I need your help to convince my wife...

[D300fan]

that I need a fast zoom lense to shoot weddings. I have been hired by a local photography company to shoot weddings. I have a D3 & D300 along with a 50mm 1.8, 85mm 1.8, 18-200VR and a 70-200 VR 2.8 lense. She dosen't understand why, if I have these lenses, do I need to spend the money for an additional lense. So, first I need your professional assistance in explaining to her what the benefits are to having such a lense.

With that being said, do I go for the Nikon 14-24 2.8 or the Nikon 24-70 2.8?Which lense will best suit me with my current line up? Which of these two lenses will I get the most use out of? With all this in mind, I will be venturing into portrait work, so I want to take this consideration as well.

Your thoughts and advice would be greatly appreciated!

George

 

[Simon Evans]

24-70 for the d3, 70-200 on d300.

You have flash as well?

 

[D300fan]

I have 2 SB-800's

You have flash as well?[/QUOTE]

I'm sorry, yes I have two SB-800's along with a Quantum 2 x 2 battery pack.

George

 

[Simon Evans]

You have flash as well?

I'm sorry, yes I have two SB-800's along with a Quantum 2 x 2 battery pack.

George[/QUOTE]

I would take an sb800 + 5 x aa set up.

 

[Simon Evans]

I'm sorry, yes I have two SB-800's along with a Quantum 2 x 2 battery pack.

George

opps, wrong post!

Fine, take them too.

 

[Electromen]

Here's my setup for weddings:
D3 with 24-70 f/2.8
D300 w grip and 17-55 f/2.8
70-200 f/2.8 VR that gets switched back and forth between the two bodies
Four SB-800 with two Quantum Turbo 2x2
Two umbrella stands.
Tripod
Custom Bracket Pro M
Stroboframe bracket Pro RL
two SC-29

I have the 14-24 f/2.8 and the only way I use it for weddings is the wide church or reception shots, not for people. The 18-200 and 105 f/2.8 macro VR aren't used for weddings although I own them.

 

[D300fan]

While I appreciate your responses, I need you to express why it's so important to have either one of these lenses for the wedding business.

Cheers
George

 

[greyflash]

I am sort of with your wife, she sounds like a sensible lady. You have the 18-200mm VR and the 70-200 VR lens giving you good coverage from a modest wide angle to a telephoto. If anything those two together seems like a lot of overlap and looking back you might have made a better choice. For me personally my favorite wedding lens is the 17-55mm coupled with the 70-200mm. I would go with what you have until you earn the money to pay for another lens. Take your wife to dinner for being so sensible. Sometimes we get our wants and needs mixed up.

 

[P'Cola-Roy]

I agree with gordon about the overlap. So if you are serious about weddings, ditch all 3 (50,85 & 18-200) and put that money towards a 17-55 (my choice) or some would say the 24-70 or 28-70 2.8 lens.

Save some money from your jobs and get yourself another walk around lens, (24-1240 18-200, 18-135) later on down the road. The important thing is to let your photo jobs pay for your future investments in gear. Kinda hard for them to fuss too much if you are not spending normally budgeted household money.

This is what I always try to do.


Good luck

Oh, I forgot... the rationale for getting the lenses is low light no flash, with the ability to go wider or closer with out being too intrusive to the ceremony.

 

[Dutchwindmill]

Perhaps you should have stayed single?.No problem whatever with your better/worse* halve convincing here of your needs?
Serious now.. Are you fulltime photographer or just a hired help?.I would use the money i earn with my photos to pay my glass.This way she have nothing to complain.To me it looks like you have enough glass to do your job good.

 

[The Ben]

as soon as i read "wife..." I knew. Good luck w/ this one. I have the same issue w/ mine.

 

[Electromen]

I guess I'm lucky, my wife never questions my purchases. I've paid for equipment with the money I earned from photography. This year the money is going toward my son's college tuition., so I don't have advice on convincing with your wife.

I can tell you that the 24-70 and 70-200 are perfect on the D3 for weddings.
If your shooting for someone else, you're gaining experience and earning money. Before you go out on your own I'd buy the 24-70.

