Professional Nikon Camera's Give Me The Edge

Rather than leave things to chance I always try to equip myself with the best kit going, in the case of photography I mainly stick with Nikon Professional products. The expense of the equipment is vast so you have to cast your net well, my equipment is mainly Nikon from camera bodies to lenses and specialist lighting gear.

I have 3 digital bodies these comprise of, two Nikon D2X’s and for high speed and low light work a D2Hs.

The resolution of the D2X is powerful, up to 12.2 Mega Pixels (42882848) but can also be selected as 3M (21441424) and 6.8 M (32162136) which is a great help. With a range of ISO 100-800 and H settings it is a very powerful tool. It also has a picture speed of 7 fps which is useful on such a powerful camera. The other valuable setting with this camera is the image crop facility which enables the user to increase the focal length of the lens by a form of Nikon magic. It has many other functions but I tend to shy away from them and just use a few of the available settings with this camera, but most of all I am very well very acquainted with this camera.

In essence it is one of the finest digital cameras that Nikon has produced and I am loathed to replace it, which is why I have two in my collection.

My other camera the D2Hs is invaluable the resolution is not as powerful as the D2X, being 4M (24641632) and 2.2M (1840*1224) but this camera has it’s distinct uses, firstly in the low light environment it fairs very well, with an ISO range from 200-1600 with additional H settings and this wide range enables you to operate it even as the sun has goes down. The other advantage over the D2X is the pure speed of it running at a fast 7fps but with the lower resolution it is able to download the images at a faster rate so it is ideal for high speed subjects such as aircraft in displays and fast moving animals etc.

I still hold in my collection two film cameras a F5 and F80 and I use them infrequently but it is good to have them around just in case, plus I still have a lot of film to get through.

Now to the other important side of photography, lenses, I have selected some of the best, the bulk of my lenses are in the telephoto range, but I the ability to photograph near and far. For close up I have the Nikon AF-S Nikkor 12-24 mm ED DX which works fine in conjunction with the cameras, then the AF-S Nikkor 28mm-70mm F2.8 which is a great general purpose lens and I like it a lot.

Then finally the Nikkor 80mm-400mm telephoto which is a great lens if used properly, I like this lens so much I bought a second as a spare. Yes it some times hunts on the focus but this can be overcome, with gentle persuasion. In conjunction I have a 1.4 and 2 times converter.

I also hold in my collection a few very specialist lenses by other manufacturers my favourite being the Angeneux 28-70 F2.6 which is a beautifully crafted lens and is of great use in day to day photography and the low light environment. For the macro work I use a Tokina macro 100mm F2.8, which in itself is a great little lens, focuses well only by manual but the close up pictures are fantastic and I have had many good results with it.

Lighting I use three Nikon SB 800 speed lights which are a brilliant piece kit and the infra red contact between them all is pretty good for flash work. I also have additional leads which can come in handy some times. The creative lighting system is good particularly in close up macro work.