Best flash for D70?

Jeremy Nixon wrote:

DoN. Nichols wrote:


especially the ability to use the camera as a commander unit, and the
SB-800 to serve as a slave -- with no cables connecting it to the
camera. Now I want more of them to play with multiple flash
positioning. :-)


The thing is, though, the things are so expensive that at that point you
might as well just get "real" studio strobes.

I agree. Further, running multiple integrated wireless flashes becomes
hopelessly uncontollable. (Done it a lot). The camera meters every
shot differently (per what is in the scene) and you end up sith
variances in aperture. Colors/exoposures shift all over. Individual
images may look fine, but the set looks randomly exposed.

A few low to mid range power monolights and two/three AC strobes for
hairlights and such and you've got perfect control and more importantly
a consistently exposed set of images for the shoot.

Cheers,
Alan.

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In article ,
Aaron Blacksmith wrote:
"DoN. Nichols" wrote in message
...

[ ... ]

I just got the SB-800 (yesterday), and I already have to agree.
(Though some individual lenses are close thirds.)

[ ... ]

OK - I'm convinced. I have boutht one now, and it seems great. What you said
about "individual lenses..." made me curious. Could you specify this?

Well ... first off -- I did not get the "kit" lens with my D70 --
I bought the body only, because I already had a 28-105mm f3.5-4.5D lens.
For my purposes, since I tend to crop close far more often than I go for
wide angle, that range (effective focal length range of 42-157.5 mm)
covers what I need better than the kit lens does. I used to use (with
film) a 50mm and a 135mm lens as my two most common lenses.

Second, I picked up at a hamfest an older 180mm f2.8 (effective
focal length of 270mm), and got it retrofitted with a CPU, so the
metering works, even though it does not do autofocus. That larger
maximum aperture reminded me of how much I liked doing film work with an
even faster lens, so I picked up a used 50mm f1.4 (effective focal
length of 75mm) which did have the CPU and autofocus. I tend to have
the ISO set to auto, so it will let me get shots in rather dark
conditions (even with the 180mm f2.8) without flash calling attention to
my shooting.

I consider all of these (in combination) to be better for my
needs than the kit lens, and the 28-105mm to be better than the kit lens
in general.

For wide angle shots, I have older lenses which have no CPU, so
I need to use either a hand-held meter, or do "chimping" with the
histogram to guide me, since if I am using a wide angle, I also am
shooting in a situation which allows me to take my time, so the metering
and the autofocus are not really needed.

Those two lenses are a 20mm f2.8, and a 16mm f3.5 fisheye. I
could get the 20mm f2.8 retrofitted with a CPU, but I haven't felt the
need there. Maybe someday. :-)

But -- this is better for *my* shooting habits. It may not be
so for yours.

The 28-105mm is the only lens which I purchased *new*.

Enjoy,
DoN.
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In article ,
Jeremy Nixon wrote:
DoN. Nichols wrote:

and a 16mm f3.5 fisheye.

How is that on digital, with the crop?

Sort of like a 24mm wide angle on 35mm with a bit more
distortion than you would normally expect. :-) But it *is* more wide
angle than I otherwise have avaialble. What I really need is a 0.66X
telextender to use with that lens to get normal coverage. Hmm ... that
might be useful for other lenses, too. :-)

I remember once, when I was trying to shoot some photos of a
friend who was taking a modeling course, and was trying to duplicate the
perspective of the photos from magazines which she was attempting to
duplicate. I had a screw-in fisheye stacked on two telextenders (on a
Miranda G) to get the appropriate effective focal length. :-)

I've got the 10.5mm fisheye, which
is cool, but which also has quite a bit more chromatic aberration than I
would like. But with the 16mm, how much field of view do you end up with?

As above -- like a 24mm on 35mm film. Not quite enough are to
truly show the fisheye effect, but too much to minimize distortion. So
far, I have just played with it, including the built-in filters (Red,
Orange, and Yellow) just to see what effect they had on the color
balance in the D70.

Enjoy,
DoN.
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