What would you do?

Erbeman

I just sold 3 tickets to the upcoming Texas Tech vs.Texas game and got a good bit of cash for them. So here is my delima: I've been wanting a good Macbook laptop for some time, especially now that I'm going out of town to shoot pro SX races. I need a laptop with a big hard drive, alot of Ram, and a high end graphics cards so I can post process in my hotel. Well, Apple just released the 2009 models of their laptops and are closing out their 2008 models. Our technology store here at Tech has Macbook Pro's with:

15.4 inch display
2.5GHz Core 2 Duo processor
2 GB Ram
250 GB hard drive
Nvidia GeForce 8600 video card with 512 MB of ram plus apple care for $1,599, normally $2,099

Or I could get the 70-200 F/2.8 VR and have it in time to shoot the game on Saturday. That lens goes for about $1699-$1799.

If I get the lens now and wait for the laptop, more than likely the 2008 models will be gone and I'll loose $500 in discounts. Choosing the laptop makes common sense, but man it would be awesome to have such a good lens for this game. What would you guys do?
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MikeMcA²

If you're going out of town to shoot pro SX for assignment and sale, using the 70-200 f/2.8 VR over your current 70-300G might easily help you capture more shots in iffy light, and earn much more than the $500 difference. There's no comparison in the focus acquisition and tracking speed of those two lenses.

Frog Lady

buy the lap top and rent a longer lens for the game. While it would be nice to have that lens in your line up, you would find that it is probably too short for most of the action on the field, particularly if you're not on the side lines.

Check out borrowlenses.com. They are one of the vendors on this site. While I haven't used them, I've heard/read almost nothing but good things about their services.

have fun at the game!

C.

Erbeman

Mike, you make a good point. I hadn't thought of that. Frog lady, I do shoot from the sidelines at the Texas Tech home games. I looked into renting the lens earlier in the season but it will cost me close to $150 and I don't get paid for my football pictures. Therefor it's hard to justify spending that much. Man o man this is a tough decision.

nipprdog

MikeMcA² wrote:

If you're going out of town to shoot pro SX for assignment and sale, using the 70-200 f/2.8 VR over your current 70-300G might easily help you capture more shots in iffy light, and earn much more than the $500 difference. There's no comparison in the focus acquisition and tracking speed of those two lenses.

Agreed. The 70-300G will not be adequate at SX.

Like camera bodies, laptops come and go. But great glass, goes on, and on and on....

JESTER

I agree...you do have a tough choice. I have both a 17" MacBook Pro that is loaded and the 70-200mm 2.8 VR. I would honestly hate to give up either one of them. They both have their uses. Of course I just purchased a 200 f2 so the 70-200 isn't getting quiet as much action but it is a fantastic lens and has many uses. I have used it for football and it does a great job depending on where you are standing. I have a PC and a MacBook and you can really see a difference when working on photos. I sit at Starbucks and play with it for hours. Everyone that sees the photos comments on how bright and clear they are. If it really came down to it I guess I would get the computer now, rent the lens and save up to get the lens later.

cmason

Well, you can get that spec in a new Macbook for less money, in fact, it has a better video gpu. Ok, so the screen is smaller.

I think the only reason for going for the older macbook pro is the matte screen (and of course if you have to have a 15" screen).

So you can basically buy the laptop anytime, assuming you don't mind the screen (I personally don't mind it for a laptop).

jbr13

Erbeman, To start with, congrats on getting to go shoot the SX series! For my two cents worth. I would go with the Nikon 80-200mm F2.8 without the VR. You could get it for about $900 with tripod collar. The VR usually doesn't work well when panning side to side anyway. I used that lens with my D50 for outdoor MX at Budds Creek and it works great, plus your would save $700 on the lense to go toward the laptop.

Hope this helps a little.

