Must have equipment

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Abaugh321

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Landscape photography, portrait and wildlife,

What's u must have lenses and equipment for these three
 
I only use these lenses on my FF bodies
14-24mm f2.8
24-70mm f2.8
70-200mm f2.8 VRII
85mm f1.8
50mm f1.8
50mm f2.0 makro planar

To be honest the first 3 will cover everything I shoot (I don't really do wildlife though), but a tele converter might do the trick.
 
I have for wildlife
Nikon 70-300vr
Sigma 150mm Macro
On a cropped sensor they cover everything I want to do

I have for walkabout/Landscape
Sigma 10-20 f/3.5
Nikon 35mm f/1.8
Nikon 18-105 kit lens
 
Landscape 24-28mm range, I am not in favour of UWA, prime or zoom.
Portrait 85, 100 or 135mm in prime format, there are several killer options
Wildlife comes in all shapes and sizes. For birds, start and 400mm and think longer, for larger things, 300mm should be OK.
 
Others seem to have covered just about the entire range of lenses suitable for your chosen genre. For landscapes I would also recommend a decent tripod and a circular polariser.
 
70-200 2.8 IS
1.4x TC & 2x TC
400mm 2.8 IS
Giottos tripod
Manfrotto gimbal head
 
You can get decent landscape shots with a kit lens and a decent tripod/cable release. Next on the shopping list would be filters.
 
Suitable clobber, footwear and bag would be high on my list for Landscape and Wildlife work
 
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I think wildlife work is very dependant on what you ate actually shooting
 
Sigma 70-200 2.8 for wildlife/portraits
sigma 24-70 2.8 for portraits
and depending on full frame or crop then a tokina 12-24
or the nikon 14-24 for landscapes
 
Landscape:
Zooms - 16-35 ish, 24-70ish and 70-200mm sometimes

Portraits:
A couple of these: 50mm 85mm 100mm 135mm and 70-200mm

Wildlife:
100mm macro 70-200mm and 300 f/2.8 or longer if you are 'serious' and rich
 
In Nikon:
14-24 (if you really need that wide)
24-70
70-200
200-400 or 400/300 2.8 depending on FX/DX and the sport.
 
I've seen landscapes taken on 300mm plus lenses.

With a bit of thought most lenses can do whatever you want.
 
Portraits
24-70mm f2.8
70-200mm f2.8 VRII
85mm f1.4
50mm f1.4
 
Abaugh321 said:
Landscape photography, portrait and wildlife,

What's u must have lenses and equipment for these three
Click to expand...

Mostly already covered... nikon ones?

On a crop...
Portrait/Walk about can be a zoomy or something around the 35mm f1.8 nikon, 30mm f1.4 sigma (check quality) or 28mm ish... I am using a vivitar 28mm f2.5 m42 (manual only) atm but am missing the speed of af... ;)

landscape is usually wide, so <20mm... you can use prime or zoom. I'm using the tokina 11-16 which I think is brilliant. Will be experimenting without the filter soon to see whether it gets sharper - but its so wide mostly don't miss the crispness as much :)

Wildlife is a bit tricky as you probably want reach and iq and speed which equals lots of money.
Have a browse at the 70-300 vr lenses, or 200-400, 80-400 (tamron) or 50-500/150-500 sigma ?
If its macro type, sigma 150 or sigma 180 perhaps?


For full frame I've heard (well read on here) that the samyang 85 f1.4 (manual) is tack sharp... and 50mm f1.4 probably would be a good buy...
 
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Must have?

Assuming a dslr, whatever the cheapest one is and its kit lens.

anything more is outside of the scope of "must"
 
Something that I bought second hand of ebay has been a worthwhite investment is a eyepiece angle finder thing for my Canon . Brilliant for getting low shots and not lying in awkward positions in which by time you got comfy or right position the shot has gone.
 
Landscape

45mm T/S lens
Circular Polariser
Angle Viewer
Tripod & ballhead
Cable Release
Stool
Towels
Bandana
Knee Pads
Tea Flask
Water Bottle
Power Bars
Good Hiking Boots


Wildlife

200-400 zoom
70-300 zoom
Monopod
Beanbag
Plus the same items as listed above
 
OK, it seems nearly everyone has missed the must have and substituted it for 'currently have' or 'ideally would like to have'

All you need for the three things you mention are Camera + Kit lens + Tele-Zoom lens.

So for example a 550D + 18-55mm IS + 55-250mm IS is ample to get you started in Canon.

For landscapes you really want to be looking at a reasonable and sturdy tripod. Yes you can do it all hand held but if you want to capture landscapes at each end of the day light levels are much lower. Anything else is nice to have - items such as a circular polariser, ND filters & ND grads will allow you to improve your photography but are not necessary unless you have a need for them.

For landscapes and wildlife I would put decent warm and waterproof clothing, boots & gloves very high on your list of must haves. Standing around waiting for the right light/the wildlife to come to you while inadequately dressed is a good way of removing the joy from photography. This stuff is not really photography kit, more sensible kit to own if you are going out and about under the british weather.

Portraits it depends entirely on what you wish to do. I would be tempted to add a 50mm F1.8 into the kit if you know you will be doing a lot of portrait work. Beyond this you are heading into the realms of additional lighting and reflectors - so a decision on what you want to achieve is necessary before any further kit recommendations are made.

It's nice to know your gear will never hold you back. but I have lost count of how much it has cost to have everything I could possibly ever need and now just have what is necessary to do what I want. It actually feels good.
 
To get you started:

Reasonable Canon used DSLR (old lenses are cheaper given the AF-S necessity on Nikon cheap bodies) e.g. 30D, 40D
18-55 IS kit lens walkabout/landscape
55-250mm IS as a beginner wildlife/portraiture lens
50mm f/1.8 for portraiture
Raynox 250 for Macro work (if that's your thing)

That's easily enough to cover you as "must haves", tbh the 18-55 and 55-250, as mention above, are enough on their own, but the 50 is cheap as cheap chips, as is the Raynox, for the creative possibilities they offer :)
 
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