What equipment for which shots.

[maroun.c]

Let's see what equipment you have and what body, lense, other equipment you use for specific shots. A few pics to show off are always welcome.

 

[maroun.c]

I have the following bodies,
Nikon D750
Use it for most of my shoots now due to better iso performance, tilting LCD, better dynamic range of exposure.

Nikon D300
Used it for years and got great results, love the better spread focusing points on it and added focal length I get as it's a crop sensor

My daughters Nikon 3500
More compact than the other 2 bodies, lightweight, easy to carry around, video is better than the D750. Still too small for my hands and the different buttons layout is annoying for someone with multiple camera. Navigating through the options is very different than on the other 2 bodies I shoot.

Lenses

My choice of lense is very dependant on which body I'm using due to the cropped/full frame. My D750 shows vigneting when cropped sensor lenses are used at wider part which I gave to fix by zooming or cropping in PP. Desired focal range and the more.number of.pixels in my Full frame body is still a debate on whether I shoot with cropped sensor and get more.focal range from camera or just use the overall better full frame body with more pixels and crop to zoom. Not a fair.comparison as I do t have the latest cropped sensor body to use with cropped.lenses and really compare.
Full frame 2.8 lenses cost a fortune and not sure if hobbyists would justify the expense.

Nikon 18-200 VR font use it minimally fr tank shots due to longer minimum focusing distance. Being a 5.6 lense at full zoom requires more light. Gets convenient in deeper tanks or public aquariums and when traveling as it's a more versatile body. Less sharp than other 2.8 zooms or fixed lenses.

Nikon 70-300VR mostly same as the 18-200 but use it even less for tank photography due to the longer minimum focusing distance and the I ability to go wider when fish or corals are closer to glass.

Tamron 17‐50 2.8
The only non Nikon I have and I used this for 99 percent of my shots on the D300. Great performance on crop sensor bodies, focuses fine and can focus very close to.ibjects which gives nice magnification on macro shots but still at lower magnification ratios than a true lense. Still did great for macro shots with some cropping in pp. Very sharp zoom even at 2.8 and even if mine wasnt the vibration reduction model for tank shots where we typically have good lighting shooting wide open at iso around 4-600 where my D300 didnt show much noise I could achieve good shutter speeds for swaying corals and even most fish shots. I prefer to use fish with flash so exposure speeds isnt a real issue anyway.
Build quality is inferior into Nikon bodies but for the performance and at 30 percent of the price of the Nikon 2.8 counterpart it made perfect sense. Would love to try the newer vibration reduction model of the tamron 17-50 2.8 but as I'm mostly shooting with the D750 it makes no sense due to the vigneting issues on full frame bodies.
My 17-50 ended up showing some dust behind the front glass element after years of use and weirdly repair center (Nikon one I took it at couldn't open it to clean) need to find a tamron repair center, it doesnt show in images though so not an issue. Again I have used it for years in harsh environments moving from freezing Europe to hot and humid deserts and for top.down shots above tanks.... still my Nikon lenses didnt.show this and can be better serviced at least where I am.

Nikon 50mm 1.4
Sharpest lense I own and being a 1.4 it gets super sharp at 2.8. Focus is critical at 1.4 due to limited DOF. It's a bit too short for my tank that's 34 inch wide front to back. I mostly use it when I have time and want to have perfect quality pics andnpuxle peep without any image quality issues. I take most of my macros with it over extension tubes and can get excellent image quality for objects up to 20 cm from front glass. Build quality is excellent and it's a highly recommended lense. The 1.8 model is. alower cost but still amazing lense to have as well.

Nikon 105 2.8 macro lense
Just purchased it and haven't tried it yet so will delay the review. Reason for going for it vs the tamron one is the added reach as I'll.be using it over a full frame body.

 

[AZMSGT]

Canon 5dM4, 5Drs. 30 and 50 MP camera bodies. The 5Dsr is used for when I can take time creating the shot and don’t need speed or higher ISO. The Mk4 is a great all around camera body.

I’ll be honest, I have 18 lenses, 7 flashes, 4 tripods, 5 monolights, 20+ light shaping softboxes, reflectors and modifiers, 7-8 Grip/Lighting stands, remote operation equipment, DJI phantom 3SE pro, timers, remotes, 3 computers and 2 tablets.. and stuff I can’t even think of.

