Gear Preferences

It’s no shame to recognize my addiction to Nikon gear… I love the low light capabilities of D700, the way it handles D7000 and the versatility of the ‘old’ film killer F100. I also love to play with my little full manual FM3a film camera. I’m a quite old-fashioned guy, still giving credit to manual focus and preferring fixed focal lenses even I have on my shelves some very good zooms. Both fixed and manual focus lenses are helping me to think carefully before to press the shutter, slowing me down and leaving space for creativity. Since I love to shoot in available light I like fast lenses which also leave space for background separation and for a nice bokeh. I’m not a pixel peeper and I do not shoot brick walls to check optical distortions… On digital I’m doing a basic post processing when necessary, without to introduce severe corrections in order to modify the reality. I consider that photography has to stay away of computerized graphic design.

For shooting on streets I usually decide between two different setups, depending on which digital camera I take with me. If I decide to go with D7000, my bag contains Nikkor 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 AF-S, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF-S and Sigma 150mm f/2.8. If I decide to go full frame, then I take D700, Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 AF-S, Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 AF-D and Nikkor 180mm f/2.8 AF-D. Each setup serves me pretty well but I really hope that Nikon will produce a small factor pro camera, preferably full frame, because a smaller camera makes street photography much easier.

Depending on situations I may use some other lenses that helps me to do what I have to do. As a speciality lens I like Sigma 8mm f/3.5 Circular Fisheye which provides spectacular images when used appropriately. Shooting Nikon gear I am privileged in a special way because I can use every single lens that was produced by Nikon since 1977 on each modern cameras. Nikon is keeping unchanged it’s F mount and because of that, apart of the new and modern lenses I can use old manual focus lenses. These old lenses sometimes can be found for a very inexpensive cost but they are not cheap at all… their build quality is awesome, only metal and glass, really good quality glass, and their IQ is great. I have several lenses from 80′s and 90′s and among of them I enjoy in a special way the pancake Nikkor 45mm f/2.8 AI-P and the legendary Nikkor 105mm f/2.5 AI-S, the lens used by Steve McCurry to take the famous picture of the Afghan Girl, back in 1984, using his Nikon FM2 film camera.

I feel very blessed because I can use such as great equipment and I’m enjoying it at maximum. I see that other people are tempted sometimes to switch to other brands – I really do not think I will ever do that… Nikon is that good to me so there is no reason to not show fidelity.

As a special last note, I want to mention that gear is not critical to do great pictures. I personally did thousands of superb pictures with a rudimentary USSR camera Smena 8 while I was in high school. I can do whatever I have to do with a camera and two or three primes… but in the same time I have to recognise that the versatility of a larger kit gives more pleasure and more possibilities to choose the right tool at the right moment, also the character of each piece of glass, when is well documented and used appropriately, can support photographer’s creativity.