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Might seem a bit of a silly question but what is your favourite piece of equipment (other then your camera body) in your kit. Is it a sweet lens, or a trusty tripod, your flash unit ?

If it helps, imagine someone else is kitting you out with all your photograhpy needs and you can only specify one thing out of your entire kit to bring along what would it be ?

My D70Users Optech hand grip strap.

I honestly can say that I love this thing almost as much as the camera itself.

My Pro Loop strap, while it's always attached, has been used maybe two or three times ever, whereas my hand grip strap is always used.

A bubble level spirit!
I want a straight line!!!!!

Matt.k is standing behind me with a baseball bat if he saw the horizon is not straight

If I had to pick ONLY one, it would have to be the SB800 Speedlight !

This thing is like harnessing the sun. Truly an amazing piece of equipment !

One of Nikon's BEST OF range....(along with the 50 1.4D & 70-200VR)

Favourite, hmmmm. Yep, the SB800 probably gets it.

My least favourite, easy, my poxy heap'o'shite soon-to-be-replaced tripod.

My 45P 2.8 manual lens, not much bigger than an end cap, great lens, what more could you want?

Glen wrote:My 45P 2.8 manual lens, not much bigger than an end cap, great lens, what more could you want?

It's hard to find one new now with the price you paid less than 12 months ago.

My Finger

Yeah, SB 800, 17-55 Lens.

Mic.

Tough question. I'd say my 77mm CP filter just nudges out my SB800. Love the effects the CP filter can give - especially with clouds. Better still it was not too expensive

Glen wrote:My 45P 2.8 manual lens, not much bigger than an end cap, great lens, what more could you want?

Curse you!
Curse my lack of employment!

hmmm...

tough one and very mood dependant...

right now my 105.2,8 micro nikkor

Leigh, wouldn't want you to miss out on the vision of this beautiful jewel! Looks small compared to a standard end cap. Still as smooth and as nice to use as always, you will love it when you get one.

Glen,
You're the worst teaser

Birddy, he knows he wants one!

Unfortunately the start of this thread was asking what our favourite piece of equipment in our kit is. If it was open to which piece of equipment we WANTED most, I'd select the EF 500mm/4 L IS USM...

Most of the bits of equipment I have were selected carefully to fit into my kit, so it's hard to select one as favourite (although at the other extreme there are a couple that annoy me ). I guess the most "exciting" is often the thing that was the most-recent addition!

Glen wrote:Birddy, he knows he wants one!

I want one too, and I have no idea about that lens, its just very cute and small. Any chance you have some photo's shot with it lying around ?


Oh and thanks everyone for the interesting and varied responses.

My Nikkor 50mm f1.4 the lens i ever owned it's very tight, but wide open it has the best quality bokeh and produces a sharper image than my 12-24DX at f8

Hard to choose between my 85mm F1.4 and my Really Right Stuff L-Bracket.

The lens because it is a work of art in itself. The bokeh is beautiful, the build is solid and it's got so much amazing glass in it. When opened up to 1.4 there is such an amzingly big hole through the lens. A marvel.

The L-Bracket because it has saved my camera from damage several times. It's not easy holding on to a moving boat with one hand and taking photos with the other. It's paid for itself for just that alone. (Oh yeah, plus i can attach the camera to my Manfrotto quickly and easily)

I will have to say my SB800 as well.

Craig, slightly off topic, but here are 2 shots just taken with the 45P, the first gives a clue to the boke, have a look at the highlights behind the leaves. The 45P is known for good boke, it has rounded blades, not straight like the 50mm series. The rounded blades produce round highlights, wheras the square produce octagonal when stopped down.

Hard one to choose too. But the 17-55DX and the 50mm 1.4 I will hopefully soon have the 70-200VR

My 1G CF card

I'm with MHD - the 105 micro
Besides - how can you not want to take photos of insects????? LOL

Has to be the SB-800, let there be light!

has to be my camera body manual, because without it I'd be stuffed

... Obsolete ...

Glen wrote:

Glen, is that a lens or a bottle top with a hole cut out the middle and a contact lens taped onto it ?!?

I would have to say my Lowepro backpack. Keeps all of my gear at hand.

hehehehe this week my SB800 mmmmm next week who knows.

Sorry, but I've got to take a real soppy angle to this question.. My best accesssory is my wife.

She never complains when I spend hours in the evening either doing PP work or reading the latest gibbering on this forum She doesn't complain about the money I spend, the closest I have ever got is a raised eyebrow when I was telling her what a bargain a 70-200VR is at ~$2.5K

She has come to expect that family weekend outings now are decided on photo opportunity criteria rather than actual enjoyment.

Can't complain about that...

Who can say? It's like choosing between children!

I guess if I'm pressed it would be the SB800, followed closely by the 12-24DX.
Then again, the kit lens itself is pretty invaluable, and the 50mm 1.8, my tripod, a few filters (definately the CP's), etc, etc, etc.

Glen, I hate you for that lens
Sigh, so many lenses, so little time!!!

My 50mm 1.8 lens.

VK4CP wrote:

Alpha_7 wrote:Might seem a bit of a silly question but what is your favourite piece of equipment (other then your camera body) in your kit. Is it a sweet lens, or a trusty tripod, your flash unit ?

Craig, you started this topic... but forgot to tell us the favourite piece in your kit!

Good point VK4CP, one of my motivations behind this thread (other then it being a interesting discussion, was to work out what is missing from my own kit, as so far it's a lot). At present I have the kit lens, 70-300G, two add-on lens (0.45x, 2.0x which could be useless junk I'm undecided), what I now know is dodgey-arse tripod, and a cheap shoulder bag for it all. If I had to chose now, I'd say my 70-300G cheap glass but it's all I've got when I need some reach.
I was hoping this thread would give me an idea of what I should get next, SB-800, tripod, maybe another cheap/well priced lens. Either way I think I want to visit a few mini-meets before I make any decisions (other then maybe a remote, I think I can get that past the wife ).

johndec wrote:Sorry, but I've got to take a real soppy angle to this question.. My best accesssory is my wife.

She never complains when I spend hours in the evening either doing PP work or reading the latest gibbering on this forum She doesn't complain about the money I spend, the closest I have ever got is a raised eyebrow when I was telling her what a bargain a 70-200VR is at ~$2.5K

She has come to expect that family weekend outings now are decided on photo opportunity criteria rather than actual enjoyment.

Can't complain about that...

...we must be married to the same woman, or just lucky

Favourite camera accessory?

It is a toss up between the tripod and SB800. I could not be without either.

Cheers

My user manual !

Currently the 50mm 1.8 but that could change tomorrow

The Kit lens, for its versatility...

Link.

PiroStitch wrote:Currently the 50mm 1.8 but that could change tomorrow

Hehehe! it should change tomorrow 100%

hmm well i havn't got much stuff yet but definatly my mini trekker becasue fat lot of good any of the stuff is if i havn't got it with me also it keeps everything dry and safe everywhere from drains to dusty bike trails

Can't say I have a real favourite.

I really like both my Kit Lens and my Sigma 105 Macro.

My 70-300ED is probably my least favourite - it does the job but that's about it.

My SB800 is good, but I haven't put the time into learning to use it most effectively.

My Minitrekker gets all my gear everywhere with decent comfort.

My tripod doesn't get much use, but it was a bargain so that qualifies it for liking

My 70-200 f2.8. Simply a magic zoom.

Definately #1 the 70-200VR........
#2 my recently purchased SB800 & 50mm 1.8 lens which have performed increadibly well during my learning process (and still much more learning to do).

As per the list below

easily the sb800

hands down. . .

my new hoya close up filters.......