Skateboarding Lenses

<p>Hey I'm new to photography but have goofed around with my grand father's cameras a lot, but now I have my own. I own a Nikon D5000 with a nikkor 18-55mm VR lense. I enjoy taking pictures of skateboarding and I plan to ask for somethings for christmas for my camera so I came to look for help. I was thinking of getting the Tokina 11-16mm for it's wide angle shots. But that's all I could find that would sound helpful. Is there anything on top of that lense that I should get with it and or a different lense. I am also planning on asking for a SB-900 flash or just get my grand fathers SB-600. Is there some other lense I should get or if that's the right lense, is there anything I would need/want to get with it?<br>

Thanks,<br>

Stewart</p>

<p>"Is there anything on top of that lense"</p>

<p>A more expensive lens would be the AF-S 10-24mm Nikkor ($800 vs $600). At that wide angle, one stop less light may not make that much difference. Plus you will have a new SB900 flash :-)</p>

<p>BTW: You should check. I could be wrong, but don't think the Tokina 11-16mm has the built-in AF motor that your D5000 body will need. An alternative and cost less is their 12-24/4 "DX-II" version that has a built-in AF motor ($500). That combined with your grand father's SB-600 will be easier on the budget. But hey, you can change the body to a high end D700 body with AF-motor and the lens to the expense 14-24/2.8 Nikkor too :-)</p>

<p>The SB900 is a $500 flash. That's a lot to just "ask" for, in my book. I don't know if you will really NEED the features of that flash, for what you want to do.A new SB-600 is half that. A SB-400 is half that again. Read up on the flash units before you pick one to "as for ".</p>

<p> </p>

<p>You might consider a zoom with some telephoto range....that gives you the ability to fire away without having to be 'on top of' the action...this photo was shot with a Canon 70-200...not sure what Nikon has in that range but you get the idea...</p><div></div>

<p>Wow...not sure what caused all the 'dead space'...but if I did I'm sorry..</p>

<p>Wouldn't he be fine without AF when he's using an 11-16mm lens? I got some good action shots with a wide lens shooting up at the skateboarder (my son) from a very low angle. I was so close I thought he was going to crash into me but he never did. To me, a telephoto gives the wrong "look", but maybe that was just me not getting it right, because if jack's shot above was with a telephoto it sure came out right.</p>

<p>For sports like this I reccomend a mid-range, which you have, a wide, which is what you are asking about, an 80-200 f2.8 AF-D (cheap used) or 70-200 f2.8 (either Sigma, which has no VR but is under 1k, or the Nikkor which costs way too much money), and a fiisheye, in this case the 10.5mm Nikkor.</p>

<p>I shoot bmx and you may want to consider a new body. I have a canon 40D and it shoots off 6.5 frames per second. This is extremely helpful in action shots, and you can do sequence shots with this too. I don't know how invested you are in the Nikon system, but the Canon 20D is a bargain. You can get a used one for about $300 and it fires off 5 fps. Or look at the Nikon D200. I know the entry level dslrs are lucky to fire 3 frames per second, which is pretty slow. As for lenses, wide angles are always fun for skateboarding, bmx, etc. I have a 10-22mm for my canon, I think Nikon makes a similar lens, if thats too much $$$, the tokina should do well. I don't think you would need anything else, maybe a uv filter to protect the front glass from dust, stray rocks, or runaway skateboards. Get a slim filter though so it doesn't affect the edges of the frame. Also don't get into the habit of shooting everything at wide angle. Mix it up a little and shoot some telephoto shots too. I can't tell you how many bmx and skate videos I've seen where literally every clip is shot with the fisheye, it gets old. It gets annoying and just shows that the filmers aren't good enough to use their imagination and depend solely on the fisheye to make the video look good.</p>