Cape Town photos

[dryfter]

I've finally uploaded the photos from Cape Town trip #1. (View slideshow)

Here's three photos, click 'em to view the rest of the Cape Town set:

Comments

[squirmelia.livejournal.com]

Cape Town looks like a pretty place. Great photos!

[strawberryfrog.livejournal.com]

*sigh*. You give me the the homesickness.
It's a bank-holiday weekend in spring/summer here in London. Which of course means lousy wet English-style weather

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Great stuff!

[short-mort.livejournal.com]

Oh my, sigh.

[mr_magicfingers]

Nice shots, looks warm there. I miss warm.

What lenses do you have for your D200? the D80 comes with the 18-135 as a kit lens. Would love to get the 18-200 stabilised but that's a bit pricey.

Cheers,

J.

[wintrmute.livejournal.com]

I use the following:

• Nikon 50mm f/1.8 (cheap, but sharp and fast! Best value lens ever)


• Nikon micro-nikkor 60mm f/2.8 (macro lens - also extremely sharp even wide open. Nice bokeh)


• Nikon 85mm f/2.0 (manual focus from the 1970s.. silky smooth focus control, fast aperture, and practically free on ebay)


• Nikon 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5 (kit lens, came with my older D70. Not amazingly great sharpness, but it's alright. I use it because I have a bunch of filters that fit its weird 67mm size, and because I don't have anything else that covers the wide end of the range. I want to replace it with the 16-50mm f/2.8 Tokina eventually.)


• Tokina 80-200 f/2.8 (a hefty, fast telephoto zoom. Nice manual focus; autofocus could be a bit faster. f/2.8 is acceptable, but f/4.0 is a bit sharper.)

Some of the photos in London shortly before I left were taken with a borrowed Nikon 12-24 f/4.0, which was a rather nice lens. I wouldn't mind one myself.

I cannot recommend prime lenses high enough. Go out and buy yourself a #79 50mm f/1.8, and play with it. Wide open, you can find you can get away with shooting in next to no light. Stopped down to f/4.0 and f/5.6, the lens is brilliantly sharp, esp. compared to the cheaper kit lenses like the 18-70 and 18-135.

I don't like the lenses like the 18-70, 18-135, 18-200, etc. because you just can't get the aperture wide enough to really get narrow depth of field effects. However for general snaps I admit the 18-200 VR would be great. My brother owns on in Australia, so I'll have to borrow it there :)

I'd love the micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 VR.. (well, or the 70-200 f/2.8 VR, but I'd have to rob a bank for that)

[mr_magicfingers]

thanks, that's about where I was in my thinking. I plan on picking up the 50mm 1.8 in the states this summer, as I can get it for £50 there, probably get the battery grip too for £70.

Like you I love prime lenses, my 24mm zuiko almost never came off my OM40. Going back to a dSLR one of the big things I wanted was decent depth of field control, so I can take shots with nice bokeh. I'll look into some of the others. Let me know what you think of the 18-200 VR when you try it, apparently the VR is worth -4stops which is impressive.

For now though, I think I'll get the 18-135 with the kit, for general walking around shots. I'd like the sigma 10-20 but again that will have to wait a little while.

Have a friend going to california next week, and very tempted to order the camera kit for delivery to their hotel. D80, 18-135 and 2x2GB cards for £629

[wintrmute.livejournal.com]

yeah, it's almost criminal how much more expensive camera gear is in Europe compared to the USA. :(

[nassus.livejournal.com]

Very nice!

[noondaydemon.livejournal.com]

Look at you! So hearty and healthy - your hair looks redder too (sun'll do that:-o