If I were to list all the equipment and what I use it for I would be here a long time. Many items have multiple purposes and cross from on thing to the other.

Website has photos

KRB Imaging LLC

The Photographic works of Ken Bryant at KRB Imaging

www.krbimaging.com

The highlights:
All Canon Glass

8-15 f4
Fisheye

11-24 f4
real estate and ultawide

16-35 f2.8 lens
Nice zoom wide angle

24-70 f2.8
Great all around lens, portraits included.

24-105 f4
All around lens. Go to for most out door events

70-200 f2.8
Great zoom and portrait lens

100-400 f4.5-5.6
Nice longer distance zoom

100 f2.8 Macro
Go to macro lens

180 f3.5 macro
great macro for when you need to keep a little distance

MP-E 65 1-5x super macro.
almost don’t need a microscope

85 f1.2
portrait lens

135 f2
Portrait, telephoto

24 f1.4
astro photography and wide angle

24 f4 tilt shift
Architecture and special effect

90 f 2.8 tilt shift macro
Macro and tilt shift effect

28-300 f3.5-5.6 zoom
all around event zoom

400 f2.8 telephoto
Sporting events, portrait, air shows

600 f4 telephoto
reach out and touch stuff, sporting events, air shows

Also 1.4 and 2.0 extenders

 

[maroun.c]

Canon 5dM4, 5Drs. 30 and 50 MP camera bodies. The 5Dsr is used for when I can take time creating the shot and don’t need speed or higher ISO. The Mk4 is a great all around camera body.

I’ll be honest, I have 18 lenses, 7 flashes, 4 tripods, 5 monolights, 20+ light shaping softboxes, reflectors and modifiers, 7-8 Grip/Lighting stands, remote operation equipment, DJI phantom 3SE pro, timers, remotes, 3 computers and 2 tablets.. and stuff I can’t even think of.

If I were to list all the equipment and what I use it for I would be here a long time. Many items have multiple purposes and cross from on thing to the other.

Website has photos

KRB Imaging LLC

The Photographic works of Ken Bryant at KRB Imaging

www.krbimaging.com

The highlights:

8-15 f4
Fisheye

11-24 f4
real estate and ultawide

16-35 f2.8 lens
Nice zoom wide angle

24-70 f2.8
Great all around lens, portraits included.

24-105 f4
All around lens. Go to for most out door events

70-200 f2.8
Great zoom and portrait lens

100-400 f4.5-5.6
Nice longer distance zoom

100 f2.8 Macro
Go to macro lens

180 f3.5 macro
great macro for when you need to keep a little distance

MP-E 65 1-5x super macro.
almost don’t need a microscope

85 f1.2
portrait lens

135 f2
Portrait, telephoto

24 f1.4
astro photography and wide angle

24 f4 tilt shift
Architecture and special effect

90 f 2.8 tilt shift macro
Macro and tilt shift effect

28-300 f3.5-5.6 zoom
all around event zoom

400 f2.8 telephoto
Sporting events, portrait, air shows

600 f4 telephoto
reach out and touch stuff, sporting events, air shows

Also 1.4 and 2.0 extenders

Wow that's a great collection of gear.
Have you experimented with multiple flash for fish shots ? I'm tempted to try to setup lights like for studio portraitvsetup with flashes from the front and top of the tank when I have the time.
What lenses do u use for tank shots? I assume the 24-70 would be a favourite?

 

[AZMSGT]

Wow that's a great collection of gear.
Have you experimented with multiple flash for fish shots ? I'm tempted to try to setup lights like for studio portraitvsetup with flashes from the front and top of the tank when I have the time.
What lenses do u use for tank shots? I assume the 24-70 would be a favourite?

Funny thing.. Since my tank is still pretty new I'm to embarrassed to shoot anything in it yet. I only tinkered for a few minutes with my fish and the 100 Macro. Also I do photography for a living, when I get home I want to relax and tend to be real lazy when it comes to using my gear. I will grab my phone or tablet at home to do quick shots for internet stuff.

The one and only time I used my gear on a subject in my tank.

 

[AZMSGT]

Another thing, for instance in my Avatar. I shot that from my drone. It's a 17 ft Saguaro cactus in bloom.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Nikon D3500 with filter kit and 400mm telephoto

 

[najer]

Nikon D5600.
Nikon 40 mm macro.
Nikon 16 - 35 zoom.
Tamron 90 macro.

