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Reviews (19)
Apr 20, 2010
Sigma AF 70-300 mm f/4 Macro superII for Nikon
I'll confess that I'm not a big fan of Sigma lenses, but I've been doing a lot of wildlife (birds) photography and I needed the reach of a 300 mm lens. The Nikons were a bit to pricey for me, so when i found this Sigma 70-300 mm, on ebay, I went after it. It has been a sweet surprise for me. The lens works great on my Nikon D90 and D200, it isn't super fast on autofocus, but it's decent.The focus is dead-on, too. The images it renders are very crisp, with great color and contrast! I've made several 8x10 and 11x14 enlargements with excellent detail. The macro works very well also; I've gotten some great shots of flowers and insects using the lens, very comparable to my Nikon 105 Micro. This is one super lens and I'm glad it came into my possession!
Jan 04, 2010
The camera I gave up my F5 for!
16 of 16 found this helpful Even though the rest of the world seemed to be going digital, I clung stubbornly to film, thinking no other camera could produce images that could touch the ones produce by my F5 and Fuji professional color film. The D200 proved me wrong. I used a rental D200 along with my F5 to do a wedding in October 2009. I was amazed at the results. The images were every bit as good as the F5 produced! Not only that, but the same great Nikon Lenses (105mm micro, 60mm micro and 24-120 mm zoom) worked as quickly and as smoothly on the D200, as they did on the F5. Another big plus; you can see your shot almost instantly; to see who blinked or made a funny face, instead of finding out when the film is processed. I used to take 4 shots of everything, to be sure I had one great shot. Now, I can save the film! As far as ease of use; the D200 is point and shoot simple or as creative as you want to be! On program mode you can punch out great shots all day long; especially if you're using an sb600 or sb800 flash or a Metz 54MZ4. I used all of them and they supported the Nikon ittl, flawlessly.
Controls are easy to reach and easy to use, and you'll soon be experimenting with shutter priority, (my favorite) aperture priority, or even full manual. I may be getting timid, or just tired, but at weddings I tend to go with program in most cases and I've found from the results that "the camera seems to know best". Depending on the mood I'm tryng to create, I will use shutter priority and aperture priority, but for the most part, I've come to worry about posing and let the image up to the camera; and it hasn't failed me yet.
Although not as heavy as the F5, the D200 does have some heft to it. I like that. It's all metal body feels solid and sounds solid. At 10.2 megapixels, it's not the max, but I just recently added a D90 to my collection, with 12.3.
While the D90 is awesome in its own right, the images produced aren't noticibly superior to the D200.
The D200 isn't cheap, but you can find a good used one for $600-$700 on ebay and when you combine it with a great Nikon lens, you'll be able to produce some really amazing images.
I was impressed enough with the D200 to part with 2 F5s, an F100 and F4s, film cameras all, in order to buy 2 D200s a D90 and, for family outings, trips, etc a D60. Thus far, I'm not at all sorry. I'm getting a positive response from my wedding clients, the certainty of knowing "I got the shot" and reliable performance from digital cameras that are every bit as tough as their film predecsors. If you're looking for something affordable, yet more advanced than the entry level digital cameras, thew D200 will get you professional quality shots while letting you enjoy photography once again!
May 16, 2010
Nikon 18-200 mm VR AF lens for Nikon Digital Cameras
1 of 1 found this helpful This is the second of these lenses, I've bought on ebay and they've rapidly become my favorites. I shoot a lot of weddings and it's a real hassle changing lenses for different perspectives. Now I don't have too! I put one on my D90 and another on my D200. I change cameras when the batteries start to run down on one of my flash units. That's it! These lenses are tack sharp at every focal length. The yield great color and great contrast. I can do close focus work, like the ring shots, great portraits of the Bride and Groom and group shots of the family and the bridal party all with one lens! They focus quickly and quietly and every image is tack-sharp. I will be listing all my other lenses for sale on ebay shortly. With these two lenses, I've cut down the equipment I have to carry by 65% and the images are as good or better! Thanks, Nikon!