DJB Photography Blog

Was it worth upgrading and paying the extra money???

A most definite YES.  Although there was nothing wrong with my Nikon 28-70mm lens, this new 24-70mm lens is by far a newer design and brings together newer technology including the coating used on the glass.  The focus speed is quicker and it feels more precise.  I am very impressed with it.

Incidentally I sold my Nikon 28-70mm to another professional photographer through eBay who had all his camera equipment stolen and had not been insured.  There are a lot of photographers out there to choose from and I would say that quite a significant proportion are unlikely to have insurance.  If they are not willing to pay for insurance to cover their equipment then there is the likelihood that they will not be insured to photograph your wedding.  I personally pay a lot of money for the most comprehensive professional indemnity, and public liability insurance, as well as camera equipment and portfolio insurance (arranged through Alan Beardmore at A1 Insurance Services in Wetherby).  It costs a lot of money each year but I need to ensure that I am covered for every eventuality including someone falling and tripping over my tripod at a wedding.  My insurance company dictate various terms & conditions I need to have in my contract with my clients in order to cover me, and there are a very small number of venues who specifically ask for proof of insurance before I am allowed to photograph a wedding at their venue.  I arranged it through Alan at A1 as I told him specifically what I wanted it to cover and he was able to sort out exactly what I wanted.

If you are looking for a professional photographer you should always check they have the appropriate insurance, just in case…

After some debate with myself about whether it was worth changing my trusted and excellent Nikon 28-70mm f/2.8 ED-IF AF-S lens to the new Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 lensI finally got round to putting my old lens on eBay and biting the bullet to buy the new lens.  Little did I realise that there was a country shortage of these and as a result had to spend a little time on the Internet and phoning round trying to find anywhere that stocked them at a reasonable price.  After being told several times that there were none available in the country and that I it would be at least 21 days before new stocks arrived, I found a photographic shop in Camberley, S&P Photos who had one in stock at a reasonable price.  Roger Murphy at the store arrange the delivery for me and a couple of days later, today it arrived in time for this weekends wedding photography. 

Is it worth paying the extra for the additional 4mm that this new lens gives you?  Well it brings in to line the top of the range Nikon lenses with the 14-24mm F2.8 Lens, this new 24-70mm F2.8 Lens, and the 70-200mm F2.8 Lens, all of which I am lucky enough to own and use.  All are outstanding lenses and I will be interested to see how the 24-70mm lens performs this weekend at the wedding.  It is to be my main workhorse lens giving me the range that I could shoot a whole wedding with if I so wanted to.  I have tested it today spending an hour photographing wildlife and some landscape shots with the snow and am very impressed with its performance.  Lightning fast autofocus, pin sharp focus, and well balanced with my camera body.  The lens body is not quite as bulky as the 28-70mm though it weighs heavier, but the difference in weight is minimal really.  I was certainly impressed today with its performance so am looking forward to using it at this weekends wedding.  Is it worth upgrading and paying the extra money?  I will tell you on Monday…

WOW! The new Nikon D3x with 24 mega-pixels has just been released.  I have sort of put of renewing my trusty and excellent quality D2x camera for a couple of reasons, this D3x being one of them.  There has been a lot of speculation about when the D3x would be launched following a firmware update for the D3 that indicated the D3x was to have 24 mega-pixels.  The question was when the camera would be launched not if.  Having said that Nikon in the past tended to bring out cameras to replace their existing camera range, for example the D2h was superseded by the D2x, and then the D2xs, and again ultimately by the D3.  However it appears that the D3x is to run alongside the D3 with the D3 being for sports and photojournalism, and the D3x being more like a medium format camera in terms of sensor mega-pixel size, and used for still life.  The D3 is faster and can take more photographs in a continuous cycle than the D3x so the question now is whether I upgrade from my trusty D2x, which has been great for the past three years, to a D3 or D3x……I think it will actually be the D3 as my style is more photojournalistic, and although I do take a lot of fine art photography, I know that the D3 is more than adequate to blow up and print out at a large size, large enough for me to be happy with anyway.  There are two main reasons for me to consider upgrading at all.  The D3 range now has two Compact Flash card slots, so this means that if a card were to ever fail, there would be a backup in the camera so you minimise the risk of loosing photographs you have taken (I minimise the risk anyway by using several cards throughout a photo-shoot rather than simply using one large card).  The second being the low light level that the camera can take photographs in at a reasonable shutter speed.  The D3 range can go up to 6400 iso and has little grain on the photographs even at that high rating (great for churches, especially candle lit ceremonies).

Price wise the D3 currently runs in at around the £2850 mark, whereas the D3x is launched with a price of £5850.  A significant difference and although the D3x is expensive for a 35mm camera, at medium format size in terms of megapixels, it is actually quite cheap with medium format digital cameras prices being in excess of £10k.  Photographers must be making some serious money to be using equipment of that calibre.  And I thought I was using the best…

By the way please don’t ask me about the equivalent Canon.  I know very little about Canon being a devote Nikon user all my professional life.  I cannot fault them at all.