Caelan
New member
I'm busily running around in circles trying to figure out how to build out my camera kit, so hopefully you folks can give me a bit of advice. For the most part, I focus on landscape photography. I'll dip my toes into wildlife photography every now and then, but I can't afford the big primes to make up for my lack of stealth.
I'm still in the planning and drooling stages, but I haven't decided if I should obsess over a new (gently used) camera body or focus on lenses first. Right now, I've got an old Nikon d90 that I pair with the 18-104 kit lens it came with and a Nikon 50mm f/1.8 lens. The kit lens is garbage, but it'll get wide enough to shoot landscape and, if I'm really quiet/patient, I can get some decent wildlife shots. The 50mm is a fantastic lens for portraits and campsite photos, but it's fairly limited for landscape or wildlife. My d90 is a great body if there's enough light, but even with the fast 50mm lens it struggles with ISO noise in the evening and nighttime shots are right out.
So, I want to upgrade. My dream kit at the moment is a d810 to pair with a Nikon 2.8 trinity (14-24mm, 24-70mm, and 70-200mm). That's a lot of money even if I get everything used, so I'll be slowly picking up each piece one at a time. Right now I'm leaning towards getting the body first, followed quickly by the 24-70mm to completely replace the functionality of what I have now. I figure with the huge files a d810 generates, I can get a healthy crop from a 70mm shot and still keep a usable image. Since I'm moving from a crop sensor to a full frame, 24mm will be about what I can capture at 18mm on the d90. What order would you buy things in if you had the choice?
I'm still in the planning and drooling stages, but I haven't decided if I should obsess over a new (gently used) camera body or focus on lenses first. Right now, I've got an old Nikon d90 that I pair with the 18-104 kit lens it came with and a Nikon 50mm f/1.8 lens. The kit lens is garbage, but it'll get wide enough to shoot landscape and, if I'm really quiet/patient, I can get some decent wildlife shots. The 50mm is a fantastic lens for portraits and campsite photos, but it's fairly limited for landscape or wildlife. My d90 is a great body if there's enough light, but even with the fast 50mm lens it struggles with ISO noise in the evening and nighttime shots are right out.
So, I want to upgrade. My dream kit at the moment is a d810 to pair with a Nikon 2.8 trinity (14-24mm, 24-70mm, and 70-200mm). That's a lot of money even if I get everything used, so I'll be slowly picking up each piece one at a time. Right now I'm leaning towards getting the body first, followed quickly by the 24-70mm to completely replace the functionality of what I have now. I figure with the huge files a d810 generates, I can get a healthy crop from a 70mm shot and still keep a usable image. Since I'm moving from a crop sensor to a full frame, 24mm will be about what I can capture at 18mm on the d90. What order would you buy things in if you had the choice?