Jason


By the way, who will you be shooting for?
MX photos here. Mostly with the 80-200 F2.8
http://jbr.smugmug.com/Sports/335331

Erbeman

jbr13 wrote:

Erbeman, To start with, congrats on getting to go shoot the SX series! For my two cents worth. I would go with the Nikon 80-200mm F2.8 without the VR. You could get it for about $900 with tripod collar. The VR usually doesn't work well when panning side to side anyway. I used that lens with my D50 for outdoor MX at Budds Creek and it works great, plus your would save $700 on the lense to go toward the laptop.

Hope this helps a little.

Jason


By the way, who will you be shooting for?
MX photos here. Mostly with the 80-200 F2.8
http://jbr.smugmug.com/Sports/335331

Well, guys thanks for all of you input. I have decided to go with the lens, I spoke to the manager of the computer store having the closeout and he said they have 8 left and that should last 2-3 weeks. So, between them and all of the online mac stores, I think I can still get my macbook pro a little later.

Jason, I shoot for a regional MX magazine called Holeshot. It covers Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico and we are trying to venture into Arkansas and Missouri. We have a site tha you can check out at www.holeshotmag.com. I started out this past season covering local races here in west Texas. Response has been good to my pics and stories and I travel to many SX's already, the owner agreed to get me credentials to all the SX's I go to other than Houston because he's got that one covered. He is giving me a 4 page layout in the next issue for my coverage of the US Open and I'm sure he'll do the same for the other SX's. It's really turned into something amazing that I never planned on. Becasuse of my coverage of the west Texas tracks, I've made quite a bit of $ selling pics to the locals. My first race this seson I only has a little ol D40 and my 70-300 F/4.5. I realized quickly that night that I was going to need better equipment and everything has just snowballed from there. Hell I put my business card in a fishbowl at Quizno's last month to try and win a free sandwhich and the owner called me while I was in Vegas to tell me he pulled my card out fo the bowl, went to my site and was wondering if I do weddings!!! It's just crazy!! Hey I went to check out your coverage of the MX series. Great pics my friend!! Who do you shoot for because I see you are inside the fence?

MikeMcA²

Erbeman wrote:

Well, guys thanks for all of you input. I have decided to go with the lens, I spoke to the manager of the computer store having the closeout and he said they have 8 left and that should last 2-3 weeks. So, between them and all of the online mac stores, I think I can still get my macbook pro a little later.

Jason, I shoot for a regional MX magazine called Holeshot. It covers Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico and we are trying to venture into Arkansas and Missouri. We have a site tha you can check out at www.holeshotmag.com. I started out this past season covering local races here in west Texas. Response has been good to my pics and stories and I travel to many SX's already, the owner agreed to get me credentials to all the SX's I go to other than Houston because he's got that one covered. He is giving me a 4 page layout in the next issue for my coverage of the US Open and I'm sure he'll do the same for the other SX's. It's really turned into something amazing that I never planned on. Becasuse of my coverage of the west Texas tracks, I've made quite a bit of $ selling pics to the locals. My first race this seson I only has a little ol D40 and my 70-300 F/4.5. I realized quickly that night that I was going to need better equipment and everything has just snowballed from there. Hell I put my business card in a fishbowl at Quizno's last month to try and win a free sandwhich and the owner called me while I was in Vegas to tell me he pulled my card out fo the bowl, went to my site and was wondering if I do weddings!!! It's just crazy!! Hey I went to check out your coverage of the MX series. Great pics my friend!! Who do you shoot for because I see you are inside the fence?

What a great success story. Understand your craft, work hard, put yourself in the right place, and take advantage when opportunity knocks. I wish you much success. Just one warning...wedding shooting killed my inner child.

Erbeman

MikeMcA² wrote:

What a great success story. Understand your craft, work hard, put yourself in the right place, and take advantage when opportunity knocks. I wish you much success. Just one warning...wedding shooting killed my inner child.

