Daily Archives: February 20, 2013

I got a comment from my dear friend, and sister Catherine Martin about gear and I wanted to expand on the issue of the weight of your gear!  Why is weight a factor?  Let’s set some ground rules, if you are young, under 50, and in good physical condition, weight is much less of a factor. If you are like me and not in tremendous condition and well over 60!!!, it is!!!  Only you know how much you can carry without being uncomfortable.

 

Here is what I’ve learned about trying to carry too much weight:  It’s not fun, that’s the short description, the longer version is; when you wrestle to with too much weight, too big a bag, or giant backpack, it makes making images work, sometimes hard work!  The more you have to think about those things the less you will enjoy shooting and the more your vision will slip as you struggle with fatigue.  For me, it’s just not worth it.  I love the fast f 2.8 glass and they make spectacular images, but I’m not willing to trade the joy of shooting for that!  Fortunately I don’t have to sacrifice image quality for back health!  Today some great alternatives exist.  Every camera systems has lighter alternatives to the heaviest gear.

 

Below is an illustration of the two prime zooms from Nikon the 14-24 and 70-200 both f 2.8 maximum aperture, and the 16-35 & 70-300 f 4 and f 4.5 respectfully.  The difference in weight?  The f 2.8s are virtually twice the weight of the f 4 lenses!!!  Multiply this by all the other gear in the bag! You got it, lots of extra pounds!

 

 

The Bottom Line:  If you are young and strong, and love to haul a lot of weight around, by all means go for the fastet glass, it sure has advantages, but if you’re not, think about the less heavy alternatives, it will make your shooting days a lot more pleasant and your images will be better when you’re not having to stop shooting in prime light to go and  try to find a tube of Ben-Gay!!

 

Just imagine how much less a Nikon Series 1 V2 and a couple of lenses would weigh!!!!

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim