Camera gear reviews from a working photographer
I’ve been into photography for over 10 years now and for 7 of those years, I’ve been shooting professionally. Over that time I’ve owned around 10 DSLRs, over 10 lenses and a couple of point and shoots as well. Below is a list of all the gear that’s in my current kit and why they have earned a spot there. There are links on this page that are affiliate links. This means that I may receive a small commission (at no cost to you) if you purchase something through the links provided. You can click here to see the full disclosure.
Nikon D750
This is my workhorse. I’ve taken over 200,000 photos with this camera and have been through everything with this guy. Pretty much every photo on my website, aside from my travel photos are taken with this camera. It does nearly everything that I need it to in a relatively small package. The 3 things that I look for in a work camera are ease of use, autofocus, and low light performance. It's a pretty straight forward camera.
I mean, it’s a Nikon, and they’re generally known to be fairly easy to use and figure out. Since it’s a higher-end Nikon it has a dedicated button for pretty much everything so there are very little dual-purpose buttons.
Autofocus is pretty darn good, even in low light. It doesn't have eye af like some new mirrorless cameras have but its autofocus is certainly good enough to do the trick.
Despite coming out nearly 5 years ago it can still hang with some of the best when it comes to high iso/low light performance. As a wedding photographer, I often shoot at 6400 iso and I don’t think twice about it! The quality of the 6400 iso images is good enough that I can brighten them up a little in post and still have usable files.
The ergonomics of this camera is as good as it gets. Its super easy to shoot one handed. I’ve got small hands and all the buttons are easy to reach and press. Though not directly related to ergonomics, the back flippy screen helps for and low or high angle shots, though I wouldn't use it for any subjects that are moving as shooting in live view for this camera is slow.
No complaints about the build quality. I’ve shot in the rain and snow, even dropped it a few times. Still going without a problem.
Are there any downsides to this camera? Yeah, the buffer is trash. This camera does 6.5fps and after 2 seconds the buffer is done. Just gotta pace yourself with that burst.
The price of this camera has dropped by nearly $1000 since it came out. You can check out the latest price here.
Nikon 24-70 F2.8
Watch the video review.
This is the quintessential lens of most working photographers and I have it with me for all weddings and events. It’s built like a tank, has a constant aperture of 2.8 which is good for low light situations and allows you to get both tight and wide shots with the same lens. I’ve used this lens so much that the zoom ring grip came off and I had to superglue it back on. Click on the image above to see photos that I’ve taken with this lens.
Check out the price on the latest version of this lens here.
Nikon 17-35 F2.8
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I honestly got this lens because I know its wider than what most photographers have so it gives some of my photos a more unique look. With that said, I rarely use it. It’s great for any interior shots as it makes anything that's grand look grander. It has come in handy at times when I’ve been stuck in really tight spaces though. Its also handy for super packed dance floors, though keep in mind because it’s an ultra wide angle lens so you may have to get super close to your subjects for your photos. Click on the image above to see photos that I’ve taken with this lens.
Check out the current price of this lens here.
Nikon 35 F1.8
Watch the video review.
This lens is my second most used lens. I used to not use it as much but have really grown a liking to it. It's small, lightweight, and its pretty darn sharp. 35mm is basically around what the human eye sees so its a pretty versatile lens. I bring it out for engagement shoots for any wide shots that I need, or if I want more intimate looking photos as this lens allows you to shoot pretty close to your subjects. It’s also my go-to dance floor lens because of its low aperture and focal length. Click on the image above to see photos that I’ve taken with this lens.
Check out the latest price of this lens here.
Nikon 85 F1.8
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The Nikon 85 1.8 is a great portrait lens however I mostly use it for shooting ceremonies. I used to have a 70-200 but sold it after not using it for a year so this is my longest lens now. Most of the time it does the trick, and foot zoom is also pretty effective. I like to use it for getting closer up details without getting into peoples spaces. I also like to use it to shoot through things as it tends to blur both the foreground and background out really well. Pretty much 99% of the time I shoot it at F1.8. Click on the image above to see photos that I’ve taken with this lens.
Check out the latest price of this lens here.
Nikon 50 F1.4
Watch the video review.
This is my favourite and most used lens. I’ve also had this lens for the longest out of all the lenses in my kit. I can do entire engagement shoots with this lens, and also can shoot most of a wedding with this lens as well. Its got a shallow depth of field so its great for portraits. I also like to use it for candids as you’re right in there without getting in anyone's space like you would with a 35. Though sometimes in tight spaces a 35 is necessary. Also, since its a standard range lens, if you step back a bit it works as a decent wide! The one bad thing about this lens is that it's not very sharp at 1.4 so I rarely use it at 1.4 For me, this lens is basically glued to F1.8. Click on the image above to see photos that I’ve taken with this lens.
Check out the latest price of this lens here.
Nikon SB600 Flash
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I like this flash so much that I bought it twice! This was my first flash and I used it so much the bulb burnt out. I bought the top of the line at the time Nikon SB910 but found I didn’t use any of its advanced features. All I wanted was something that shot light at varying power outputs and the SB600 did the trick at 1/3rd the price and half the weight. The only trouble is that you can’t find this flash new anymore. There's the new version of this flash, which is the SB700. Its got some fancier features, and it’s bigger but I’m happy to buy this guy used for half the price of the SB700.
Check out the latest price for this flash here.
Godox TT350
Watch the video review.
