New member asking for wedding lens advice

j.hook

Hi All. My name is John and I'm 56 yrs old and live in Tx. I have had Nikons for the last 15 yrs. I bought the D70 in 2003 and bought the D700 about 5 yrs ago. I would like to ask a lot of questions about my D700. I do have Ken Rockwell info about the D700 booked marked on my computer.
maybe should ask this question somewhere on the forum, but here goes.
QUESTION: My son is getting married in Aug.2017 in Costa Rica of all places. I only have the Prime 50mm FX lense for my D700. I don't like to use my DX lenses for my D700. So what would be the primary lense to take to Costa Rica? I'm not the wedding photographer, but be taking a lot of pictures of the landscape, sightseeing, and of course some wedding activities. Were renting a big home for the reception, so I guess the prime 50mm would be good for that.

Thank you,

John

Pistnbroke

There are only two people on here who are wedding photographers ( as far as I know) I am one of them.
My best advice would be the the 24-120 F4 but if you buy new work the focus at least 500 times to run it in before you set the fine focus adjust. I guess you are not the wedding photograher but want to be prepaired .. The 50 mm is not wide enough for some wedding shots and not long enought for others. I use the 28-300 but you must deceide. Set your camera on A auto iso 100-6400 f 8 min 1/30 and just blast away. I always use jpeg large basic . If you use flash only shoot landscape if its in the shoe or you will get horrible side shaddows ,Crop later. The 24-8 5
vr is another very sharp lens I like and very cheap if the dollars hurt.

PB_PM

Depending on where you are sitting, the 50mm isn't bad. The D700 is more than up to the task, I shot my sisters wedding with a D700. I shot many of the images with the macro 60mm F2.8G or 70-200mm F2.8G VR. I wouldn't go with shutter speeds below 1/50s with a non stabilized (VR/IS) lens, or under 1/125s for dancing or moving subjects. If you are indoors a flash would really help, an SB-700 would do the job well.

What you might want to do is see if you can rent a lens (24-70mm F2.8), but be careful since some rental places won't let you take the lenses out of the country.

spraynpray

Yes, as Pistnbroke said, to cover all that with one lens you need the 24-120VR but a good second would be the 24-85 VR. No one prime lens will give you good results in all those areas.

Pistnbroke

Dont get pulled into this must have a large aperture lens as even the darkest church is light enough to read a book ! I usually shoot at F8 even in a 13th century church with eco lighting.
For dancing just leave the settings as they are but change to P mode. stand with your back to any disco lights and shoot away . The P will open the lens up fully.the iso will go the the max and you will get great shots .
If you are haveing a photographer from Perto rico check the files you are given before you fly back..insist you have them before you fly ..check they are not just thumbnails or water marked .Its a great scam to ask for more money afterwards for the full size images.

NSXTypeR

If you don't mind not having the flexibility of a zoom, a 50mm might be enough for you. Honestly, if you're not the primary photographer, I'd say don't even sweat it. I'd rather carry a small camera and enjoy the event rather than trying to stress out taking photos.

Pistnbroke

J Hook ..Spraynpray and myself have given you sound advice re the lenses .A fixed lens is not appropriate to weddings particularly when you only have 12MP to crop from. I am sure takeing photos will be part of the enjoyment of the wedding and showing them afterwards. Good excuse to buy a lens !!!

Rx4Photo

I do like the suggestion of the 24-120mm f/4. All of the comments have been targeting the wedding but you WILL be in Costa Rica. So you will want a good focal length for landscapes as you said. The 24 to 36mm end of that lens will be excellent for wide shots of not only the city but the wedding venue as well. It will also take good portraits if you zoom in to , say, 100mm and shoot at f/4 given enough clutter-free space behind the subjects. Also, it will be a good wedding gift to yourself (chuckle) for gaining a Daughter-in-Law.

MegapixelSchnitzel

Costa Rica is a magical place. You will be using your camera for a lot more than a few wedding snaps. Take some good, wide, glass and a tripod if you can stow the gear.

heartyfisher

you have many years with only a d700 and 50mm. I don't think you really need a new lens. just enjoy the wedding and location..and use YOUR setup. the setup that you are used to. the setup that is second nature to you..... You dont want to be fiddling with knobs and buttons. and wonder why the VR is behaving weird...when the kiss is being executed.

Ironheart

@heartyfisher makes an excellent point. Whatever you decide to purchase, get it now, and practice, practice, practice before you head on your trip.

Pistnbroke

The OP could buy a DX camera for those lenses he has ..the D7100 is real cheap at present Grey ..I just bought one . then he would have two cameras..but we dont know if he has any Zooms in DX .....
The D3300 works well and does good video once you got over the psychological shock of being seen with one .....I only sold mine because it has no fine focus adjust for the Tamron 150-600 and it needed +6