon to Nikon mostly because of the D3 but also because of the Nikon 200-400mm f/4.

Anyway, I believe Nikon just refreshed their 400mm, 500mm and 600mm big primes during the introduction of the D3 just in time for Beijing Olympics. Then after that, they updated the 300mm.

Anyway, I think one of the most awaited lenses to be updated with VR or AF-S motor is the 300mm f/4 and the 80-400mm zoom. Now if they can also update their 1.4x and 1.7x TCs like they did for their 2.0x TC, that would be wonderful too.

Should be fine. I always carried 1 laptop and 1 bag for my camera gears.

But lately after getting the Thinktank Airport Acceleration V2, I put my laptop together with my gears and hand carry all of them in one bag.

Anyway regardless of the type of bag, laptops should always be taken out separately for xray scanning.

Did you use a proper camera bag or you just campak all your other stuff inside a normal bag?

If it's a proper camera bag, it just goes under the xray machine. They will only ask you to open if they find something suspicious.