Whether you are a pro or an amateur, your shooting patterns and camera needs change over time, as new technologies emerge, clients and markets change, or even as your family grows or lifestyle changes. As such, it makes sense to periodically review the contents of your gear bag and realign your kit to your shooting needs. With the kids off school for the summer, that is exactly where I find myself today.

Stepping back and looking at what I’m shooting compared to a year ago, there are numerous differences. I’m now doing a lot more studio work than I was before. Since starting the Tripods and Support Gear Guide over the winter, I now have tripod and head setups that I actually use (my previous Manfrotto 055MF4 + 468MG setup is a good general setup, but it wasn’t stable enough for telephoto work, and was heavy enough that if usually got left behind). And perhaps most importantly, my kids are growing up and getting more active. So how does this affect my camera gear?

Let’s start with my current setup. For a couple of decades, I’ve always had a 3-camera setup: constantly changing lenses in the field can lead to missed opportunities and excess crud on the sensor with a DSLR. As such, for the past 18 months I’ve had a D300 mostly living on the back of my 200-400mm lens, or occasionally on a 105mm Macro. The D700 usually lives on a 24-70mm, 70-200mm or on an f/1.4 prime. That leaves the D90 as the backup, with a 12-24mm for wide-angle work, or with an 18-200mm as a “light” kit for outings with the kids etc (in fact, the D90 with 18-200mm frequently gets stolen by She Who Must Be Obeyed, to the point she refers to it as her camera).

Next, lets look at how these get used. For studio work, any of the bodies work at base ISO, the preference being for the D700 for extra shallow depth of field, and low light focus ability in a darkened studio. D300 is the studio backup. The 24-70mm and 70-200mm lenses are the workhorses, supplemented by the primes. No changes needed there.

For serious wildlife/nature shooting, the current setup is typically the D300 with the 200-400mm as the workhorse. The D90 with the 12-24mm lens attached for any landscapes. Then the D700 with a mid range zoom getting minimal use, except in bad lighting conditions.

Then comes family trips: On day trips with the kids, the D90 with 18-200mm lens gets great results, but also gets in the way. After all, the focus of a day trip with the kids should be enjoying what little time you have with your kids as they grow up. While having some nice pictures to remember the trip, you don’t want to be the parent getting impatient with the kids who just want to enjoy themselves, while you pose them and fiddle with camera settings and stress about light in a crowded setting… As such, and with the kids getting more active and excitable, the D90 with 18-200mm combination is no longer working for me in this role.

For vacations, I personally love road trips and national parks. For serious photography, I’m going to leave the kids in bed and be up before dawn with the heavy lenses and a tripod. Then the rest of the day, driving round enjoying the sights with the kids and taking snapshots (after all, you’re not likely to be satisfied with your landscape shots taken from crowded viewpoints by the side of the road in the harsh mid-day sun, and animal sightings are much less likely during those times anyway). Again, the D90 with 18-200mm combination is overkill for these times, and can seriously get in the way (your 5 year old daughter wants to sit on your shoulders to see better, or your 7 year old wants to go climbing amongst some rocks – with an expensive DSLR round your neck that could get damaged, you often think twice…)

Given the above, its time for a change. I remain extremely happy with the D300 and D700, so they will remain. The D90, while an excellent camera, has to go. My biggest problem with the D90 for serious work has always been its low light focusing, which has typically relegated it to the landscape camera for nature work. I’ve also been extra cautious with the lack of weather sealing for nature photography. Hauling a DSLR around on a day out with the kids detracts from the experience for both the kids and myself as far as I’m concerned, and in that situation the kids are more important. So the D90 is going up for sale today. The 18-200mm lens will be up for sale shortly, once I’ve published the review of it. The void will be filled with a Canon S90 – a compact, pocket-able, high quality camera that can help record memories on fun days out with the kids, yet more importantly slides into a pocket and won’t get in the way. It should also serve well for scouting locations during the day, where I can go back with a tripod and pro zoom the next morning at dawn to get the shot/lighting I really want.

From that follows on several other changes:

• That leaves me with only two bodies for the first time in many years. If I were to get another body today, it would probably have to be the D300s for telephoto work. However short term I’m going to try living with just two bodies, at least until Nikon come out with a higher resolution full frame body that doesn’t cost $8k: A higher resolution FX camera would be ideal for studio and landscape work, and would put more pixels on the subject with telephoto work as a backup to the D300.
• With the D300 as my prime telephoto body, the D700 becomes my landscape camera. The 12-24mm lens is a DX lens, so that needs to go, to be replaced with the 14-24mm. I’ve been looking for an excuse to buy that lens for a while.
• With the D300 as the remaining DX body, primarily for telephoto work, and the next body I’m likely to buy being FX (if a D400 comes out, that will replace the D300 for telephoto work only), then I’ve basically eliminated my use for all my DX lenses, and my “light” kit combinations. That means along with the 18-200mm and 12-24mm, the 18-105mm DX will also go. Possibly the 70-300mm as well – while an excellent FX lens, from the above, I just don’t see myself using it any time soon.

Overall, I’m eliminating my “light weight” combinations (D90 and DX lenses), beefing up my setup for serious work (adding 14-24mm straight away, then the 24mm f1.4 and 600mm f4 lenses when I can justify them), and switching to the S90 for casual use so I can focus more on my family. Right now this feels like the right thing to do, I’ll report back in a few months detailing how it actually works out.

In the mean time, if anyone is interested in any of the following (all USA models), shoot me an email: steve@dentonimages.com

• Sold Nikon D90 Body Only (only 6,900 actuations, mostly in a studio, comes with all manuals and accessories): $675
• Sold Nikon 70-300mm VR Lens (comes with box & paperwork): $400

In a few days once I’ve finished the reviews the following will also be available:

• Nikon 18-200mm VR DX Lens (comes with box & paperwork): $500
• Nikon 18-105mm DX Lens (basically unused, mounted on a camera perhaps twice, the D90 was only available in kit form when I bought it, never used the lens): $225
• Nikon 12-24mm DX (comes with box & paperwork): $600

Payment by Paypal only, I’ll even include free shipping to the lower 48.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 7th, 2010 at 2:55 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.