Equipments advice for events.

Federico-Nov

Senior Member
Dear all... Is this the right section or should I post it in another place?

First a short introduction.

I live in a South American country where all photography equipments are much expensive then in USA
My brother that live is Pitt, is travel to Buenos Aires in December and the temptation to spend some money in Amazon or Adorama is High.

I'’m doing some photography for parents, friends, friend of Friends, etc.

If you wish to check a couple of events I did:
Studio5 Federico Novelli

Even if I’m at an amateur level, I try to think in a professional way and do my best to deliver a good work.

My actual equipments are:


  • D750 with 35 mm and 85 1.8 mm & D3300 with 18-55 mm and 55-200 mm.
  • 1 300W Godox strobe and 3 Yangnuo peedlights (1 TTL / HSS) + 2 transmitters.
  • Some stands, backdrops, spare batteries, reflectors etc.

When I use D750 is a bit messy to shift lenses, so I was thinking what to do. Here some options:


  1. Buy nothing and use what I have, reducing the lens shifting through experience
  2. A 50mm 1.8 to use in D3300. I’ll use it for candids while I'’ll use D750 for all the stuff that require the safety of a double slot and better quality / performance at low ISO.
  3. A Sigma 24-70
  4. A refurbished D7100 or D7200 + 50mm to use simultaneously with D750 (with spare batteries)
  5. A second Fx body, like D610 (Refurbished? Used?)

I just had to repair my car and my wallet as been stroken badly, so I guess that I'’ll go for opinion 2 but I hate the lack of double SD slot in D3300. I feel much safier to have back up of everything.

What do you think?
 

singlerosa_RIP

Senior Member
I'd start with a 24-70. I'd then sell all DX gear and get a used FX body, like a 600 or 610 and put the 85 on it.

As for the double SD thing, I've been shooting with bodies that have dual card slots for 5+ years (D7000) and rarely, if ever, write to both cards. In my 12 years of shooting digital, I have never had a card go bad. About the only benefit I get is that I'm not screwed when I forget to put the card back in slot #1 after a download.

You have some very nice shots in your gallery.
 

Federico-Nov

Senior Member
Thank you very much for your suggestions and nice words, Jim.

I bought good quality SDs and I'm sure that "disaster rate" should be low, but I tend to be a bit "obsessive" with "safety measures"... for example after the event I had all pics backed up in three locations... I'm kinda photography prepper haha.

I'm sure that with experience I'll relax a bit.




I'd start with a 24-70. I'd then sell all DX gear and get a used FX body, like a 600 or 610 and put the 85 on it.

As for the double SD thing, I've been shooting with bodies that have dual card slots for 5+ years (D7000) and rarely, if ever, write to both cards. In my 12 years of shooting digital, I have never had a card go bad. About the only benefit I get is that I'm not screwed when I forget to put the card back in slot #1 after a download.

You have some very nice shots in your gallery.
 

aroy

Senior Member
Why not get another D3300 with a 35mm F1.8DX. That combo is less than most FX zooms.

Regarding second slot, that is useful only if you have bad cards or you shoot RAW+JPEG. Just buy good cards and you will never have a card failure. I never use a card reader, just USB to the computer, hence I never take the card out, and that saves a lot of wear and tear of the contacts. I also format the card every time I charge the battery. Till now my 32GB card has lasted 70,000+ shots in two and a half years.
 

Federico-Nov

Senior Member
Why not get another D3300 with a 35mm F1.8DX. That combo is less than most FX zooms.

Thank you very much for your reply... Could you explain me a bit more your point?

If I'll go with the prime way, instead of zoom, and I don't have money for a the new FX body, my idea is to replicate 85/35mm combo using 35mm on FX and 50mm on DX (that is 82.5mm). I would keep the 85mm on FX for formals, or eventually on DX to have some extra reach (120mm).

Regarding second slot, that is useful only if you have bad cards or you shoot RAW+JPEG. Just buy good cards and you will never have a card failure. I never use a card reader, just USB to the computer, hence I never take the card out, and that saves a lot of wear and tear of the contacts. I also format the card every time I charge the battery. Till now my 32GB card has lasted 70,000+ shots in two and a half years.

Thanks for your suggestions. I generally save in RAW + JPG but actually using Lightroom is quite useless. I'll start saving only in RAW. Anyway I'd love to know the reason why is not good.

Is there a reason to format the card when you charge the battery or you just do it that way as a practice/procedure not to forget to format?

I also download via USB but I have filled up a 32GB in a wedding so sometimes I remove them.
 

aroy

Senior Member
1. A D3300 with 35mm F1.8DX retails for less than us$500 here in India, most of the high end zooms costs much more. A 35mm on DX has the same FOV of a 50mm on FX. So if you have 35mmFX on FX camera and an 85mm on DX, the gap can be filled by a 35mm on DX (50mm eq.), so you have now 35mm, 50mm and 120mm on three cameras, with low investment. I know that juggling three cameras can be taxing at times, but you get a lot of redundancy.

2. Formatting a card in camera ensures that the file system is consistent with the body. The reason I format every time I charge the batter is that I get between 400 and 800 shots per charge. It takes time to read more files so after I archive the RAW images I clear the card.

3. Unless you want to use the jpeg immediately, I find no reason to shoot RAW+jpeg. With any Nikon software - NX-D or NXi you can convert all your RAW files to jpeg in one go. If you shoot RAW, you need not bother about some settings, which may slow down the burst rate :
. WB
. Distortion settings
. Image settings
. Active D Light (for recovering shadows/highlights)
 
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