What should I upgrade?

brianhanley

Hey everyone. I need some advice. I have to shoot some weddings coming up this summer. One is totally outside and the other is half and half. Right now I have

NIkon D50
50mm 1.8 nikon lens
18-135mm nikon lens
sb-600 flash

Of course i would love to get a D200 or D80 and an 18-200mm VR and a Sb-800 but I can only afford one of those. So what do you think would make the biggest impact if I were to get them?

Is there something ELSE I should get instead? Looking to blow under 600$.. Thanks!

Art Scott

brianhanley wrote:

Hey everyone. I need some advice. I have to shoot some weddings coming up this summer. One is totally outside and the other is half and half. Right now I have

NIkon D50
50mm 1.8 nikon lens
18-135mm nikon lens
sb-600 flash

Of course i would love to get a D200 or D80 and an 18-200mm VR and a Sb-800 but I can only afford one of those. So what do you think would make the biggest impact if I were to get them?

Is there something ELSE I should get instead? Looking to blow under 600$.. Thanks!

Can you swing a touch more money for a D300.....if not get the D200.

Actually you have some good glass but for my wedding shooting I want something in the 24-70 and the 70-200.....for me 135 is not long enough especially for the ceremony shots.....so I am now looking for to change to a 17-50 or 70 and another 70-200 (I will not work Professionally with out at least 2 bodies each with a zoom lens )....also if one body dies I can switch bods and keep going.....so waht ever you decision you need to keep that D50 until you can get another body the same as what ever you upgrade to.........
It is not a myth.....it is a fact taht sometime during your career as a photog a camera will die a very horrible death on you and it will be at the most in-opportune time.......I actually have had 2 die both during weddings that were over 30 miles from my house and I luckily had a 2nd camera.......nothing like shooting with a Mamiya twin lens (large 120 roll film camera ....going to car and coming back in with a small little twin lens RICOHFLEX......someone mis read the scroll writing on the top of the camera and thought I returned with a ROLLEIFLEX......now that was in my favor.......but the second time I was trying out a Fujica 645 folding rangefinder.....dang nice camera but my model had a coupling problem and it failed on me and I had as a back up only my 35mm with a 50mm lens.....it worked but the film I had was cheap consumer grade film and it took a lot of work to produce really good images for the B/G)......so make sure you always have a back up body even if you have to rent it.......You do not want to be sued by a P.O. M.O.T.B. for not producing the photos that you are to produce for a wedding.

Tee Why

Something along the lines of a Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 or a Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 macro for the normal range.

SloYerRoll

Tokina 12-24 Pro

If your shooting weddings. There's a good chance you'll need some wide glass. While 18mm is wide. 12mm opens up a whole other universe.

I just bought one new for 499. The Nikon equivalent is over 1k and the Tokina is just as good IMO.

ziggy53

Tee Why wrote:

Something along the lines of a Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 or a Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 macro for the normal range.

Plus I would have a second flash, even if only a simple "auto" flash.

Definitely have a second body available, even if you have to borrow one.

swintonphoto

Tee Why wrote:

Something along the lines of a Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 or a Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 macro for the normal range.

A great low light lens like one of these with a wide aperture will make the biggest difference for you. It sure did for me.

brianhanley

should i get one of these?

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Nikon 55-200mm f/4-5.6G AF-S DX VR[/FONT]



I am leaning more towards a D80 because I like a camera to be light and have scenes.. i know i am a pansy.. but i like to just flip it to running man mode for sports, its so easy,

ziggy53

brianhanley wrote:

should i get one of these?

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Nikon 55-200mm f/4-5.6G AF-S DX VR[/FONT] ...

Unless you exclusively shoot weddings which allow flash during the ceremony, most don't, you are going to be lost without a lens which allows at least f2.8, and high quality at that aperture, and a camera which allows a usable ISO 1600.

Take the advice of the Tamron 17-50mm, f/2.8 XR Di II. It's capable of shooting wide open with pretty good results at any focal length.

swintonphoto

ziggy53 wrote:

Unless you exclusively shoot weddings which allow flash during the ceremony, most don't, you are going to be lost without a lens which allows at least f2.8, and high quality at that aperture, and a camera which allows a usable ISO 1600.

Take the advice of the Tamron 17-50mm, f/2.8 XR Di II. It's capable of shooting wide open with pretty good results at any focal length.

Again I agree with Ziggy. You could sell your 18-135 and get the Tamron 17-50 and get the Nikkor 55-200 or similar Sigma or Tamron long zooms. I would be much more comfortable shooting a wedding with that setup personally. It would give you better low-light shooting capabilities in the normal zoom range (The range I shoot 85% of my shots at weddings), and will still give you longer zoom capabilities with the 55-200.
Again, just an opinion. I didn't think the low light, large aperture lens would make that much difference until I got my Zuiko 14-54 2.8-3.5 lens. The differences were huge. Faster focusing, brighter in the viewfinder, more capable of working in low-light settings. In hind sight I don't know why I ever considered anything else.