charles.K wrote:
Great shots Sung ! Which lens did you use?
Thanks Charles. Just the 85 f1.8G, stopped down to f5.6, with a SS of 1/200 and iso 100.
I was thinking about picking up the 85 f1.4G as your comparison to the GM 85 f1.4 got my interest (the GM 85 was one of my favorite lenses when I shot sony even if it had slow AF), but for these jobs I'm holding a camera for literally 8 hours a day (my shoulders hurt more after one of these gigs than after shooting a 10 hour long wedding day).
Because of that I'm keen on shaving down the camera weight as much as possible. Right now I'm at:
D850 Body: 915 grams with battery
MBD18 Grip: 435 grams with ENEL18B battery
85 f1.8G: 350 grams:
Total: 1700 grams
I even spec'd out the D500 paired with the Nikon 60 f2.8G micro for an effective focal length of 90mm, and it ended up being about the same as the D850 weight wise. It doesn't seem like that much of a weight difference at first, but you feel it after several hours
Additionally the 85 f1.8G has very fast AF on the D750. I set the AF point at the top (in portrait orientation) and don't move it the entire day - we even had a dog come through which I stopped down to f10 for, and same near instant AF lock. I honestly don't need more than the D750 for these shoots. The only real gripe I have about the D750 for these is that there isn't a built-in port protector like on the D850 and 5D4 (which effectively negates the need for something like a jerk stopper or tether block) as I'm tethering into a macbook running capture one. I have been pleasantly surprised how well the jerk stopper works even though I was not impressed with the $20 price tag for a little bit of plastic and string. I actually stepped full onto the cord when I was moving around and had the camera in hand, and the usb plug didn't budge - pretty damn impressed.
sungphoto wrote:
Thanks Charles. Just the 85 f1.8G, stopped down to f5.6, with a SS of 1/200 and iso 100.
I was thinking about picking up the 85 f1.4G as your comparison to the GM 85 f1.4 got my interest (the GM 85 was one of my favorite lenses when I shot sony even if it had slow AF), but for these jobs I'm holding a camera for literally 8 hours a day (my shoulders hurt more after one of these gigs than after shooting a 10 hour long wedding day).
Because of that I'm keen on shaving down the camera weight as much as possible. Right now I'm at:
D850 Body: 915 grams with battery
MBD18 Grip: 435 grams with ENEL18B battery
85 f1.8G: 350 grams:
Total: 1700 grams
I even spec'd out the D500 paired with the Nikon 60 f2.8G micro for an effective focal length of 90mm, and it ended up being about the same as the D850 weight wise. It doesn't seem like that much of a weight difference at first, but you feel it after several hours ...Show more →
Marisa last weekend used her D750 and her favorite the 85/1.8G. This lens is quite amazing. Only reason to get the 85/1.4G is to have f/1.4 but other than that the 85/1.8 is the better lens for its size/weight and performance.
charles.K wrote:
Marisa last weekend used her D750 and her favorite the 85/1.8G. This lens is quite amazing. Only reason to get the 85/1.4G is to have f/1.4 but other than that the 85/1.8 is the better lens for its size/weight and performance.
Totally agree - compared to Canon's very old 85 f1.8, the Nikon destroys it in terms of sharpness and CA, all at around $300-350 used for an excellent condition used copy. If I didn't have the 105 f1.4E I'd be much more tempted to get the 85 f1.4G. I still eye B&S and my local craigslist for a cheap copy of the 85 f1.4G though
sungphoto wrote:
Totally agree - compared to Canon's very old 85 f1.8, the Nikon destroys it in terms of sharpness and CA, all at around $300-350 used for an excellent condition used copy. If I didn't have the 105 f1.4E I'd be much more tempted to get the 85 f1.4G. I still eye B&S and my local craigslist for a cheap copy of the 85 f1.4G though
This is the reason I have the 85/1.4G is I found a great copy and price. My go to lens is the 105E
Very nice work!
One question though.
You write every gram is important.
Why the BG than? Why don’t you just put (a) (some) batter(y)(ies) in your pockets?
Is the MBD16 with battery really that much lighter than the other grips?
Just asking..
/edit
More than one question sungphoto wrote:
Thanks Charles. Just the 85 f1.8G, stopped down to f5.6, with a SS of 1/200 and iso 100.
I was thinking about picking up the 85 f1.4G as your comparison to the GM 85 f1.4 got my interest (the GM 85 was one of my favorite lenses when I shot sony even if it had slow AF), but for these jobs I'm holding a camera for literally 8 hours a day (my shoulders hurt more after one of these gigs than after shooting a 10 hour long wedding day).
