What Lens Do You Have On Your D700 Right Now?

<p><br />Also which lens or combination thereof do you use most frequently, particularly from a walkabout point of view?</p>

<p>The 24-70mm F2.8 is an obvious choice. However 70mm at the long end seems lacking.</p>

<p>The 17-55mm F2.8 worsens this problem, but may be a dreamboat when it comes to sweeping landscapes. Does anyone have experience with this lens on a full-frame body?</p>

<p>Thanks,</p>

<p>Cal</p>

 

<p>the only wide to normal zoom lens I can afford...OR want to carry..hehe, a Tamron 28-75mm f2.8...it stays on most of the time, next is the 70-300VR, last are specific use prime lenses, mf or af depending on what they are...on rare occasion is an 80-200mm afd Nikon f2.8...10 yrs ago, it would have been used much more but now only for sports stuff. I use the kit mostly for travel or walkabout..sorry can't comment about the 17-55mm don't own one anymore...</p>

<p>I may not be typical... With my D700, 105mm 2.8 VR macro is on right now and the most frequent one. I take my watches often. Sorry, this is not "walkabout".<br>

On weekends walkabout, like you, 24-70 is the obvious choice, but I am thinking I may need 85mm 1.4 or 1.8 because I sometimes don't want to carry 70-200, or even 70-300. 105mm is a great lense, but a bit too long for (relatively) many-purpose carry walkabout lense, to me. <br>

I am looking forward to the advices in this thread, too.</p>

<p>Currently my D700 has a 50mm f1.8 AIS mounted. Saturday morning I will mount the Nikkor 500mm f4 P. In June I will go to Arizona with a 20mm, 28mm, 50mm and 75-150mm zomm or 105mm all AIS. At a July event I will have a 28-105 or 180mm AF-D to use. It all depends on what I am shooting.</p>

<p>Donald, why did you lose the 17-55mm?</p>

<p>My D700 has the 24-70mm, f/2.8 on it 90% of the time. It's a great lens for general "walking about" activities. For wide angle, I have the 14-24mm, f/2.8 and my only telephoto is the 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6VR. I keep my 50mm f/1.4 for sentimental reasons, I guess, because it's seldom used.</p>

<p>Absolutely I used my Tamron 17-35mm 2.8-4 zoom lens on my D700 the majority of the time. I like to shoot wide, and the 35mm focal length worked well for me too. The Nikon 50mm f1.8 AF-D was also a common lens I used, and the Nikon 105mm f2.5 as well. I wanted a normal zoom, and was considering the Tamron 28-75mm f2.8 before I decided to sell the D700 and go back to the DX format in a new $599 D200. I now use that and the Nikon 16-85mm VR zoom.</p>

<p>Sigma 15-30, but normally it is a Tamron 28-75 and this couple was meant as a temp solution, but I'm so satified that they will stay there much longer. The first to replace will be the Sigma and it will be a Sigma 12-24. Another much used lens is the 70-200 VR and for special things I have a 80-400 VR, but I don't use it that much.</p>

<p>90% of the time i use 24-70 2,8. also use 14-24 and seldom the 70-200. After havnig got the batteri pack mb-d10 there is a better balance carrying it arround.</p>

<p>The 17-55 is a DX lens, I hope he was referring to the 17-35 lens.</p>

<p>As a full-time news photog, I carry an old 20-35 f/2.8, 28-70 f/2.8, 70-200 f/2.8 VR and a handful of primes.</p>

<p>Gary, do you ever find the 24-70mm too short? At the long end it translates to about what a 47mm lens would see on a cropped sensor. This concerns me.</p>

<p>Same question to you, Jens.</p>

<p>Too short for what?<br>

I can never understand that line of reasoning....<br>

For years and years pros have used the 24(or 28) - 70 as the standard Normal zoom but now in the age of DX 18-105, 18-135, and 18-200 everyone that is moving from DX to FX thinks 70 is too short...<br>

The answer is you bought a professional tool and it needs professional tools to be used to it's maximum ability. you would not carve turkey with a swiss army knife or nail railroad ties with a tack hammer...<br>

Get the right tool for the job. make decisions as a photographer. You are creating images.<br>

Rant over...apologies</p>

<p>Nic, sorry for the confusion. My confusion. I had believed the 17-55mm to be FX purely because of its pro-level build quality.</p>

<p>35/2<br>

50/1.4<br>

85/1.4<br>

105/2.8 Micro<br>

Personally, I like to keep the weight light, therefore I prefer the small primes.<br>

I had the 24-70/2.8 which is a fantastic lens, but because of its size and weight coupled with the already heavy D700, it did not work for me as a walk-around combo.<br>

So I would "glue" the 50/1.4 to the camera and keep the 35/2 and the 105 in the bag. The 85/1.4 stays home for indoor low light portraits.<br>

These are just my thoughts.<br>

Miklos</p>

<p>At this moment my Micro Nikkor 70-180 is on the D700.<br>

Tomorrow, April 30, my country, Netherlands, celebrates the birthday of the queens mum. I will go to a city and take pictures of people that try to sell whatever you can think of, and celebrating with our national drink .... lots of beer, ....<br>

For this i will bring my 14-24, 24-70 and 70-200. Perhaps will bring the 17-35, to check if there is a lot of difference between the two wide angle zooms .... My guess is that i will use the 24-70 and 70-200 most of the time .....</p>

<p>It is kind of interesting that folks actually sell their D700 to return to a D200 with the 16-85mm lens. Seems Nikon after many tries has created a dream team. Or is it just because the 24-120mm full-frame zoom is so mediocre?</p>

More often than not, my D700 has my 24-70 f2.8 attached. If I switch glass, it's the 24-120 VR version. I like them both...

though I must admit my fondness for the longer-but-slower lens...

<p>No, JC, that was quite a good rant.</p>

<p>You're correct. I'm anticipating a future move from DX to FX and, being accustomed to a 16-85mm range on a cropped sensor, can't help but think how short 70 full-frame mm would be, in spite of quality.</p>

<p>Right now, i have a 500mm F4 AF-I mounted up on it. Going to shoot some Lacrosse this evening with it. On my other one, I have a VR 70-200 on it. THis is my lacrosse kit.<br>

As far as the other questions, i love my 28-70 f2.8 AF-S and my 17-35 AF-S on the 700 also.</p>

<p>Hands-down, the 24-70. To lighten the load and have some fun, the AF 50 f/1.4D.</p>

 

<p>For walk about, mine is the 50mm f1.8 AIS. I hardly use anything else.</p>

<p>My d700 spends most of it's time on a tripod though with 85mm f/1.4 or 105mm f/2.5 shooting landscapes with 8-12 frames to be stitched.</p>

<p>With my D700 I use AF-D 28-105/3.5-4.5 or 2-4 of these primes:<br /> AIS: 20/2.8, 24/2.8, 35/2, 55/2.8 micro, 200/4<br /> AF: 50/1.8D, Tamron 90/2.8 macro Di</p>

<p>Currently, I enjoy walking around with a 35/1.4 AIS on my D700 -- great quality and reasonable size...<br>

Otherwise, my favorite lens for this body is my 105 DC.</p>

<p>John Hubbard, that sounds like a low light delight!</p>