One of my dream lenses has been upgraded to a version 2 – the Nikkor 200-400mm f/4 VRII is brand new and weighs in at about $6999. I am drooling already. Will I ever own this lens? Probably not – I really don’t photograph enough events or sporting events that would use this lens. And this wouldn’t be very good for indoor sporting events because you want to have an f/2.8 to try and freeze the action with a 1/1000 of a second shutter speed.

I can see using a really long lens for models or fashion because you can make the person look thinner with the compression available with really long lenses (one reason you don’t photograph models with a wide angle lenses). And you get the really blurry backgrounds behind the subject.

AF-S Nikkor 200–400mm f/4G ED VR II

So, yeah, the lens isn’t practical but it is really cool. It would be perfect for outdoor sporting events. All you would ever need for outdoor football would be a 70-200mm and the 200-400mm lens. And with improving ISO capabilities on these camera bodies this lens may soon work for indoor sports photography.

And this lens doesn’t have a Canon counterpart. And Nikon is the king of zoom lenses (Canon is the king of prime lenses.)

This is pretty cool – the two top 50mm lenses from Nikon and Canon. You will probably notice the size difference between the two lenses. Canon’s 50mm lens has a über wide aperture of f/1.2 and Nikon is limited to f/1.4.

People will often complain that professional lenses weigh so much – well that is due to physics and if the lens is made out of metal, alloy, or plastic. More and more Nikon lenses are made from plastic – at least on the outside.

Will Nikon ever make an f/1.2 50mm lens? They already do! However, it is manual focus. I have heard from someone who heard from someone who works on Nikon lenses that the Nikon mount cannot support an f/1.2 lens if that lens has a focusing motor onboard. I don’t know if that is true. However, Nikon’s lack of f/1.2 is one reason I am adopting some Canon gear.

Nikon f/1.4 vs. Canon f/1.2

And aperture really is my deciding factor when buying a lens. If I can afford the wider aperture (lower numbers) then I will buy it. Otherwise I will upgrade when I can. The Canon lens is so much larger because the glass has to be so much wider. It is huge! But it helps the camera shoot in the dark and my favorite feature is the control over the depth of field.

Nikon f/1.4 vs. Canon f/1.2

Nikon f/1.4 vs. Canon f/1.2

When you are photographing an event you need to photograph the details. Signs, decorations, food and more all help tell the story of the event. (Don’t forget the people).

This weekend I photographed a party in Salt Lake City, Utah. When the food is ready at an event you don’t have a lot of time to get the shots but you want to get them done right. Often the food is ready and people are already lining up to get food.

At events you can’t be weighed down with huge studio lights – you travel light and you want to move fast and get out of people’s way. Below I have my lighting setup – the Nikon SB-800 speedlight is attached to a Lastolite Ezybox 24″ on a Manfrotto light stand.

Lastolite Ezybox with Nikon SB-800

I always photograph in manual mode and I used the Nikon’s wireless TTL lighting system. I will be writing up some better blog posts how to use the Nikon Creative Lighting System in the future.

And here is a sample photograph from that evening (P.S. the food was delicious!). The food was catered by Bambara in Salt Lake City.

Sample food photograph

Hooray! My first behind the scenes of a lighting set up. I have been working on taking one photograph a day at least for an entire year. Today I really had a hunger for some frosted sugar cookies and I ended up getting some donuts as well. So when you have some really yummy and beautifully decorated food you might as well photograph it right? Thats what I thought.

So here is my lighting set up – I am using a Nikon SB-800 on a Manfrotto light stand. I am using the Nikon CLS (Creative Lighting System) to trigger the speedlight remotely. It is shooting through a 24″ Lastolite Ezybox softbox. I often use this lighting set up when photographing people and it works for photographing most anything. I have a reflector on the other side of the donuts to fill in the shadows cast on the food.

Food looks best when it is brightly lit and it looks best when lit from the side or from behind.

Behind the scenes of food photography

The next two photos show off the difference of the shadows with and without the reflector. This would also work with people. I love to have dramatic lighting where the light come from one side or the other – but sometimes that is too much drama and you can put a second light on the opposite site OR you can use a reflector. And reflectors are a lot cheaper.

Donut light with softbox and reflector

Softbox only - no reflector

I think most photographers have a favorite lens – and that they keep that lens on their camera almost all the time. I would say that I am a fan of my Canon 50mm f/1.2 (although that lens is my only Canon lens right now). It is on my camera 100% of the time. For my Nikons I find that I use my Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 80% of the time and only change it when there is a need for a different lens.

So I decided to ask photographers on Twitter and Facebook what their favorite lenses were and here are some of the responses:

• favorite lens is the Canon 24-70 f2.8L USM. It is pretty much glued to my camera body.
• I love my 70-200 2.8 IS.. I love the depth of field I can get with it &I love the crisp photos it creates. I use it 50%
• My 85 1.8 is my favorite, but it’s my least used since it’s not practical for my usual applications. 28-75 2.8 is most used
• Canon 28 2.8 (I’m on a crop sensor) is on my camera 60% of the time.
• I use my 50mm 1.8 the most. Want to replace it soon though, it’s getting old..
• Great question. My favorite lens is my 35/2 Leica, but I don’t use it the most. The lens that gets used the most is the 24-70 on the D3.
• 24-70 2.8 %95 of the time

Recently I received an email asking which lens to buy – and they were comparing a Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 and the Canon 24-105mm f/4 IS. They like the functionality of the IS (image stabilization) but they also like the f/2.8 of the other lens. (hey Nikon and Canon – when are you going to build a lens that is 24-70mm with f/2.8 AND VR or IS?)

My recommendation was to buy BOTH! Actually I am joking. I recommended he try them out first and then decide from his experience which lens he could buy. I recommended he check out http://borrowlenses.com. For about $100 he could rent both lenses for a week and see which lens he liked more.

There are so many types of lenses out there – and lenses that meet the different needs and budgets for each photographer. And I would highly recommend renting or borrowing a lens to try it out before you buy. There is nothing worse than buying a lens and then never using it. I have one or two that just stay in my camera bag.

Me? I will go for aperture over VR or IS. It isn’t just photographing in low light – it is creating the magic blur behind the subject and you really can only do that with a wide open aperture.

Maybe I should write my next post on which lenses you should consider…