This is quickly becoming my go to flash. As mentioned above, the only thing I look for in a flash is that it shoots light at varying outputs. And yeah a swivelling head is important too. Well, this flash does everything the SB600 does, but cheaper (new!) and is much lighter as it only takes two batteries. I’m sure the SB600 is a little more powerful but I’m not afraid to turn up my ISO a bit. I actually had the big brother version of this flash, the Godox TT600 but sold it as I found it too big and cumbersome. It was nearly the size of my SB910!
Check out the latest price of this flash here.
Panasonic Eneloop Batteries
If you are using flash, you need these batteries. First off, they are rechargeable, which is great for the environment. The reason you want them though is that their recycle time is through the roof. When these batteries are fresh, I can have them in my flash, shoot on burst at 6.5fps and the flash won’t fade in any of the shots. Even on max power! Now I rarely shoot on max power so I can often get through an 8hr wedding only using one set of these! There's also a pro version of these which have a faster recycle time but they age faster. I’ve had my set of 12 batteries for years and they’re still going strong.
Check out the latest price on these batteries here.
Pelican 0915 SD Memory Card Case
Solid case. Waterproof. Holds 12 SD cards. I’ve got 6 in there and leave them all on one side. Once I’ve filled them up, I move them to the other side. Simple.
Check out the latest price of this memory card case here.
Joby Pro Sling Strap
When I’m working weddings I used a Holdfast strap as I need to have two cameras on me at all times, but for everything else, I use this Joby strap. I love that this strap just screws onto the bottom of the tripod mount on your camera, making it really easy to switch out between the Holdfast strap which also goes in on the tripod mount.
Check out the latest price of this strap here.
Xit XT58CU 58mm Closeup Filter Set
When I first got into photography I took a lot of close-ups but over the years I’ve definitely gotten out of that. Recently, my mentor told me to check out these close up filters that she bought off Amazon for less than $20. I was sceptical at first because when I first got into photography I had a set up close up filters and the image quality from them was absolute trash. My mentor did use hers for her work and her images looked great so I decided to give them a try. I gotta say, they were a solid purchase. If you’re really into macros or gotta take macros for work, then yeah, get a macro. But if you only take close-ups every now and then, these will do the trick! I took the above shot of the Eneloop batteries with these guys. They come in a set of 4 that goes from +1,+2, +4, to +10 for the closest up.
Check out the latest price of these close up filters here.
Fuji X-T100 with an 18-55 F2.8-4 Lens
This is my travel camera and I’m blown away at how good it is; for the most part anyways. Let’s talk about the body first.
For my travel camera, I wanted something small and light. Walking around all day with a big DSLR in a shoulder bag often gave me back pain. With this guy, I hardly notice it’s there sometimes. It comes with this little plastic piece that you can add to the side for extra grip, which I’ve done. The button layout is intuitive and easy to use. The build quality is superb. I was caught in a rainstorm in San Diego and it survived just fine. I fell into the snow while I was in Banff and the whole camera was caked in snow and it was still good to go!
This camera is super easy to use, which is no surprise as Fujis are known to be easy to use and navigate. I’ve got two of the dials set up with custom functions so that it feels as close to my D750 as I can get it to. Because it’s mirrorless I actually mostly shoot with this camera’s screen and not the viewfinder unless it's really bright out. It’s just easier to shoot with the screen, especially when you get a live view of your exact exposure. The screen also flips up and down like the D750, but unlike the D750 it also flips around so that you can use it for selfies, or to film videos of yourself. Also unlike the D750, the screen on the Fuji is a touch screen, allowing you to focus, take photos and zoom in by tapping and pinching.
On the note of video, the video quality isn't great if you’re really into video but for my purposes (to film casual videos of myself) it does the trick. I also like that you can use it's in-camera film simulation for your videos so you don’t have to do any editing for your videos to look good.
I’ve been blown away by the image quality of this camera. Yeah, the colours are nice. That’s expected as Fuji’s are known to have nice colours. The thing that blew me away was the high iso performance of this camera. I expected to be able to only use up to iso 1600 with this camera, maybe 3200. After using this camera, I won’t hesitate to use it at 6400 iso. Now unlike the D750, you gotta nail your exposure at 6400 iso. Editing an image at 6400 iso from this camera is not gonna be a good time. But come on. This camera and lens cost me less than half of what my D750 body-only cost me!
The only downside of this camera is its autofocus speed. Maybe I’m just used to the autofocus speed of a high-end DSLR but the autofocus on the X-T100 feels super slow. It’s also made worse by the fact that its cumbersome to change focus points as it lacks a joystick or something similar. Oh yeah, bonus thing I don’t like about this camera. It’s startup time is atrocious at around 2 seconds. It might not seem like a lot, but if you’re looking at capturing something in the moment, you’re probably gonna miss it. That said if you’re out and about, you can just let the camera go into sleep mode and when you press the shutter halfway down it’ll wake up in about a second.
Next, the lens! I bought the 18-55 F2.8-4 for 3 reasons. First, it’s range. As this is my only lens for my travel camera it needs to work well for a range of things. It’s wide enough to get me the landscape shots I want and has enough zoom to help me get images of things that I want to be a little closer to.
Second, its lower aperture. Being an F2.8-4 lens means that you’ll get more light in your photos, and also more bokeh.
Lastly, it’s image stabilization. Since I don’t have a prime lens with this body, to get more light in I knew I needed to take advantage of its image stabilization. With this lens, I can easily get sharp hand held shots with 1/15th shutter speed or less.
The build quality and optics of this lens are also amazing. It feels solid, the images are nice and sharp and if it matters, it’s made in Japan.
Check out the latest price of the Fuji X-T100 here.
Check out the latest price of the Fuji 18-55 F2.8-4 Lens here.