Q&A: Could you help me complete my nikon gear?

Question by Phil: Could you help me complete my nikon gear?
I already asked this yesterday. Some people said that I could upgrade my body.

This is my channel
http://www.flickr.com/photos/philippeflickruser/sets

I like doing small gigs, city festivals, parties, BBQ’s :-), abstract, landscape and architecture. I also want to learn some strobist stuff. And I made some homemovies using my compact camera witch is broken. (DSLR with movie mode)

My gear:

– nikon D40
– 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 kitlens
– 50mm f/1.8 AF-D (I got this from someone who switched to canon, great lens, but I need to manual focus on my D40
– 35mm f/1.8 (This can autofocus and is also very good, it’s a little better because of the internal focussing and a wider crop for indoors)
– 8mm falcon f/3.5 (manual focus and non-metering (no-cpu), can only meter with D200 and above)
– 100mm f/2.8 tokina (It’s not mine, but I can use it whenever I want)
– sb-600 (great stuff)
– colors gels for the sb-600
– cactus v2s trigger (Because I don’t have CLS on my nikon, and this version tends to misfire sometimes, but lately it worked pretty awesome)
– sigma 18-50mm HSM f/2.8 (great built quality, fast zoom, but I don’t like it, it’s not that sharp at 50mm, comparing it to the primes the colors aren’t that good, even my kitlens is pretty good, same sharpness at if I put both on f/3.5 of f/5.6)

My idea:

Selling the sigma lens
Buying a short tele, maybe the
falcon/samyang 85mm f/1.4 (still non-metering, manual focus)

That would sorta complete the collection

If I would start all over I would would just buy me this:
D90
tokina 12-24mm f/4 (only the more expansive version II can autofocus with the D40)
tokina 50-135mm f/2.8 (no autofocus yet, maybe an upgrade later)
And maybe the sb-600

As for movie making, could the new version of the D90 have non-gelly effect when filming + microphone input?

Things I look forward at the D90:
CLS!
Better grip
AF-D support
Bracketing
Better ISO
Sucky movie mode
But still not metering light with my falcon/samyang witch the D200/D300 does not

Best answer:

Answer by luvnhatelife
Upgrade to the Nikon D90, if you want. ( I have no idea about the non gelly effect). My suggestion is, if you want to continue taking movies, also buy a video camera. There are video cameras that take a memory card and are smaller then the Nikon D90. In theory you could carry both the D90 and video camera in one camera bag.

When it’s time to take a video, just bring it out and start shooting. Therefore, all your video is on one memory card and all your photos are on another.

You mention about buying a short telephoto…85mm. That is a prime lens, not a telephoto lens. Since you shoot landscape your best bet would be something like a 18-135 and maybe buy a wide angle. This lens is an overall good lens. You can shoot a wide photo, but also be standing back behind the crowd and zoom in on the subject without disturbing them.

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