While I would never call myself a gearhead I do love looking at equipment reviews. Pouring over resolution charts and reading user and pro reviews help me a lot in choosing cameras, lenses, and equipment for my business. I thought I would share some insightful knowledge about A) what you need to shoot weddings B) What you should get if you had a good chunk of money and C) what I would get if I was breaking into the industry for the first time. I am going to write from a Nikon perspective because that is what I know and use. Canon users can extrapolate if they can.
Body
Full frame body. Nikon D700. $2200 new. Seen for as little as $1300 used. Great camera with a couple huge benefits.
1) full size sensor is the same size as old 35mm film. This gives you a small plain of focus. i.e. more blurry backgrounds that we all like. Also there is no local length crop factor which means that old lenses designed for film will work better.
2) built in AF motor. Use any AF lens Nikon has ever made.
3) Shoots in the dark. Seriously.
4) this is the one piece of equipment I wouldn’t compromise on. I might even tell you to splurge on the D800, but that is not really necessary.
Back up body.
I’d go with a Nikon D300s $1700. Or possibly a D7000 $1200. I would get a crop sensor because they are cheaper. Plus they also extend the reach of your 70-200 to a 300mm lens! A big bonus for long distance ceremonies.
YOU NEED A BACKUP. Equipment does break, and you don’t want to be caught with your pants down. If you are getting paid for doing something you need to be prepared. Borrow a friends if you need to.
Onto lenses.
Fast normal zoom lens.
Most bodies come with slow normal kit zooms. These have maximum apertures of 3.5 or so. Plus the aperture actually stops down as you zoom in to 5.6. This makes it so you actually need to use slower shutter speeds the more you zoom in. Which is lame, because the more you zoom in the more motion blur (from slow shutters) shows up.
Here is what I use. The Nikon 24-70 2.8. $1900 new. I use this because I am a pro who shoots for a living. If I wasn’t doing this for a living I wouldn’t buy this hunk of pure optics gold.
1) Fast aperture stays constant from 24-70mm. That means I can shoot at 100/sec while a kit zoom would need to shoot at 25/second. Thats 4 times faster than a 5.6 aperture.
2) Tack Sharp.
3) Fast, accurate, silent focusing
If I wasn’t doing this for a living I would actually go out and buy a used third party lens. I would go with an old Tokina 28-70 2.8. Tokina is a great 3rd party lens company well known for making tanks of lenses. No crappy plastic stuff from them.
Tokina 28-70 2.8. Used ~$250 off ebay or Craigslist. There are several models that tokina has made. Just get a AF and you will be fine. WOW that is 1/10 the cost of the Nikon. You will see a pattern.
Here is a review. Tokina 28-70 2.8 ATX pro
This zoom will blow most everything third party lens companies are making today. You probably lose some sharpness and AF speed, but heh, you can shoot in the dark.
This lens will not focus with entry level DSLR (D3000, D5000, D40 etc.) as it has no built in AF.
Next you will need a good fast tele zoom.
If I had my way I would get this.
Nikon 70-200 2.8 VR II – $2400!!!! this is an amazing lens. Again a fast constant aperture. If I had one lens I would buy this one. Alas I don’t own this lens. I own this one.
This is a great compromise. For this segment I wouldn’t venture outside of Nikon’s extensive line up for this zoom range.
Ken Rockwell has a great breakdown of Nikon’s 80-200 zooms here. They have been making them since 1988 and I have own both the AF and AF-D versions (the two oldest AFs).
There is no excuse in getting one of the older 80-200s. They are cheapish. I see them on craigslist and Ebay for between $500-700 all the time.
These lenses are fast, are super professional all metal bodies, heavy, sharp, and buttery good. They also hold their value extremely well. You will most likely be able to turn a profit on these if you hold onto them for a couple years.
I got my first one somehow for $50 from some nice lady on craigslist. I sold it for $650 on Ebay. Don’t expect that kind of deal.
Don’t go wasting your money on a fancy 18-200 vr or an all in one zoom. This (or one of its brothers) is the lens you want.
I use this for first dances, 70% of my portraits, ceremonies, everything. I need to write a whole ‘nuther blog post about when to use what lens. 🙂
Stay away from third party lenses. They are pretty good. But will cost you more than these lenses new, and will not hold their value.
Next I would pick up a nikon 50mm. Large maximum aperture translate to silky smooth backgrounds. I use these exclusively on my baby shoots to give that silky smooth background.
nikon 1.8mm $120. AKA nifty 50. sharp. cheap. smooth backgrounds. Plasticky.
Nikon 1.4 $340 lets in a bit more light. Sharp. Much better build. Still pretty cheap.
Thats it for lenses. I use these three lenses for %95 of everything I do. For weddings I could use these all day and not feel limited. I own some specialty lenses, but these are my workhorses.
Lets break it down pricewise.
PRO- D700, D300s, Nikon 24-70 2.8, Nikon 70-200 2.8 VRII, Nikon 50mm 1.4. = $8200!! and we haven’t even talked about lighting equipment yet.
Amateur wanting to be a pro. D700 used on Craigslist for $1500, D7000 or D300s or similar borrowed for free, Tokina 28-70 2.8, Nikon 80-200 2.8, Nikon 50mm 1.8. That’s $2500. A difference of $5700. And all pro, or near pro quality optics.
I would use these lenses until you can justify upgrading to pro stuff as you go, but for now you are setup.
I think I might pick up the tokina 28-70 2.8 myself as a backup. 🙂