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Should my D200 or D300 'wear' the telephoto lens?


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In your experience, which camera would be the better choice, and why, for my Sigma 50-150 lens? My other lens, a

Tamron 17-50, would go on the other body.

 

And, although perhaps a more personal choice, if right handed, which shoulder do you have the telephoto lens

hanging from?

 

Regards

 

John

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200 for the tele, 300 for the workhorse. Since many more shots will be done with the 17-50, and the 300 is superior, seems like an obvious choice. Regarding the shoulder.... guess it depends on whether you want reach across your body or not... I would think that you would keep the 300 on the right, since you probably wont be putting it down. Dont you worry about banging the sigma on something while its just hanging there?
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I'm not familiar with the Sigma, but if you carry two cameras a long lens is easier to carry on the shoulder than on the neck. The shorter lens tends to be the workhorse at weddings.

 

The problem I see is that 17-50 is much too wide for a D300 for typical wedding shots. This camera begs for something in the 24-70 range as a "normal" zoom. Consequently, the D200 with the 17-50 would be your workhorse. Unfortunately, the 50-150 is not a particularly useful range for an FX camera. On the D300, it's too long for groups and too short for shots from the sacristy door. The D300 is too nice to be wasted on so few opportunities.

 

In short, your needs will be better served if you get an appropriate lens for the D300 and put the 50-150 on the D300 for the relatively few long shots at a typical wedding. Carrying two bodies is likely to result in damage to one or both and should only be done as a last resort. It's OK if you need the speed, but if you do it to look cool I suggest you take a course to improve your self-image.

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I'd say.... the tele should go on the D300 and the Tamron 17-50 should go on the D200.

 

Thats because D300 is much better at High ISOs, and with a Tele lens....its always an advantage no matter how fast the lens is, or even if the lens has VR.

 

D300 allows you to shoot at ISO 800 and 1600 without any worries about noise (to keep shutter speed high enough to handhold)

 

Resolution is not of question here as D200 is perfectly capable of doing everything anyway....( and i dont know any wedding shooter who prints every print at 16x24. ...and D200 is also capable of doing that ).

 

I'd say 17-50 should go with it the D200 because...its a 2.8 lens, and is not in the tele range ...so you can use it at ISO 400 or lower, where noise is no problem at all. ( for a wide zoom...you wont need to have very high shutter speed )

 

My main camera hangs on the right shoulder ( I am right handed ).

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Usually the question is the other way around. What telephoto lens should I buy for my Nikon, or my Canon, or my Olympus. I was thought that the lens is the most important thing in the package. You can get some great pictures with a cheap camera and a great lens, but you can't get do the same with an expensive camera and a cheap lens.
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For weddings I throw the 70-200L (canon guy) on my left shoulder on a backup body, and keep my 24-70L on my main camera that sits around my neck. I'm right handed. Occassionally I'll put my 17-40L on my backup body and use the 70-200L as my main lens... really depends on what i'm shooting at the time.
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My previous comments were based on the mistaken assumption that the D300 was an FX camera. I should have known better. My recommendation should be to use the D300 with the 17-50 lens as the main camera (around the neck) and the D200 with the 50-150 on the shoulder (as needed).
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Personally I use a Nikon 18-200 lens on my D300 and that deals with 99% of the work,

except for my 50mm (which is currently on my d80)

With the superior Nikon Lens your more than half way to compensating for a narrower vocal length,

 

And using a setup like above with an occasion like a wedding will mean you have a more than wide enough shot for the ceremony and surroundings, but a long enough zoom to take some close shots of the exchanging of rings, and the first kiss.

 

Many photographers wont be too keen on a single lens, But from experience, with a good camera (d300) and a quality lens (nikon vr2 etc...) I find my shots can easily match everything except for a few primes.

and theres no risky need to quickly swap lenses or switch cameras, if I want to get a shot of the bride & from, and immediately afterwards a shot of the guests throwing up confetti.

 

----

 

For yourself John,

It depends where the majority of your photography will be taking place. and what your targets are.

 

this is possibly why views can vary so much,

If the setup is for a special event, then id suggest the longer lens on the d300, as this would be the lens your more likely to use indoors, (for say a wedding)

and the d300 handles shots in poor light far better (just crank up the dynamic lighting) especially if (like for many weddings) flash photography is a no-go,

 

For standard use..........

With the longer bottom end on the sigma,, I'm presuming your use more of the the tamron lens, so maybe start with that on the d300 and see how it goes.

 

Finally, with regards to which shoulder.........

I would have to say right hand side.

 

if you have one on your neck, then reaching across to the left could cause problems, or having it cross shoulde r(left shoulde,r hanging right side) could cause discomfort,

 

My other suggestion would be to bag the d200, maybe a lowepro slinghot, just to keep the lesser used camera free, but still easy to access. with that strap close to chest, it would be easier for you to wear the d300 cross shoulder,

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