I’m tough on gear. Between all my bodies I click about 60 to 80-thousand shutter releases a year. I currently shoot with Nikon D300 bodies. I have 3. Two of them are with me all the time and I have a backup [...]]]> This is a mini “what is in my bag post”.

I’m tough on gear. Between all my bodies I click about 60 to 80-thousand shutter releases a year. I currently shoot with Nikon D300 bodies. I have 3. Two of them are with me all the time and I have a backup when I need to send one off to Nikon repair. The ‘spare’ is currently dedicated to a Sigma 8mm lens and that whole rig is attached to a Nodal Ninja pano rig and it’s set up for doing pano photography.  That rig is NOT part of my day bag.

My main numero uno glass is a Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens DX. I shoot 80% of my shots with this lens. It is a great and very sharp lens. I use this lens over the Nikon 17-55mm because it seems as sharp wide open. It does have fewer aperture blades which is not a bother wide open (or even stopped down for me), and I can hose (break) 3 of these lenses for the price of the Nikon. I like this lens so much that I own two for when I need to send one in for servicing. Did I mention that I’m tough on gear.

My second most used lens is a Tokina DX 11-16mm f/2.8 wide zoom. I generally shoot this at 11mm but sometimes zoom it to 16mm. I can’t remember shooting this at any in-between zoom setting. It’s either 11 or 16mm for me. I have used this lens so much that I took it into Precision Camera (where I bought it in Austin) to get them to tighten up the front mount ring that had worked loose from use – the lens is only 6 months old, but I’m tough on gear.
I bought the Tokina lens to supplement, my Nikon 10.5mm DX fisheye lens. This Tokina lens gets me thousands more shots in the field over the 10.5mm DX Nikon. Now, that I have the Sigma 8mm I rarely use the Nikon 10.5 lens for fisheye work. I do like the 10.5mm as it is small and fits well in a pocket or bag. I don’t ever put the Sigma 8mm in my pocket.

The third lens I keep in my bag and I shoot with a lot is a Nikon 80-400mm VR lens. This is somewhat compact (aka: fits in the bag). This lens is a ton lighter than the Sigma 120-300 f/2.8 lens I own. The Siggy is super bight and super sharp but it is a big lens and doesn’t suit me for most of my daily work. The Nikon telephoto isn’t the fastest at zooming but I don’t find that a bother and it does a fine job in low light. The VR is essential as I hand-hold this lens about 90% of the time. I get solid results in very low light with the ISO cranked up and the shutter set at 1/200 with the lens zoomed out to 400mm. (effective 600mm on the DX sensor).

So two camera bodies. One with the Tamron 17-55mm f/2.8 on one body all the time. One body with the Tokina 11-16mm which I will switch out for the Nikon 80-400mm VR. That way I always have the 17-50mm at hand.

Recap:
Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8
Tokina DX 11-16mm f/2.8
Nikon 80-400mm VR

That’s my day bag glass.

Opps.  I forgot to include strobes.  I generally have a SB-800 on the camera with the 17-50mm.  I sometime pack and use the SB-900 but that’s just more weight to add to the bag. Nowadays, I’m using the SB-900 with the Tokina 11-16 lens. I’m not a big fan of the SB-900.  If I take the SB-900 with me I will always take the SB-800 as a backup.   I’ll leave the SB-900 issues for a future post.