Haha, thanks mike. It's been on hell of a ride for sure. I have heard wedding photography is hard stuff. But, man does it pay well and to be able to be a part of something so big is awesome. Now, I've just got a find a wedding photographer here that will let me be a second or third camera to learn the tricks of the trade.

geospatial_junkie

Erbeman wrote:

I just sold 3 tickets to the upcoming Texas Tech vs.Texas game and got a good bit of cash for them. So here is my delima: I've been wanting a good Macbook laptop for some time, especially now that I'm going out of town to shoot pro SX races. I need a laptop with a big hard drive, alot of Ram, and a high end graphics cards so I can post process in my hotel. Well, Apple just released the 2009 models of their laptops and are closing out their 2008 models. Our technology store here at Tech has Macbook Pro's with:

15.4 inch display
2.5GHz Core 2 Duo processor
2 GB Ram
250 GB hard drive
Nvidia GeForce 8600 video card with 512 MB of ram plus apple care for $1,599, normally $2,099

Or I could get the 70-200 F/2.8 VR and have it in time to shoot the game on Saturday. That lens goes for about $1699-$1799.

If I get the lens now and wait for the laptop, more than likely the 2008 models will be gone and I'll loose $500 in discounts. Choosing the laptop makes common sense, but man it would be awesome to have such a good lens for this game. What would you guys do?
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The question I have is that you are going to spend about $1500 on a laptop. Why? Why the fancy graphics card? Are you running CAD/GIS or 3D animation software? How about games? <img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6029383/emoji/headscratch.gif&quot; border="0" alt="" >

Honesty, I would take the money and get the lens or at the very least, but a $800 laptop (way more than sufficient for photography) a color calibrater such as a spyder so you can have proper color on your laptop scree, and put the other $500 away for a new lens.

I will tell you that the 70-200mm 2.8 is my favourite lens (don't know how I lived without it now) and is usually the #1 lens purchased by nikon professionals due to its versatility. Lens last many many years, laptops only a few.

geospatial_junkie

Frog Lady wrote:

buy the lap top and rent a longer lens for the game. While it would be nice to have that lens in your line up, you would find that it is probably too short for most of the action on the field, particularly if you're not on the side lines.

Check out borrowlenses.com. They are one of the vendors on this site. While I haven't used them, I've heard/read almost nothing but good things about their services.

have fun at the game!

C.

Get the 1.7x nikon teleconverter and you are laughing with this lens. As far as renting lenses are concerned...

Its a great idea when you are familiar with the lens you'll be renting. If you want to shoot reasonably well with it, then rent it for a week before your event and shoot-shoot-shoot. You'll be happy you did.

Erbeman

Ha, I just got a little gift from above. My wife does home health physical therapy and she just picked up an extra patient for November and the insurance company paid her $2000 for it. I just went and bought the Mac Pro laptop 10 minutes ago! So, no dilemma at all. I got them both on the same day!!

I picked this laptop for a few reasons. #1 reason is that I am a certified Mac technician as well as Dell and I know Mac's are superior machines. Also any PC laptop you buy now must come with Vista. I'm out right there. I wanted to buy a high end laptop because I don't want to need to turn around in a year or two and buy another because my cheap laptop is obsolete. I have a Mac at Home, my wife loves them as well.

I have been wondering about the 1.4 and 1.7 teleconverter actually. I'm glad you posted about it. I know it would really be handy at football games when I'm on the sidlines far away from the action. I just wasn't sure about putting a teleconverter which probably isn't the best glass on top of very good glass. Is the iamge quality still very high. How many stops do you loose?

jbr13

Erbeman, Great story and keep hitting the races. Things seem to really be going your way with everything there, and that is good to hear. Ah, those shots just look like I am inside the fence. Just scouting the track and finding places that make for good shots. I was extremely luck back in 07 to catch RC clip a haybale and almost go down when trying to catch Bubba. I ended up having Davey Combs from RacerX see the picture and wanted you use it. I also shot a few local races at Budds and made it in our District 7 paper magazine. I missed out on going this year, but next year I will be back at it! It would be nice to shoot in Texas, you guys have your own motocross world down there, and now a National too. I'll be looking forward to seeing your stuff on here and maybe over on www.motonews.com if your on there too. A1 isn't to far away!!!

