Nikon D200 Digital SLR

The old trusty D70 has now been replaced with the new Nikon D200. Though the D70 is still a very fine camera with superb image quality, it was time to upgrade to somthing built to withstand the sometimes harsh treatment of the Irish weather and landscape.
The D200 has a metal body and weather sealing, 10.2MP resolution and every concievable feature I could possibly use. It will even hook up to my Magellan GPS unit to record GPS data at each location.

'Nikon has caused an earthquake in the current D-SLR market with the arrival of the D200. A camera of this excellence with such a staggering amount of functions and outstanding image quality, in combination with its price-tag, is truly unheard of.' From a review of the D200 at Lets Go Digital.

Nikon Af-S Dx Zoom-Nikkor 12-24 F4 G If-Ed Auto Focus

Nikons super wide angle for digital. It was a close choice between this lens and the exceptional 17-35 F2.8 AFS as the new 'standard' lens for most landscape uses. In the end the 12-24 won out because I would most likely use the 17-35 almost exclusively at the 17mm end and at this focal length the 12-24 easily matches and possibly outperforms the classic landscape lens. Having the full 12mm at the twist of the zoom ring made it the only real choice.

Nikkor 80-200 F2.8 AF-D ED

A classic zoom lens that produces beautiful results every time. Almost on a par with the newer 70-200VR, which is most likely the best zoom Nikkor available, this lens is available for half the price and apart from the lack of Vibration Reduction has been the professional zoom of choice for the last few decades. This is a later version with seperate zoom and focus rings and a sturdier tripod mount.

Nikkor AF-S DX 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G

Many manufacturers supply a run-of-the-mill low quality/cheap lens with their camera kits. Not so with the D70 kit, this lens deserves to be a hit in its own right as it is sharp, has a longer reach than most of the competition and is a more substantial lens with ED glass for higher quality. Many of the photos in the galleries were taken with this amazing little lens which, for the money, has only one small 'gotcha': there is very slight vignetting at 18mm as Nikon squeezed every last millimeter into this lens. The relitavely fast aperature range of F3.5-4.5, compared with the competition, which mostly hit F5.6 before they get to 50mm, gives an inkling that this lens was designed to perform.

Nikon SB-600 Speedlight

An excellent flash that works seamlessly with the D200 right down to colour balancing information.
My kit bag now includes two SB-600 speedlights and a full set of Lee Coloured Filters from their free swatch book, these can be used to balance the often cold flash to mix better with moonlight, tungsten and flourescent lights.

It also features a built in remote flash sensor which allows the flash to be used off camera but still use Through-The-Lens (TTL) metering to give accurate exposure.

I now carry four SB-600 speedlights in my bag, almost everywhere.

Nikon SB-25 Speedlight

The old workhorse speedlight from the early to mid 90's, the SB-25 is big and powerful but does not fit in with Nikons latest CLS advanced lighting system so this flash is used most often in manual mode when maximum power is required or more than two lightsources work best.

Benro C-228 Carbon Fibre Tripod

This is a chinese knock-off of the famous and expensive Bogen tripod. The Benro brand though has been very well received. It performs flawlessly and is also light and compact while extending to a greater height than the old Manfrotto. Time will tell if it can withstand the Irish countryside and weather.

Nikkor AF 50 f/1.8

One of Nikons sharpest lenses and also one of the cheapest. Puts most zooms (apart from professional level zooms costing thousands of euro) to shame.

Nikkor AF-S VR 24-120 f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED

I returned this lens as I got sharper, less distorted pictures from the cheaper 18-70 'kit lens' and with a 36mm equivalent wide end on a digital SLR, it just was not wide enough. Newer copies are said to be much better.

Manfrotto 190DB Tripod with 3D head

An essential accessory worth spending some money on, this is a mid-range model in the world of tripods but still near the bottom of the range of Manfrotto tripods and heads which can cost several hundred euro.

The Manfrotto has now been relegated to light-stand duty for my SB-600's.