I’m back from a 3-day company trip to Istanbul. It was great fun but didn’t leave too much time for photography. In addition, I’ve been tapped as the “official company photographer” (unpaid of course) so I was under some obligation to take “official shots”.
With this in mind, I packed the following gear:
- Nikon D700
- 24mm ƒ/2.8 AF-D, 28-80mm ƒ/3.3-5.6G, 50mm ƒ/1.8 AF, and 105mm ƒ/2.5 Nikkor-P
- SB-24 flash
plus all the assorted crap you need to keep a digital camera going nowadays, chargers etc.
The 24mm was packed for those all-important interior shots of churches etc., but it turns out that a wide-angle basically only gives you a great view of all the people sharing the space with you. In addition, in the Hagia Sophia itself there was an exhibition of huge prints by a pro photographer who had had the advantage of no people, great light, and no scaffolding. After seeing that, my desire to capture something unique from one of the most famous buildings in the world faded.
The zoom is a loaner from my stepdaughter. It turns out I used it the most, as we spent a lot of time in buses, and really didn’t have much time to search out the ideal location. It’s also a very handy lens for social photography with flash, of which I did quite a lot.
I had some irritating issues with the 50mm and the 105mm. The former has some wonky contacts which means mounting it sometimes gives you “fEE” errors or an aperture setting of ƒ/96. I’ll try to get to the bottom of the issue going forward.
The 105mm wouldn’t give me focus confirmation when focused to infinity. I haven’t seen this before and it could be something wonky with the confirmation dot / AF subsystem in my body. I just might have to turn it in for a checkup.
I’m heading to Rome soon on a pure vacation trip, and I won’t have access to the zoom. I’ll try to make do with a prime set: 28mm, 50mm for low light, and the 105mm for tele.
