>Check out 85 mm. (That lens gets great reviews on optics.
>I could set my 55-200 at 85 to verify the framing.)
>
I have an 85/1.4 and love that lens for a lot of things. Just be aware that at F1.4, the DOF is REALLY shallow depending on distance from the lens. At the distances you'll be shooting it shouldn't be too bad if your subject is a single person. I wouldn't bet on it to get a person, and a second person behind the first, in focus.

>About underexposure & puahing: from reading the D7000's
>instrumentation, how do I tell how far I can go?: 3-4 stops of
>recovery in PP would be huge.

Go test it in your environment. Shoot at proper exposure, and then dial down the exposure compensation 1-2-3-4 stops and see what you can recover in post. We can tell you what *we* think, but this is not substitute for having your own files on your own computer.

>Speaking of framing, is there a web site that shows frame
>sizes at various focal lengths (for DX & FX) where the
>focal length is a parameter? Might save me a trip to the
>theater.

Yes, these sites exist, but are rather hard to translate into real world. Best to go try it for yourself.

>Also, particular thanks for your responses, because I had
>briefly lost faith in Nikonians: something like 34 people had
>read my post with not one response, until I signalled Stan! I
>thought I was being blackballed because I mentioned the
>C-word. (But then there are other posts that compare Nikons
>& the C-stuff, so I rather doubted that. And I probably
>would have heard from the forum administrator if I had done
>anything objectionable.)

I see much the same sometimes. I wouldn't worry about it too much. And we talk about other camera brands all the time here. I suspect many of us have used several brands of camera, and a lot of us own several brands.


>Anyway, my real name is Alan.

Welcome Alan.

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