My Bag

Photographers seem a wee bit obsessed with the contents of their camera bags. Being stuck in bed with the 'flu today I thought I'd take a rattle through the contents of my own bag of tricks.

Camera
I've just upgraded from the Nikon D90 to the Nikon D800. I loved my D90 having had both the D40 and D80 before it. It was like an old friend and I knew it inside out. The D800 is a beast of a camera, high resolution and full frame. It is amazing in controlled light situations (still life, portraiture, studio work) but also copes admirable with the other things I like to shoot (street photography, sports, night shots/light painting). Big file sizes but amazing performance when shooting in raw. I'm getting to grips with some of the many built-in features such as an intervaluometer, time lapse, HDR and so on. It's going to take years to get to the same level of comfort as I had with the D90.
My back up camera remains a little old reliable D60. Unfortunately it doesn't autofocus with most of the lenses listed below, but I can live with that.

Lenses
My go-to lens is the Nikon 24-70 f2.8. Sharp as a tack, fast and versatile. If I had only one lens, this would be the one.
For sports and street stuff, I often use the Tamron 70-200 f2.8 which is not quite as sharp or fast as the Nikon equivalent but does a pretty good job.
I use a Tamron 10-24 f3.5 for my wide angle stuff such as landscapes
I use two primes, the Nikon 50mm f1.8 and the Nikon 60mm f2.8. Both are lovely lenses for portraits and the Nikon 60mm is a superb little macro lens.
I also use the Lensbaby composer, and have tele/wide lenses for it as well as a set of macro filters.

Tripod
A Vanguard Alto Pro with a Vanguard ball head. Solid, stable and easy to use.

Other Stuff
Two cheap and nasty flashguns, a Nikon SB-28 which is older than me and a Nissin 644i. Both can be set on manual which is why I got them.
YungNuo wireless flash triggers. One of the cheapest wireless trigger sets around but they are simple to use and reliable 99.9% of the time with only the odd mis-fire.
Microfibre towel for wiping camera/lenses in the damp
Lenspen and wet/dry cleaning wipes
Torch for night shooting and light painting
Cards. I have had to invest in bigger and faster cards since getting the D800. Mostly 32Gb/16Gb cards in both CF and SD formats for the dual slots in the D800. Depending on what I'm shooting I have my camera set to use the second card as overflow or as a JPG backup to the RAW files on the primary card slot.
Spare battery. Never leave home without making sure I have a fully charged battery in my bag just in case.

I don't do kit reviews but........

I've been after a half decent tripod for ages. My previous one was more light-weight than a 16 year old after three bottles of WKD Blue and fell over just as often. Santa brought me the Vanguard Alta pro 263AT tripod with a Vanguard SBH-30 ball head. The tripod is magnificent - aluminium/magnesium alloy - which makes it strong and stable and also very light to carry (2.5 Kgs to be exact).

The SBH-30 Head is very simple and also very stable. One knob to lossen the ball socket and then tighten again. Only one hand needed and the accuracy seems pretty good with very little slippage when tightening up.


I also have a wee thing for macro photography and really fancied a tripod with a centre column that could go horizontal if needed. I'd seen this feature on some of the very fancy Giotto tripods. This chap does it and does it simply, easily and with the minimum of fiddling, swearing and foot-stamping. Again, very stable and was quite happy holding a D90 with a fairly heavy Sigma 105mm lens attached in a horizontal position.


Extras are also included. There's a little spring mounted hook in the centre column to hang a weight from and also a rock bag thingy which suspends from the three legs. Handy for one's packed lunch. Two easy to read spirit levels and feet which go from rubber pads to spikes in a few twists.

All in all, I'm dead chuffed with this pup and would rate it as at least equal to the equivalent Giotto or Manfrodo set up, both of which are mucho expensive compared to this.