After considering for months, i finally decided to traded in my existing 18-135mm D80 kit lens and 50mm f/1.8, and get myself a brand new and better lens, 16-85mm VR.
Well, i had been struggling for months before i have come to this important decision, as 18-135mm has accompanying me for the past 1 year, for almost every shooting sessions. I did complain that it's not a fast enough lens for indoor shots, but hey, why should i care much? As we will need the speedlight to brighten the scene up, and wedding shooting sessions always involve the group photos, where f/2.8 is not a useful aperture for this purpose! I find myself always at least need f/5.6 for better sharpness and DOF for it.
For the past 2 major wedding projects which i have involved in, i found that i am pretty happy with all the picture taken by my 18-135mm, it allows wide enough shots, and allows extra reach at the tele end.The image quality is ok enough for the clients and viewers.Only the pixel peepers will complain about the sharpness of the images, and also the so called " nice bokeh" from a fast lens argument.
While the technology grows rapidaly, until we can almost do everything a pro lens can do through the post processing by using softwares, i found that we should always keep in mind that, better lenses will not make our images outstanding, and no one will know how much the hesitation and suffer you will need to cope with when you have to spend extra pennys on this, when the economy becomes worse and worse each day currently, and your life becomes tougher and tougher. The most important thing to do for the wedding shooting, is to capture the moments, the very meaningful and "never- repeat" moment of the day, to successfully convey message to the viewer what was happening that day. A meaningless shot, will not lead the viewer to ask you which lens are you using; a meaningful shot, doesnt really matter which lens are you using either. So, why should we always go for the more expensive stuffs to convey one meaningful message?
Of course, i am not saying that there is no difference at all if you compare normal lenses and pro lenses side by side. There are obvious differences to be honest. But, it's not the sad things to worry about in photography world, not at all.
The kit lens which comes with the camera( normally entry levels dslrs) is good enough as a starting point to learn the controls and also basic exposures and in camera settings. The ranges are always just right for all type of shots. Pro lens cost more, providing the best image quality and pro in build, but watch our wallets for such an expensive stuffs, just to please our clients or viewer, or to be specific, ourselves.
There is another better alternative, if compare to the plasticky, cheaper and lighter kit lens, which is a semi pro lens,i.e. those not too expensive lenses with metal mount, and better sharpness and better in built quality.
Thanks god for such an attractive choice other than spending too much money on this as a hobby or as a side income career.
I remember what my idol, a Malaysian wedding photographer, Mr. Louis Pang wrote in his earlier post in his blog, that, always buy equipments base on our ability, but make sure we get the best of the money we've spent.
I really mind the distortion produced by my 18-135mm, the built quality itself is plasticky, and i know my handholding is weak, the sharpness of the lens is a bit weak, i always need to sharpen a lot in post processing, until the final image looks weird.The contrast and the color of the lens is ok, just that with a D300, i cant see the potential of my D300 to show better 3D-like images as taken by other D300 users. My 18-135mm images also look dark, and the minimum focal distance is just too far for my liking. And most importantly, it doesnt have VR to cover my bad handhold shootings!
So, after surveying for months, i finally decided to get myself a better lens, but within my ability financially, and better in build for the lens and has VR. The 16-85mm VR became my only choice with that price ranges. Of course people will ask me, why not trying Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8, which is cheaper than this lens, and has better sharpness?
Well, indoor shots, speedlight is needed. If i wan to create artistic bokeh images, or sharper artworks, i can always shoot with my 50mm f/1.4, or get the 85mm f/1.8 or even Tamron 90mm f/2.8, where they have been many photographers' favourite for all time, and they are much more cheaper than we expect! At this range, i think Nikkor 16-85mm VR is fast enough in focusing, and the only mid zoom lens which has VR, also better build and everything is just few grades better than my previous 18-135mm.
It's not too expensive, and i traded in my 2 lenses to compensate for RM700 cheaper for my 16-85mm.
After testing the lens, i have shooted a few pictures in front of my house, in the evening, before the sunset, i found that this lens is amazing. The VRII works very well and allowed me to shoot below 1/20s with sharp result. The images are brighter when viewing it on the LCD of the camera, also on my big LCD monitor. The built quality is superb and i just love the way it co operates with my D300. The images are very sharp, until don't have to sharpen the images in PS too much, sometimes even i don have to sharpen them at all. I just love this lens, and i know i should have got this lens earlier, and not to aim for the expensive pro lenses because i know i cant afford to get it. And most importantly, it's still a hobby, and i am not getting enough clients now to urge me get the best that i can afford:)
So, as a conclusion, i love this lens so much. I will highly reccomend this lens to my friends who is doing photography and using Nikon, of course:)
I will snap more with this lens soon!
