For anybody looking in this section, we didn't get these overnight. What you see below is the progression of many years worth of upgrading previous lenses. There were many family arguments over spending the cash to get some of this stuff, but as we got more and more into photography, it just became a neccessity to have better glass choices. Great glass helps with clarity and sharpness, which is what we are all about. Great glass doesn't automatically make a great photographer (unfortunately).
AF-S NIKKOR 600mm f/4G ED VR:
Reality is, I honestly never thought we would have the ability to own this $10,000 plus lens. I had just sold my Australian house and the money was there in the bank, we had been disappointed in the loss of magnification when we switched to the full frame sensor of the D3X. I know we could have cropped, but that would defeat the whole purpose of the D3X.
I love the photos this lens takes, there is something about the look of the final photo I really have come to like. It was put through some pretty bad weather when we went to Alaska and I can say that if it was not for this lens we wouldn't have gotten the beautiful shots we did. We did not need 600mm in Alaska, but how well this lens handled low light and poor weather conditions was just amazing.
One drawback is its size and weight, it is a little large to be carting on an airplane. We found a bag that fits sizing requirements for carry on and we have taken it to Alaska and Yellowstone without any problems.
AF-S NIKKOR 200-400mm f/4G ED VR II:
There is a funny story attached to this lens. When my wife first wanted it, I went ballistic, I said there is no way we are spending $5000 on a lens. We can't afford it and that is that. Well she persisted to bug me for the next couple of months and finally I relented and we bought it. I gotta admit when it arrived there was something sweet about how the whole setup looked when attached to the camera.
We went out and took our first wildlife photos with it. Once we got back and reviewed them on the big screen, we were totally impressed. The clarity, sharpness and detail in the images were just impressive. From that moment on that lens was permanently attached to me for almost all wildlife situations. It hand holds beautifully, I find it a dream to use when shooting a moving target like a raptor in flight.
We recently decided to upgrade our first version to the VRII model, mainly because we felt Nikon has improved the glass as well.
This lens is just such an important part of our wildlife photography, we definitely recommend it to anybody who is serious about quality images.
AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II:
This is a personal opinion, but I think this is one of the best lenses Nikon has ever made. It is fast, great auto focus, awesome glass and takes amazing photos.
Simply put, if the subject is close enough to fill the frame the way we want it and we had a choice, we would use this lens over the 200-400mm.
A few years back when we were participating in a PRO level wildlife shoot and the subject was approaching head on at speed we had trouble getting a sharp image with the 200-400mm lens. It was almost like the lens couldn't focus fast enough and we would get a slightly soft image. After scratching our heads we decided to try with the 70-200mm, bingo!! It was faster and handled that situation perfectly.
We also use this lens in landscape photography, bring a waterfall closer, mountains or backgrounds closer.
AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED:
This is an impressive standard zooms lens that delivers very sharp images with great contrast.
It is awesome in low light conditions and is just a very good quality glass lens.
We use this lens a lot - landscapes, portraits, wildlife and so on.
It is a little on the expensive side, but this lens was built with the professional in mind and is meant to last a lifetime. We love everything about this lens, there are some minor issues but we use lens correction in raw converter to correct them.
AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED:
I am going to borrow the words from a website called www.photozone.de - their verdict on this lens says it all.
The Nikkor AF-S 14-24mm f/2.8G ED N is a phenomenal lens. It is the sharpest ultra-wide angle lens tested to date. The resolution figures are simply stunning and unprecedented specifically at 14mm and that's straight from the maximum aperture setting. So far it is the only lens in this class which has the potential to scale beyond the pixel-density of 10mp APS-C sensors. And it doesn't even stop here - distortions and lateral CAs are very well controlled and vignetting is basically a non-issue in field conditions. Naturally even this Nikkor is not perfect in the true sense - it can flare quite a bit with streaking light sources and the bokeh can look a little rough although that's quite typical for lenses featuring aspherical elements. The build quality is exceptionally high and in line to the professional grade scope of the lens. The immense front element may be responsible for the superb performance but it prohibits front filters thus leaving the protruding front element quite vulnerable - a bit of a worrisome thought regarding the high value of this lens. Nonetheless - taking the sum of its qualities into account the verdict can only be ... highly recommended!
AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8D IF-ED:
I am going to borrow the review words from a website called www.photozone.de.
The Nikkor AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8D IF-ED is a professional grade lens and it delivers accordingly specifically regarding its superb build quality. The optical quality is on a very high though not unprecedented level. The center resolution is superb followed by generally very good borders. Distortions are quite pronounced at 17mm but not a real problem beyond. Vignetting is very well controlled except at 35mm @ f/2.8. CAs are very low for a zoom lens. All-in-all the performance is very similar to the AF-S 17-55m f/2.8G IF-ED DX in the overlapping range so for (APS-C) DSLR-only users it may make sense to stick to the dedicated lens. For a dual-use strategy (film + digital and possibly full frame DSLRs in the future) the AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8D IF-ED remains a quite obvious choice.
AF Micro-Nikkor 200mm f/4D IF-ED:
This is my wife's lens, she just loves macro photography and she absolutely loves this lens.
The 200mm Micro is a dream lens for macro photography, you just wouldn't believe how sharp and awesome it is.
You can also use it in telephoto situations, we have never done that because of the other lenses we have.
Unfortunately most of the macro stuff we have taken is on slide film and hence you don't see samples on our website. We will get some up and I guarantee attached to a D3X that the images are going to be unbelievable.