Hi friends,
I ordered a LOT of Nikon equipment today and am now eagerly waiting for it to arrive. All equipment is high end (read - beyond my means and ability) but I hope to get the best out of it with sheer hard work and practice. Here is equipment ordered:
Nikon D700
Nikkor 16-35 f/4 vrII
Nikkor 24-70 f/2.8
Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 vrII
2 SB-600s
MB-D10 grip

I currently am a Sony A700 shooter. I really like my Sony A700 but unfortunately it will have to go soon. Can't say that I won't miss it but frankly I was a little apprehensive of the Sony future strategies besides various technical shortcomings that prompted me to change systems.

I certainly hope to get as much knowledge as possible by becoming an active reader/contributor to this forum in the future.

Jigar,

Let me be the first to welcome you to Nikonians, you will learn a lot here for I do all the time.
Congrads on all the new equipment, it looks as you got the best, but you will not be sorry.
Any questions this is the place to ask.

Phil..........

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

As has been said above, you purchased some very nice equipment. If you decide to make use of the ability of your D700 to "eat light" you may want to consider the 50 1.4 and/or the 85 1.4 and you may then find yourself really enjoying shooting simply with available light.

Enjoy your new equipment!!

_________
Nathan

"I like photographers — you don't ask questions." Ronald Reagan. (To White House News Photographers Assn 18 May 83)

"The best indices of a person's character are (a) how they treat people who can't do them any good, and (b) how they treat people who can't fight back"

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

Welcome aboard, you have quite a kit that many would like to have.

Bob Baldassano
My Nikonians Gallery

"Nikonians membership - My most important photographic investment, after the
camera"

Retirement is a gift of time - Don't waste it!

Everything that you have ordered sounds great and is first class. The only thing that you may want to reconsider are the two SB600s. As long as you have spent more than you can afford, you may want to consider purchasing at least one SB900.

>Everything that you have ordered sounds great and is first
>class. The only thing that you may want to reconsider are the
>two SB600s. As long as you have spent more than you can
>afford, you may want to consider purchasing at least one
>SB900.

I am little concerned about SB900 safety protection issue. I haven't read a lot about the actual issue but noticed that there definitely are a LOT of people who have this issue.

Excellent EXCELLENT choices Jigar

Very well balanced selection of items to go with the D700. You are going to have a ball!

And welcome to Nikonians by the way,
Best regards, SteveK

'A camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.' -- Dorothea Lange
My Nikonians gallery
My Nikonians Blog

I never heard of an amateur photographer buying such a huge batch of expensive high end camera equipment all at one time. I would think that it would be enough of a challenge just to learn how to use the D700 with one zoom after switching over from a Sony system. Maybe there's more to this story than we yet know.

Bob

I don't think that there is anything sinister about buying $9,000 worth of high quality camera gear that he could sell next week for over $7,000 if he didn't like it. My neighbor just bought a $60,000 sports car to drive on weekends. He'd be lucky to sell it tomorrow for $40,000. He's still a great guy.

>I don't think that there is anything sinister about buying
>$9,000 worth of high quality camera gear that he could sell
>next week for over $7,000 if he didn't like it. My neighbor
>just bought a $60,000 sports car to drive on weekends. He'd
>be lucky to sell it tomorrow for $40,000. He's still a great
>guy.


Great guy..Stupid, but still a great guy...

Yeah, that's what I figured. He let me drive it tonight. Then, he told me that it was an antique and that it was sold. He got $82,500 for it. "Stupid?" Who are you referring to, you or me?

Hey..keep your shirt on...As you said..he just bought a 60K car and would be lucky to get 40K if he sold it...Anybody that would take a 33% hit on something they just bought is "Stupid" or does "Not very smart" make my statement more palatable?...

jpFoto,

In no way did I mean to imply that there was something sinister in the poster's purchase of all of that high end Nikon gear in one fell swoop, but I consider it to be highly unusual and possibly unwise, especially in view of the fact that the Nikon system is new to him. I think that most of us acquire our camera gear gradually and move on to the next acquisition only after we have used and become thoroughly familiar with the photo equipment we already have. The poster is no doubt thrilled with his new purchases. I would be too! However, his method of acquiring new camera gear is not one that I would recommend to anybody, even if they had the big bucks to pull it off without putting a serious dent in the family budget.

Anybody else care to weigh in on this issue?

Bob

First of all thank you all for all the kind words.

Regarding me being an amateur, yes I am one, but on my way to become a semi-professional (atleast). The eventual goal is to become a fulltime professional.
Perhaps I should have mentioned that I did 2-3 small paid gigs over the last couple of months and the clients have liked it so much that their friends and aquaintences and they themselves are offering me more gigs.

Yes, to start out with, to buy such equipment is unheard of but I have a lot to sell from my sony system so hopefully it will offset large chunk of the cost of my new equipment.

With this equipment, I know that I am covered for a very long time as far as image quality, build quality and focal length coverage, so hopefully I won't have to buy any additional lenses (and camera too) except for speciality lenses like probably a macro lens and a super telephoto but those would be cheaper options as they would only for my hobby . Those could wait.

Bob,
Appreciate the concern. But I assure you, no dent in family income whatsoever. Day job is lucrative . Having said that, I completely and whole heartedly agree with you.

Jigar

>jpFoto,
>
>In no way did I mean to imply that there was something
>sinister in the poster's purchase of all of that high end
>Nikon gear in one fell swoop, but I consider it to be highly
>unusual and possibly unwise, especially in view of the fact
>that the Nikon system is new to him. I think that most of us
>acquire our camera gear gradually and move on to the next
>acquisition only after we have used and become thoroughly
>familiar with the photo equipment we already have. The poster
>is no doubt thrilled with his new purchases. I would be too!
>However, his method of acquiring new camera gear is not one
>that I would recommend to anybody, even if they had the big
>bucks to pull it off without putting a serious dent in the
>family budget.
>
>Anybody else care to weigh in on this issue?
>
>Bob

Welcome aboard to both the D700 and Nikonians. They are a great pair. But you did forget a very important item you are really going to need - the fabulous book "Mastering the Nikon D700" by Young and Johnson and available from Nikonians. It will get you ramped up to your the new world much faster.

KenL

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

Congrats on your kit. You will no doubt have a great learning experience with it. Hey, there are a lot of worse things to spend money on. Atleast that is what I tell my wife. Welcome and enjoy!!!

Great set up!! You are going to love it. I got mine a couple of weeks ago and it is phenomenal. I have pretty much the same lens set up with the addition of the new 28-300 as a walk around. Good luck with it and wishing you wild success in your career!

Steve (Slip10)
http://slip10.smugmug.com/