I don't shoot raw yet as I can't be bothered to learn the pp software, just took this with the 90, coral is about 22 inches away.

 

[SuncrestReef]

I use a Nikon D610 camera with the Nikon 200mm f/4 macro lens. The thing is a beast to handle due to the lens length and weight, so a tripod is a must for coral photography. I shoot most of my macro photos through the tank glass, but occasionally I do top-down photos using a custom-ordered Avast Marine porthole tube:

I set the camera white balance to 10,000K and I don't use PhotoShop or any other editing. These shots are straight from the camera:

 

[maroun.c]

Nikon D3500 with filter kit and 400mm telephoto

400 mm ? How far back from the glass do you shoot ?

 

[maroun.c]

Funny thing.. Since my tank is still pretty new I'm to embarrassed to shoot anything in it yet. I only tinkered for a few minutes with my fish and the 100 Macro. Also I do photography for a living, when I get home I want to relax and tend to be real lazy when it comes to using my gear. I will grab my phone or tablet at home to do quick shots for internet stuff.

The one and only time I used my gear on a subject in my tank.

Great shot. U should use your gear more on tank subjects :)

 

[maroun.c]

Nikon D5600.
Nikon 40 mm macro.
Nikon 16 - 35 zoom.
Tamron 90 macro.

I don't shoot raw yet as I can't be bothered to learn the pp software, just took this with the 90, coral is about 22 inches away.

Raw post processing can be a simple 4-5 button clicks if in camera shot is reasonably fine. I do much less jpg processing lately and make all of my processing in Adobe raw and convert to jpg

 

[maroun.c]

I use a Nikon D610 camera with the Nikon 200mm f/4 macro lens. The thing is a beast to handle due to the lens length and weight, so a tripod is a must for coral photography. I shoot most of my macro photos through the tank glass, but occasionally I do top-down photos using a custom-ordered Avast Marine porthole tube:

I set the camera white balance to 10,000K and I don't use PhotoShop or any other editing. These shots are straight from the camera:

Wowww!
Nice setup and gear and great shots.
I see more use of longer lenses and not with deeper or wider tanks any reason for that ? Realise itll allow u to isolate ur subject better without cropping and using pixels but how do u get focus so close ? Do you use extension tubes ?

 

[vetteguy53081]

400 mm ? How far back from the glass do you shoot ?

8-10"

 

[SuncrestReef]

Wowww!
Nice setup and gear and great shots.
I see more use of longer lenses and not with deeper or wider tanks any reason for that ? Realise itll allow u to isolate ur subject better without cropping and using pixels but how do u get focus so close ? Do you use extension tubes ?

This lens is a dedicated macro lens, so no extension tubes are needed. It's meant for up-close photos of insects and other tiny subjects. The closest it will focus is about 10" from the front of the lens, and even at that distance the level of detail is amazing.

 

[PanaReefer]

do you use a blue filter on the camera or on the tube?

 

[legendhua]

I use Olympus EM1 markII with Olympus 60mm F2.8 macro len.
P4040237 (2) by legendhua, 於 Flickr


Top-down photos using a DIY tube.
無標題 by legendhua, 於 Flickr

無標題 by legendhua, 於 Flickr

P4040103 (2) 糖果腦 by legendhua, 於 Flickr

P4040221 (2) Acropora Valida by legendhua, 於 Flickr

P4040172 (2) 納蘇塔 by legendhua, 於 Flickr

P4040189 (2) Acropora sp. by legendhua, 於 Flickr


Remote external flash will be used for shooting small objects or fast-moving objects.
P6045703 離機閃 by legendhua, 於 Flickr

P3230023 假綿羊蝦 幼蝦 by legendhua, 於 Flickr

P7230028 幼蝦 by legendhua, 於 Flickr

P8059509 公子小丑 綠奶嘴海葵 by legendhua, 於 Flickr


The Olympus 12-40mm F2.8 PRO is used to capture full-angle scenes.
P4290051 (2) by legendhua, 於 Flickr

 

[Wampatom]

Very nice. You have some unique shots. I have never seen a reflection picture like the last in the series. Also, the picture of the creatures near the surface is also great.