Gear Talk

A quick note about gear

I rarely - if ever - talk about gear. I do reviews for a few companies but they are always either confidential or blind to the public and always focused on specific aspects related to my photography, but I really do not think about gear more than once or twice a year and then only when something goes wrong or, due to the passage of time, I need to replace a specific item.However I get a number of messages asking me about what gear I use, what camera, which strobe, my settings and, inadvertently, some of these conversations expand into gear comparison and much more. So I thought I'd put together a simple list of my main gear and how it's used. So, without further ado, here it is:

Nikon Z9Main camera body. Used pretty much extensively for 75-80% of shots due to its high MP count and excellent performance. Focusing can be challenging at times.

Nikkor S 24-70/2.8Lens pretty much permanently attached to the Z9 and used as the main lens. Usually with a 2-32 VND attached. Extremely sharp, very fast and an excellent performer all around

Nikkor S 70-200/2.8

Essentially my no.2 lens, usually attached to the Z9, mainly for specific shots needing the distance or the background separation. Main lens during action photography.

Nikkor S 14-30/4

Excellent lens and a really good performer, despite it's f/4 aperture. It lives permanently on my backup body (the Z7II) and covers most of my video needs

Nikon Z7 II

A really good performer and an excellent second body - comparable MP count and ISO performance means that when I use the two bodies in a single shot, I can easily mix images.

Nikkor F 85/1.4

This is my go-to portrait lens and comes, permanently attached to the FTZ adapter and with its own VND filter (because of the different size). Would not trade it for the world as it creates, in my view, the best bokeh.

Nikkor F 200-500/5.6

My one remaining long zoom (gave up the 400 and 600 ones) I use in those rare occasions I shoot wildlife and sports. Simple, powerful and with excellent resolution.

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Nikkor F 105/2.8 Macro

A remnant of the days when I thought macro lenses were the ultimate portrait bokeh machines. These days it only comes out when shooting food or other scientific elements

Nikkon F 16/2.8 Fisheye

You'll be shocked how useful a fisheye can be in really close quarters, especially indoors. Combined with the high MP count in my cameras it allows me to crop to need even when shooting in adverse conditions.

Godox AD 1200Pro

I cannot adequately describe what an amazing light this is - sure, it has some weight, but it puts out incredible light, time after time, without missing a beat, in the worse possible conditions. A real workhorse.

Modifiers

I use many different modifiers, but my go-to ones are five, all pretty much the same: 165cm, 150cm, 120cm, 80cm and 65cm octa. The 120, 80 and 65 come with a grid. The 80 and 65 are Bowens fit, the others are parabolic umbrellas.

Bags

Contrary to a lot of photographers, I'm over the bag-collecting phase. I have a Dome F1-X as my go-to bag for 80% of my assignment work and a smaller F3 for day-to-day work. End of story. I buy them in bulk when they're on sale.

Tripod/ Stand Bags

I have about a dozen stand bags, mostly for storage. When I travel for assignment I carry two stand bags: a 1,5m, 4-compartment one (goes into check-in) and a smaller, 1m one (comes in the plane with me)

VNDs

The K&F Concept ones work fantastically well and I have, as a result, sort of been collecting them. I have one 2-32 stop for each of my lens sizes (77 and 82mm) and a 12-128 stop for emergencies. Plus backups.

Tripods

These days I rarely setup my own studio. So I go for small, light and compact tripods with a min extendable range of 2.3m. I also carry a tripod which can convert to a boom (when I bring the big bag)

Mac Studio M1X/64GB

A beast of a machine which can handle anything and everything i throw at it without even breaking a sweat. Handles my 400k image catalogue like a dream and processes images in instants.

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