NEW PHOTO Gear
NIKON 28-300mm Lens
Like anyone with a sense of childish abandon, most photographers enjoy new toys, er make that new photo gear. I am proud to say that I am one of that group. And I’m happy to say that I have recently gotten a new toy.
Presenting – my brand new Nikon 28-300mm Zoom lens, purchased from my good friends at B&H Photo / Video Let me tell you about it. But first, a cautionary note. This article will likely wander a bit toward the photo geeky side of things. But bear with me – I’ll do my best to summarize at the end for the non- photo geek folks in the reading audience.
I recently upgraded my Nikon lens inventory, adding the Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR to my kit. I say upgraded because prior to this I was working with a Nikon DX 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR. The 18-200mm is a really good lens for it’s type. I do lots of travel photography and the 18-200mm zoom worked very well as an all purpose, walk about lens. It had good range, and was reasonably fast, considering. The build was solid and it never gave me any difficulties. I made a lot of great images with the lens.
Now I know at this point there are those photographers out there who are going all “Prime” on me, shuddering to think that I shoot important images with a mid – range zoom. Well, I do have some fine prime lenses. I also have a beautiful Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II. And indeed those are great lenses. But most often when I travel I am traveling light. Dragging a bag full of primes around is not my idea of a good time. And the 70-200 is just BIG, not to mention heavy for my purpose.
A lighter zoom works well for me, giving me wide range (which means not needing to change out lenses in a dusty environment) in a light package. Everything in photography is a compromise anyway (as in life?). I elect to travel with a lighter zoom. It works for me.
So if I was so darn happy with my 18-200 DX lens, why did I change it out for the new 28-300mm? Two reasons really. The first reason has to do with the 18-200mm being a DX lens. It’s designed for a DX format DSLR and is optimized for that smaller sized sensor. Worked great on my Nikon D200 and D300 both of which have DX bodies. However for the past several years I have been shooting full frame bodies (FX) – a D600 and now I’ve added a D800.
So for several years I’ve been shooting a DX lens on an FX body. Now of course this mash up works. But it doesn’t take full advantage of the larger sensor in the FX body. Upgrading to the 28-300mm is a big improvement. This is an FX lens designed for the FX body. Now I will be getting the full sized image ( and of course as a result my image files will be much larger as well – probably need to take more back up capacity on my next journey). There’s always something it seems. (Non-geekspeak summary: Bigger image files giving more detail and more image to work with in post processing.)
The second advantage of my new lens is obvious. It has more reach. Rather than a 200mm max I now have a 300mm max lens. Reach is good. (Non-geekspeak summary: longer zoom range giving closer views from a distance.)
I’ve been walking around Kansas City a bit recently giving my new lens a test drive or two. So far I am very pleased. The real test will come this fall when I will be doing my photography thing in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. That should be a fun test!
New Photo Gear ………………Enjoy The Adventure!
TRAVEL NEWS ANNOUNCEMENT –
Interested in traveling to Thailand and Cambodia this fall? Join me and my photo partner on a SE Asia Photo Safari. A great opportunity to visit iconic locations, and enjoy travel and photography. We are looking for 2 or 3 like minded travelers to join us, share costs as well as the adventure. A small group keeps the cost down in the budget range in SE Asia. If interested and want details – contact me directly at:
Bruce@TravelAndPhotoToday.com
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