New Photography gear
Finally after months of waiting my new gear had arrived.
After the Adorama fiasco, the lens went out of stock everywhere. Late July, Gowtham (an online friend whom I’ve had exchanged few mails before regarding photography) shot me a mail saying he was coming down to Bangalore and he could get the lens for me. Exactly on the same day, fresh stock of this lens showed up in B & H. Gowtham ordered it right away and got it delivered to his place without any issues what so ever. Then he flew into India exactly on the day the London shampoo terror threats happened. Even then, no issues and the customs folks did not hassle him either.
Considering that I’ve never met Gowtham, he was really kind enough to order it, carry it for me. I’ve picked up the lens last week from him and I’m yet to pay him the money. Now how often do you find folks like that?
Meanwhile, I also picked up the new Nikon D200 DSLR with the extra battery pack. I took the long weekend off to inaugurate the lens at BR hills. So far, I’m really happy with the lens, though I still need to get the hang of the D200 body.
So my current Wildlife Photography travel bag(s) looks like this :
Bodies:
- Nikon D200 Nikon MB-D200 Battery pack
- Nikon D70
- Nikon F80 (Film)
Lenses:
- Nikon 200-400mm f/4 VR lens
- Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VR lens
- Sigma 105mm f/2.8 Macro lens
- Nikon 50mm f/1.8 lens
- Nikon 12-24mm f/4 DX lens
- Nikon TC 20E II
- Nikon TC 14E II
Lighting:
- Nikon SB-800 Flash
- Better Beamer
- Nikon SC-28 Chord
- Prolincrome 23 Softbox (I carry this on long trips)
- LED headlamp
Other Equipment
- Lowepro NatureTrakker AW bag
- Smartdisk FlashTrax XT (40GB)
- Menfrotto Tripod
- Sandisk CF cards worth 4GB
- Olympus 10×50 Binocs
- Maglite
- Camo Hide
Looks like it’s about time Nikon started giving me some serious discounts 😉
/me wants two of those lenses and atleast one body. 😀 oh! and the flash too. 😀
pics pics pics… 🙂
The lens itself is perfect. Getting too much noise even in low ISO on the D200 and the colors are slightly off. Need to play with color profiles 🙂
Congrats Dude…
Thats looks like a cool (read highly expensive!!) gear to carry around.
Upload some sample shots from the new lens if possible. (btw… how heavy is the new lens ?)
cool – get that perfected and write about it – I will then buy the same lens
Trying to save money going to a gym by lugging all this equipment around, are we?
I wouldn’t understand anything about cameras and lenses but I’m defnitely excited to see more pictures as the result of all this shopping.. 😀
I would think paying for the gym is a much cheaper deal.. he he..
I know what all I can steal 😉
you definitely need a coolie to help you with all that stuff, I apply for the job!!
Waiting for the pictures. Wish I could also get a preview…
I’m so glad I need someone to take over ;).
How could you even fall for it in the first place!!!
Hehe well if we walk , trek to a place it would be impolite to refuse to carry right? However due to my clumsy my nature I invariably bang/drop some expensive stuff so its quickly taken back.
So how many sherpas in your team;-) Heck that gear deserves a camel train;-)
Congrats on the cool stuff, and tell your pal he is really cool. Who the heck will do such stuff otherwise.
PS: deleted the first comment.
However due to my clumsy my nature I invariably bang/drop some expensive stuff so its quickly taken back.
And given back to kallu :-O, woah common after jd, kallu is the clumsiest!!
Is your insured? Considering the stealing of your old N70, I would strongly recommend getting your gear insured.
NOW do we get the treat?
That is quite a lot of lenses.
Congrats !! Waiting for the pics with new lens.
and I still have lens missing in the 20-80 range. I have my eyes on the excellent 17-55mm f/2.8 lens, but don’t have the budget for it right now 😀
Heh yeah.. planning to get them insured very soon. It’s quite cheap here now.
I badly need to upgrade from my 800 car. It’s not able to take people and all this equipment :). Wildlife photography spending never ends 🙁
Adorama is Ok for me
Hi Kalyan,
Sorry about the Adorama experience. For me , I have been ordering consistently from Adorama since the last two years and not had a problem. All my gear except the D2X was sourced from them. Online orders work just fine.
Enjoy the new gear and look forward to some great work !
Cheers
Krishnan
http://www.krishphoto.com
software
You should also probably list the software (photo editing / raw conversion) you use. If you use Capture, im sure Nikon will give you some loyalty points 🙂
Re: Adorama is Ok for me
Lot of my friends have had stuff delivered from Adorama without any issues. But one bad experience is enough for you to stay away from that place 😉
Btw you have nice pics on your site. Looks like you spent some time at bharatpur 🙂
kool ..upload more photos 🙂
Damn! Now where is the big green gif when I need it?
Kartik
hey kalyan, writing in your blog for the first time but watching you closely since long:)
now that am planning to updrage myself from my kodak dx, Nikon D70 or new Sony Alpha, which one do you suggest.
Occasional and casual photography is my agenda and budget goes like 1000$.
CHeers and great going.
What do you shoot on your F80 these days?
Not much actually. I used to carry it around as my backup camera.. Now since velvia 50 is no longer in stock.. I stopped carrying the F80 fully.
Yeah, it’s also becoming difficult to find good quality film. I have an N80 and less-than-serious grade enthusiast … I have been debating the ‘move to digital SLR’ issue but just cannot get myself to sell off the N80 body at a pittance, or to just keep it lying idle with so much life still in it… So I have just acquired a good cheap digital point and shoot (Canon s50) while keeping the N80 going… Damn, there should a better way out of this situation 🙂