While I don't do a lot of Nature Photography at work, I do Journalistic Photography at work. When I got hired on at Fort Carson as a photojournalist I was given a $3000 budget to go out and shop for a complete system.
While most of the office uses Canon the SLR's they're using are 20D and Rebels. I priced the 30D and up in the Canon Line with lenses, bags, speedlights and all the other little things that quickly eat up a budget, then I went to Nikon and did the same with the D200, D300 and the D80. Then I took a peek at the Fuji S5 pRO. I CALLED EVERY LOCAL SHOP AND ALL CAME IN WAY OVER MY BUDGET.
Anyway When I talked to B&H and did all the price marking I ended up with the Fuji S5Pro. The entire kit came in under $3K by $200 and I have room to add more as needed over the next year.
Well I got the system in and Man oh Man was I ever lucky! In situations of low light where I could not tripod mount or use a flash, I set the thing on 3200 iso and got less noise that I did with my D70 at 400iso or even 200iso.
With the SB800 I shoot anywhere between 100 and 800 iso easily!
I took the camera out to the Garden and set up some of the Film Simulation settings to emulate Fujichrome and was pleasantly surprised! I feel like I'm shooting Provia again!
Now the down side only applied to those who shoot fast moving Objects or events like NASCAR. The FPS is a little slow at 2 FPS, but how many Trees and mountains do you need to go that fast for?
Lastly the lens! I got the Sigma 18-200mm OS for under $500 and am lovin' it!
Can't wait to get this thing down range or just out in the field at RMNP and really see what it can do! I had a Blackhawk H60 fly by and was able to get some very clean shots! Maybe i can get a Baldy near Boulder or Eleven Mile Canyon and see how well it does with them!
Posted by Ken Wyatt on January 30, 2008 at 11:07 PM
The SxPro series have always had superior flesh-tone rendering. Should be great for those headshots! Enjoy it! 200mm is a little short for the eagles, though - unless you're really lucky!
Discussion
1 repliesWhile most of the office uses Canon the SLR's they're using are 20D and Rebels. I priced the 30D and up in the Canon Line with lenses, bags, speedlights and all the other little things that quickly eat up a budget, then I went to Nikon and did the same with the D200, D300 and the D80. Then I took a peek at the Fuji S5 pRO. I CALLED EVERY LOCAL SHOP AND ALL CAME IN WAY OVER MY BUDGET.
Anyway When I talked to B&H and did all the price marking I ended up with the Fuji S5Pro. The entire kit came in under $3K by $200 and I have room to add more as needed over the next year.
Well I got the system in and Man oh Man was I ever lucky! In situations of low light where I could not tripod mount or use a flash, I set the thing on 3200 iso and got less noise that I did with my D70 at 400iso or even 200iso.
With the SB800 I shoot anywhere between 100 and 800 iso easily!
I took the camera out to the Garden and set up some of the Film Simulation settings to emulate Fujichrome and was pleasantly surprised! I feel like I'm shooting Provia again!
Now the down side only applied to those who shoot fast moving Objects or events like NASCAR. The FPS is a little slow at 2 FPS, but how many Trees and mountains do you need to go that fast for?
Lastly the lens! I got the Sigma 18-200mm OS for under $500 and am lovin' it!
Can't wait to get this thing down range or just out in the field at RMNP and really see what it can do! I had a Blackhawk H60 fly by and was able to get some very clean shots! Maybe i can get a Baldy near Boulder or Eleven Mile Canyon and see how well it does with them!
Ken