Because of that I'm keen on shaving down the camera weight as much as possible. Right now I'm at:
D850 Body: 915 grams with battery
MBD18 Grip: 435 grams with ENEL18B battery
85 f1.8G: 350 grams:
Total: 1700 grams
I even spec'd out the D500 paired with the Nikon 60 f2.8G micro for an effective focal length of 90mm, and it ended up being about the same as the D850 weight wise. It doesn't seem like that much of a weight difference at first, but you feel it after several hours
Additionally the 85 f1.8G has very fast AF on the D750. I set the AF point at the top (in portrait orientation) and don't move it the entire day - we even had a dog come through which I stopped down to f10 for, and same near instant AF lock. I honestly don't need more than the D750 for these shoots. The only real gripe I have about the D750 for these is that there isn't a built-in port protector like on the D850 and 5D4 (which effectively negates the need for something like a jerk stopper or tether block) as I'm tethering into a macbook running capture one. I have been pleasantly surprised how well the jerk stopper works even though I was not impressed with the $20 price tag for a little bit of plastic and string. I actually stepped full onto the cord when I was moving around and had the camera in hand, and the usb plug didn't budge - pretty damn impressed....Show more →
Thern wrote:
Why the BG than? Why don’t you just put (a) (some) batter(y)(ies) in your pockets?
Sung is shooting with portrait orientation, so the vertical grip makes sense. Imagine, however, if the D850 were kept horizontal and then cropped to yield portrait framing. Put those excessive pixels to use, skip the grip, and use a wider (lighter) lens. I don't frame vertically at events anymore, and the flash stays on top of the camera where it belongs. Death to flash brackets!
Vertical grip is for ergonomics and the AF joystick. I have a regular client that I do multi-day headshot booths for at networking conferences around the country, and the setup is somewhat tailored to their specific needs.
Shooting without a vertical grip when I’m in portrait orientation for around 8 hours kills my shoulders. With the vertical grip, it gives me a nice wide base for my left palm to support underneath, so my right hand is not supporting very much weight when I’m shooting, whereas without the grip I’d be supporting more of the weight with the fingers of my right hand.
I haven’t been using a tripod or monopod for these as I know it’d slow me down as I move left and right quite a bit, and the subjects coming through range in height from a little over 4 ft to just shy of 7 ft!
Thern wrote:
Very nice work!
One question though.
You write every gram is important.
Why the BG than? Why don’t you just put (a) (some) batter(y)(ies) in your pockets?
Is the MBD16 with battery really that much lighter than the other grips?
Just asking..
Shooting in square crop mode sans grip is a good idea. It’s unfortunate that the D750 doesn’t have this feature. Good thing I have the D850 too
rico wrote:
Sung is shooting with portrait orientation, so the vertical grip makes sense. Imagine, however, if the D850 were kept horizontal and then cropped to yield portrait framing. Put those excessive pixels to use, skip the grip, and use a wider (lighter) lens. I don't frame vertically at events anymore, and the flash stays on top of the camera where it belongs. Death to flash brackets!
rico wrote:
Sung is shooting with portrait orientation, so the vertical grip makes sense. Imagine, however, if the D850 were kept horizontal and then cropped to yield portrait framing. Put those excessive pixels to use, skip the grip, and use a wider (lighter) lens. I don't frame vertically at events anymore, and the flash stays on top of the camera where it belongs. Death to flash brackets!
One problem with this approach is that the focus points are then only covering the center of the cropped vertical frame. By turning the camera into vertical orientation, one can place focus points closer to the top of the frame where the face is most likely to be in a vertical composition in people photography.
Also if one crops a vertical out of a horizontal image, one ends up with basically DX image quality out of an expensive FX camera. I would prefer to get the full image quality I paid for. That doesn't mean I never crop vertical from horizontal - I do, if I don't have time to switch to the right orientation and if I'm focal length limited so I couldn't zoom in to make a tight shot.
I rarely use direct on-camera flash so I don't use a flash bracket. If I use an on-camera flash, it's to create bounced light (and I can do this in horizontal and vertical orientation, though the bounce direction dictates which way I should turn the camera to vertical). But, I see the convenience aspect of cropping if one doesn't shoot a lot of verticals (in terms of percentage of images).
ilkka_nissila wrote:
One problem with this approach is that the focus points are then only covering the center of the cropped vertical frame. By turning the camera into vertical orientation, one can place focus points closer to the top of the frame where the face is most likely to be in a vertical composition in people photography.
Also if one crops a vertical out of a horizontal image, one ends up with basically DX image quality out of an expensive FX camera. I would prefer to get the full image quality I paid for. That doesn't mean I never crop vertical from horizontal - I do, if I don't have time to switch to the right orientation and if I'm focal length limited so I couldn't zoom in to make a tight shot.
I rarely use direct on-camera flash so I don't use a flash bracket. If I use an on-camera flash, it's to create bounced light (and I can do this in horizontal and vertical orientation, though the bounce direction dictates which way I should turn the camera to vertical). But, I see the convenience aspect of cropping if one doesn't shoot a lot of verticals (in terms of percentage of images)....Show more →
I have had one PR shoot where we had to email photos to attendees as we shot, so they had to be resized to 400x600 pixels (yes not a typo), and I was shooting on my D850 lol. I tried to explain to the client that the attendees would request full size exports - but in the end they were firm on it. Oh well the customer is always right!