 

[LDB415]

What's the household budget like? Are you "better than you deserve"? Do you know what that statement means? How much work does this hired position potentially provide? Are you familiar with the saying "if mama ain't happy ain't nobody happy"? How much does your wife know about photography? If she's not familiar with zooms, lens speed etc. then show and explain it to her using the equipment you already have and cover why it's going to be beneficial. Start the conversation with you are going to see how the gig goes and save up part of the pay toward the lens you need, later, if it goes well.

My take on it is you aren't getting a lens for a few weeks/months. If you are "better than you deserve" it shouldn't take long. If not, then it definitely should be a while. My suggestion would be the following:

After each paid assignment calculate your costs and determine your net income from the shoot. I have no idea what the numbers would be so here's some made up ones. You have to drive 3 round trips from home to locations over the course of things to shoot rehearsal dinner, wedding etc. and that totals 183 miles. The mileage rate is now 58cpm I believe, so that's $106.14 vehicle expense. You get paid $500 for the work. You take 25% of your net of 393.86 or $98.47 and put that into a savings account to accumulate toward your lens. You put the rest into household budget. Good luck.

 

[Gary7770]

"She dosen't understand why, if I have these lenses, do I need to spend the money for an additional lense."

Do YOU understand why you need it? Because if you do, then you really shouldn't need our help, unless of course your trying to convince yourself as well.

That being said, if your just starting to shoot weddings, I hope that this company hired you as a second shooter. If thats the case, sorry, you don't need another lens... 50mm on the D3 is going to be plenty wide enough for group shots if you "HAVE" to do them. (I wouldn't expect a second shooter to have to do this).

Gary

that I need a fast zoom lense to shoot weddings. I have been hired by a local photography company to shoot weddings. I have a D3 & D300 along with a 50mm 1.8, 85mm 1.8, 18-200VR and a 70-200 VR 2.8 lense. She dosen't understand why, if I have these lenses, do I need to spend the money for an additional lense. So, first I need your professional assistance in explaining to her what the benefits are to having such a lense.

With that being said, do I go for the Nikon 14-24 2.8 or the Nikon 24-70 2.8?Which lense will best suit me with my current line up? Which of these two lenses will I get the most use out of? With all this in mind, I will be venturing into portrait work, so I want to take this consideration as well.

Your thoughts and advice would be greatly appreciated!

George

 

[D300fan]

End of subject.......

I went to the local Penn Camera and picked up the lens today. I want to thank some of you for your kind words and suggestions. There always has to be a smart a** in every group :Angry:. At any rate, I put my 18-200 on Craigs list last night and I sold it for $550 this morning. Needless to say, I put that towards the new lens. Thanks everyone!:smile:

George

 

[staceylynn]

Do wifes really have that bad of a reputation? Geez.

 

[kjohansen]

I went to the local Penn Camera and picked up the lens today. I want to thank some of you for your kind words and suggestions. There always has to be a smart a** in every group :Angry:. At any rate, I put my 18-200 on Craigs list last night and I sold it for $550 this morning. Needless to say, I put that towards the new lens. Thanks everyone!:smile:

George

Which lens? I had a 17-55, sold it. Bought a 24-70, than lens rocks!

 

[Firestorm_westy]

Do wifes really have that bad of a reputation? Geez.

Like everything I guess... Some are fine (mine is, very supportive) - Maybe I just got lucky?!

 

[hotrod4x5]

IMO you blew your lens budget on a D3. While the D3 is a magnificent tool, you could have gotten a second D300 and taken the extra 3 grand and spent it on lenses.

Sell the 18-200 and either the 50 or 85 to pay for either a 17-55 for your D300, or 24-70 for the D3.

 

[jafo]

You are getting paid for these jobs, right? Maybe make due with what you can on the first few jobs, then use YOUR earnings to better your equipment so you can do better (with less compromise) in future weddings. This isn't a hobby is it? If it is, then I'm with your wife. If it's a job, you call the shots, not her.