Erbeman wrote:

Well, guys thanks for all of you input. I have decided to go with the lens, I spoke to the manager of the computer store having the closeout and he said they have 8 left and that should last 2-3 weeks. So, between them and all of the online mac stores, I think I can still get my macbook pro a little later.

Jason, I shoot for a regional MX magazine called Holeshot. It covers Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico and we are trying to venture into Arkansas and Missouri. We have a site tha you can check out at www.holeshotmag.com. I started out this past season covering local races here in west Texas. Response has been good to my pics and stories and I travel to many SX's already, the owner agreed to get me credentials to all the SX's I go to other than Houston because he's got that one covered. He is giving me a 4 page layout in the next issue for my coverage of the US Open and I'm sure he'll do the same for the other SX's. It's really turned into something amazing that I never planned on. Becasuse of my coverage of the west Texas tracks, I've made quite a bit of $ selling pics to the locals. My first race this seson I only has a little ol D40 and my 70-300 F/4.5. I realized quickly that night that I was going to need better equipment and everything has just snowballed from there. Hell I put my business card in a fishbowl at Quizno's last month to try and win a free sandwhich and the owner called me while I was in Vegas to tell me he pulled my card out fo the bowl, went to my site and was wondering if I do weddings!!! It's just crazy!! Hey I went to check out your coverage of the MX series. Great pics my friend!! Who do you shoot for because I see you are inside the fence?

jbr13

Oh yeah, On Holeshot site. You may want to have them change the Motonews graphic that has TFS on it. He doesn't associate with motonews any longer. He has a new site he started called www.racetime.com

geospatial_junkie

Erbeman wrote:

Ha, I just got a little gift from above. My wife does home health physical therapy and she just picked up an extra patient for November and the insurance company paid her $2000 for it. I just went and bought the Mac Pro laptop 10 minutes ago! So, no dilemma at all. I got them both on the same day!!

I picked this laptop for a few reasons. #1 reason is that I am a certified Mac technician as well as Dell and I know Mac's are superior machines. Also any PC laptop you buy now must come with Vista. I'm out right there. I wanted to buy a high end laptop because I don't want to need to turn around in a year or two and buy another because my cheap laptop is obsolete. I have a Mac at Home, my wife loves them as well.

I have been wondering about the 1.4 and 1.7 teleconverter actually. I'm glad you posted about it. I know it would really be handy at football games when I'm on the sidlines far away from the action. I just wasn't sure about putting a teleconverter which probably isn't the best glass on top of very good glass. Is the iamge quality still very high. How many stops do you loose?

Ahhh... it all comes clear now. I use a vista 64-bit platform on my laptop and have yet to encounter an issue (I do know what to stay away from though).

The 1.4x isn't long enough... get the 1.7x to maintain maximum sharpness. The 2x starts softening up the image. The Nikon 1.7x teleconverter is unbelievable and is a staple of a lot of wildlife photographers... and they have much higher standards with respect to sharpness than many other types of photography. You will lose about 1 stop of light with 1.7x nikon tele. If you shoot an FX body, then its really not a big deal (I do ). If you shoot with a DX sensor body, it still shouldn't be a big deal. Image quality is outstanding!

Erbeman

jbr13 wrote:

Oh yeah, On Holeshot site. You may want to have them change the Motonews graphic that has TFS on it. He doesn't associate with motonews any longer. He has a new site he started called www.racetime.com

Oh, I'm sorry for your loss. Haha I've never been on either of those forums. I used to call Supercross.com home until last November the owner brought TFS onboard and it caused complete distruction!!! It was really bad. Most of us regular forum members found a new home in a small forum called motopen. It's small and comfortable. I still go back to SX.com a little since he's gone and it's died down over there again.

I will pass on to the owner to maybe contact motonews for a new graphic. Maybe you could also have the owner or mod over there send him a design as well.

Erbeman

geospatial_junkie wrote:

Ahhh... it all comes clear now. I use a vista 64-bit platform on my laptop and have yet to encounter an issue (I do know what to stay away from though).

The 1.4x isn't long enough... get the 1.7x to maintain maximum sharpness. The 2x starts softening up the image. The Nikon 1.7x teleconverter is unbelievable and is a staple of a lot of wildlife photographers... and they have much higher standards with respect to sharpness than many other types of photography. You will lose about 1 stop of light with 1.7x nikon tele. If you shoot an FX body, then its really not a big deal (I do ). If you shoot with a DX sensor body, it still shouldn't be a big deal. Image quality is outstanding!

Cool, thanks for the advise.

geospatial_junkie

Ebermen,

I noticed your equipment list and was wondering if you have the battery grip for the D300? If not, I would highly recommend it with the 70-200 (especially with the 1.7 teleconverter). It will offset the weight of the lens and give you more stable shooting.

MikeMcA²

You lose 1 stop with the 1.4x, about 1.5 with the 1.7x. In other words, with my 200 f/2, it becomes a 280 f/2.8 with the 1.4x, and a 340 f/3.2 max aperture with the 1.7x. Both are very sharp, especially for work which will be in print. I've not used either with my 70-200 f/2.8, so can't say how well they play together, but on the 200 f/2 and my 400 f/2.8 they rock.

Erbeman

geospatial_junkie wrote:

Ebermen,

I noticed your equipment list and was wondering if you have the battery grip for the D300? If not, I would highly recommend it with the 70-200 (especially with the 1.7 teleconverter). It will offset the weight of the lens and give you more stable shooting.

You know, I've recently been pondering picking one up. I appreciate the advise. I probably will pick one up soon. Thanks

geospatial_junkie

Erbeman wrote:

You know, I've recently been pondering picking one up. I appreciate the advise. I probably will pick one up soon. Thanks

Oh... its not advice. Call it a recommendation. I'll let all the other experts here give the professional advice.

Erbeman

geospatial_junkie wrote:

Oh... its not advice. Call it a recommendation. I'll let all the other experts here give the professional advice.

haha, good one

MikeMcA²

I second the "recommendation" for the MB-D10. I love the vertical grip features.

nipprdog

MikeMcA² wrote:

I second the "recommendation" for the MB-D10. I love the vertical grip features.

Agreed. The extra command dial that allows me to change the focus point with my thumb, while looking through the viewfinder, is .

Erbeman

I just bought the Nikon 1.7 Teleconverter so I would have it for the big game this weekend. Man, my pics are going to be a ton better than my others!!!

Erbeman

So give me advise on what setting to use the teleconverter on the 70-200 at a night college game. Should I shoot at F/4 or F/5.6 etc..

geospatial_junkie

With a D300 you won't have an option... it will have to be wide open. I am assuming you are not going beyong ISO 1600?!

Try to keep it at ISO 800, but I doubt you'll be able to. Good luck!

Erbeman

geospatial_junkie wrote:

With a D300 you won't have an option... it will have to be wide open. I am assuming you are not going beyong ISO 1600?!

Try to keep it at ISO 800, but I doubt you'll be able to. Good luck!

Yea, I always try to stay at or below 800 so there is no noise. So, I might actually be better off not using the teleconverter at night?

geospatial_junkie

I don't know how well lit the event is. If you are shooting at night, ideally you want to shoot wide open at a high ISO. This is why, in my humble opinion, an FX body shines ever-so brightly over a DX body. I know the DX has the crop factor that gives you reach, but do you really care about reach when you don't have enough light?

If it is well-lit, then you'll be laughing. I assume you will need a shutterspeed of 1/1000s or more, hence the FX body would be helpful (i.e. ISO 6400 @ 1/1000s).

You will need the teleconverter to get the reach, so you don't really have an option. What you could try is shots with some motion blur. If allowed to use your flash (don't know for far away you are and don't know what type of flash you have) you could try some rear-curtain sync shots.