Guy Mancuso
Administrator, Instructor
Was not really sure what to call this thread but its interesting years ago i shot Canon but all my glass was Zeiss or Leica. Today I am packing for a small road trip with my wife to get away and also get a poster image shot for her company. So I opened my camera safe this morning and pulled out all the glass and damn if I am not doing the same thing with Nikon and have different brands but this time it is far worse. I have 5 count them 5 brands of lenses. Be interesting to see what others have come up with after spending some good shooting time with the D800 and D800E.
Now i have switched things up a couple times and nice thing about Nikon, Canon and Sony etc is the lenses are not 5k per copy. In reality its a lot easier to buy one try it, keep it, sell it or just hand it down to your kid. Speaking of that awhile back i bought my son for Christmas a Nikon 3200 and he wanted a canon when dad is sitting on a pile of Nikon mounts. Straightened him out quickly. LOL
Anyway back to this dilemma if you call it but today I sit with a Samyang 14mm Manual focus lens which seriously maybe the best wide angle deal around. Than moving up the Zeiss 25mm F2 which i tried everything else out there and cant find anything better. Than i move to 35mm , yea i had the Nikon 1.4 and now just sold the Zeiss F2 and I'm literally sitting here waiting for USPS for the Sigma 35mm 1.4 that is getting killer reviews, no worries mates I am doing one too. LOL
Now funny thing is I had (3) 50mm 1.8 lenses, yea Im freaking nuts sold them to buy other things but i ordered one from calumet in DECEMBER and still have yet to get it. Moral of that story screw calumet go somewhere else. So the other day i bought a Nikon 60mm 2.8 macro. Love it sharp as hell so forget the 50mm focal length, I hate it anyway. LOL
Next I have the Nikon 85 1.4 and have yet to find anything better in that focal length so thats a keeper. Than i recently got the Nikon 70-200 F4 and still trying to find a reason which i cant come up with of buying the 2.8 version since this thing is pretty dang good. Now for PR work I have my 5th brand a Tamron 24-70 2.8 which i like quite a bit and cant find a reason to buy the more expensive Nikon version.
Now I never had 5 different brands of lenses in one stinking kit. Not sure if i am crazy or not here. Than again each one does a really good job and finding it hard to replace any of them. I do want to add to the collection or else I will get thrown out of the glass whore club out on my butt but I'm after the new Zeiss 135mm F2 next.
So all this begs the real question of the day are we jumping around brands to solve certain issues in each focal length or just being way over picky on lens quality. I know i lean to the best imaging machine i can get my hands on and not all Nikon glass is perfect either. I find myself kind of laughing at myself for having 5 different brands of glass. Obviously I'm not brand bias here. LOL
Now i have switched things up a couple times and nice thing about Nikon, Canon and Sony etc is the lenses are not 5k per copy. In reality its a lot easier to buy one try it, keep it, sell it or just hand it down to your kid. Speaking of that awhile back i bought my son for Christmas a Nikon 3200 and he wanted a canon when dad is sitting on a pile of Nikon mounts. Straightened him out quickly. LOL
Anyway back to this dilemma if you call it but today I sit with a Samyang 14mm Manual focus lens which seriously maybe the best wide angle deal around. Than moving up the Zeiss 25mm F2 which i tried everything else out there and cant find anything better. Than i move to 35mm , yea i had the Nikon 1.4 and now just sold the Zeiss F2 and I'm literally sitting here waiting for USPS for the Sigma 35mm 1.4 that is getting killer reviews, no worries mates I am doing one too. LOL
Now funny thing is I had (3) 50mm 1.8 lenses, yea Im freaking nuts sold them to buy other things but i ordered one from calumet in DECEMBER and still have yet to get it. Moral of that story screw calumet go somewhere else. So the other day i bought a Nikon 60mm 2.8 macro. Love it sharp as hell so forget the 50mm focal length, I hate it anyway. LOL
Next I have the Nikon 85 1.4 and have yet to find anything better in that focal length so thats a keeper. Than i recently got the Nikon 70-200 F4 and still trying to find a reason which i cant come up with of buying the 2.8 version since this thing is pretty dang good. Now for PR work I have my 5th brand a Tamron 24-70 2.8 which i like quite a bit and cant find a reason to buy the more expensive Nikon version.
Now I never had 5 different brands of lenses in one stinking kit. Not sure if i am crazy or not here. Than again each one does a really good job and finding it hard to replace any of them. I do want to add to the collection or else I will get thrown out of the glass whore club out on my butt but I'm after the new Zeiss 135mm F2 next.
So all this begs the real question of the day are we jumping around brands to solve certain issues in each focal length or just being way over picky on lens quality. I know i lean to the best imaging machine i can get my hands on and not all Nikon glass is perfect either. I find myself kind of laughing at myself for having 5 different brands of glass. Obviously I'm not brand bias here. LOL