The Morning's Mirror
Before the wind picked up, the lake mirrored the morning's overcast sky.
Nikon D7000 -- Nikon 18-300mm 6.3 ED VR
18mm
F8@15 seconds
So, about that lens that I love to hate. I bought it for a trip to Italy. My wife was adamant that I not haul around 20 pounds of camera equipment — and a tripod. I said if that was to be, I’d need one of those does-everything lens. She said, “Here you go”. Curses! I really wanted one of those Nikon 16-80mm F2.8-4.0 lens and here I was spending money on this slow (F3.5 - F6.3) do-everything lens.
But here’s the thing. It really does do everything. As you can see from the Italy pictures (you did clink on the link, right?) it covered everything from the vista of city with rain approaching to the telephoto (300mm) shot of the altar at Saint Peter’s Basilica (handheld at 1/160th of second, no less). It was the first lens I owned with lens stabilization and it really is pretty amazing. Even if it is slow, zooms backwards from my other lens and “droops” when I use it vertically on a tripod.
The worst part is that it makes you lazy. If you don’t know what you need and you need to take a hike to get a picture — I take it. I really should take my bag...but it’s heavy. There are plenty of times I should use the 80-200mm F2.8…but I already have the 18-300mm on the camera and it’s good enough. It’s good enough to make you lazy.
So, the moral of the story is that I’d go on a another trip with just this lens — it’s good enough. But I’ll never go on another trip without a tripod. A 15 second shot (like today’s) is a 15 second shot. There is no substitute and you can’t hand-hold it. There are several shots I missed because I didn’t have one.
(BOB_8621)
©Don Brown 2019
Nikon D7000 -- Nikon 18-300mm 6.3 ED VR
18mm
F8@15 seconds
So, about that lens that I love to hate. I bought it for a trip to Italy. My wife was adamant that I not haul around 20 pounds of camera equipment — and a tripod. I said if that was to be, I’d need one of those does-everything lens. She said, “Here you go”. Curses! I really wanted one of those Nikon 16-80mm F2.8-4.0 lens and here I was spending money on this slow (F3.5 - F6.3) do-everything lens.
But here’s the thing. It really does do everything. As you can see from the Italy pictures (you did clink on the link, right?) it covered everything from the vista of city with rain approaching to the telephoto (300mm) shot of the altar at Saint Peter’s Basilica (handheld at 1/160th of second, no less). It was the first lens I owned with lens stabilization and it really is pretty amazing. Even if it is slow, zooms backwards from my other lens and “droops” when I use it vertically on a tripod.
The worst part is that it makes you lazy. If you don’t know what you need and you need to take a hike to get a picture — I take it. I really should take my bag...but it’s heavy. There are plenty of times I should use the 80-200mm F2.8…but I already have the 18-300mm on the camera and it’s good enough. It’s good enough to make you lazy.
So, the moral of the story is that I’d go on a another trip with just this lens — it’s good enough. But I’ll never go on another trip without a tripod. A 15 second shot (like today’s) is a 15 second shot. There is no substitute and you can’t hand-hold it. There are several shots I missed because I didn’t have one.
(BOB_8621)
©Don Brown 2019
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