Where do I go from here ?

[HCK]

Hi,

I am currently in the middle of setting up my business in Weddings, Portraits etc. Website, accountant and insurance are sorted. I have my first wedding in June and then 5 others after that.

I have reached a turning point regarding my equipment. I have around £2000-£2500 to spend on new kit but not sure what to get. I currently have a d300 and d90 backup, tamron 17-50 2.8 and a 50mm 1.8, sb600 flash and various bits an pieces. I was thinking of getting a 70-200 vrII and sb900 and other bits and pieces or would I be better getting a second hand d700 and 70-200 VR I ?

I love the D300 and D90 and get on with them....I will be going FF but its just a matter of when......choices choices!!!

Any tips would be appreciated

 

[-Rob-]

Having shot weddings with a pair of D300's I would recommend getting the D700 if you can afford it. The D300 does an admirable job but when you need low light performance then you will be glad you had the D700 and its superior high ISO performance. I'd also upgrade the Tamron 17-50mm for a better lens like the Nikon 24-70mm and perhaps the 50mm f1.8 to the f1.4 version. Getting a 70-200mm is pretty critical for weddings too. I believe you get vignetting on FF with the MkI version so your money may be better spent on the MkII version. Getting the SB900 is a good idea too.

I think you might need more than £2,500 to get to where you need to be but you don't need to upgrade it all before your first wedding, just have a plan of how you are going to get there.

 

[itsdavedotnet]

It's a tough one, and D700's are nicer for weddings, however the 300's are very capable cameras and the high iso performance is still *pretty* good, so if I were you I'd invest in glass for now, as 2.5k won't be enough to get the glass that you NEED and the bods that are ideal.

The tamron 17-50 is a great lens, I can't find any reason to justify moving to the nikon one tbh, I like the 18-55, but it's in no way £350 nicer than the tamron (s/h prices). It's dead sharp, performs well on white seamless, can take mud and bad weather happily, has good handling...no issues here

I'd...upgrade your D90 to a D300 (£250ish), gripping them both and getting D3 batteries (£200 for 6 batts, 2 chargers, 2 grips) for offbrand but perfectly good everything),
70-200 vr1 (£1k),
2* sb800 (£450), 2 manfrotto nano stands and heads, couple of brollies, Correction gels, 24x 7dayshop brand eneloops, 8 bay AA charger, maybe some radio triggers (£175ish)
85mm 1.8 (£250)
sigma 30mm 1.4 is real nice for DX bodies, if you get the 60mm macro you could lose the 50 1.8, giving you three primes, 30 60 85.
a macro for details (either nikon 60mm or tamron 90mm, both are excellent and about £230 sh)
a bigger bag to put it in...

and save the rest up for when you've got a bit more cash and can afford to upgrade the D300's to D700's, and get a 24-70 at the same time.

 

[buckas]

I'd lose the cheapo lenses and get better quality ones

24-70
70-200
maybe an 85 prime

 

[HCK]

thx for the replies.....this is a toughie....I think realistically I will have to stick with the current camera bodies and go with the VRII lens as this will stay with me when I go FF.

 

[a1ex2001]

get yourself another flash and a 70-200 and call it quits for now that is more than enough gear to do a decent job. the only other thing you might want is a general purpose lens as a back up just incase won of your primary lenses packs up something like a sigma 18-125 would do as you'd probably never use it. People on here will make out that you can't do a wedding without about 10k's worth of kit when what actually counts is talent.

 

[itsdavedotnet]

thx for the replies.....this is a toughie....I think realistically I will have to stick with the current camera bodies and go with the VRII lens as this will stay with me when I go FF.

hmm yeah, probably a good shout, the vignette's not an issue on DX in the vr1 but is apparently on FF. For weddings, you do need 2 more flashes though (1 per bod, 1 backup) and having 3 will also let you do some cool off camera stuff that is where it's at these days if you haven't played around with it much yet, cls is awesome, simply put

having some other primes to bust out of the bag if they've decided to hold the wedding in what might as well be a cave will be a good idea too, and they'll all (other than the 30 1.4 sigma) be FF friendly too.