Wow! Great photo! Any correcting done for distortion? Do you have any examples with vertical lines or objects toward the left and right borders?

Thanks! I saw those, but when spending that kind of money, I would rather spend an extra $50 at a B&H (no pro photo store in my town anymore) rather than dealing with an unknown vendor on eBay. I realize a bunch of Hoggers swear by eBay purchasing, but I don’t have that much experience over there. Life is good, but life is short, so I limit the hassles where I can.

Noise, i guess. Without getting back into that interesting discussion of shooting in RAW and bringing seemingly way underexposed photos into usable photos in post, I figure that extra stop might come in handy someday. I do most of my post work in PSE 15, Imagenomic Noiseware Pro and dabble in LR 5 and I find trying to fix a noisy photo tedious. I have never used Photoshop, so I don’t know its capabilities, though I realize they are tremendous. I also have the 2.8 covered with my 24-70mm zoom. If I’m going to bother going just a bit wider, I might as well go for a bit faster lens as well.

Thanks again. That is what I was after.

Thanks for your feedback! How is the distortion?

I saw the review on Rockwell, but again, not much discussion here. Mr. Rockwell has a following, for sure, but I respect the diversity of opinion I get here, so that’s why I posted.

I also see the listing on Adorama. Thanks! I’ll consider it, but will wait for a bit more feedback.

I am looking to add a fast, wide-angle prime lens to my collection. I have the NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8 lens for my Nikon d750 and am considering buying the AF-S NIKKOR 20mm f/1.8G ED. I figure it would let me go a little bit wider, give me a stop better low-light capability, hopefully with only an acceptable amount of distortion. In doing my due diligence, I checked KEH, B&H and Adorama for used lenses and came up empty. I checked Nikon’s website for refurbished and again nothing. eBay had a couple of used ones listed, but mostly what looked like new ones, pretty much at retail. Found plenty of 24mm and 28mm lenses though. It seems to have great reviews, but I rarely see it mentioned on this forum. So either this is a lens that is very well made, performs SO well no one wants to part with when upgrading or is such a niche lens that few people buy it. Can anyone enlighten me on which it may be?

RAID or HD back, although useful and good options, are useless if you lose your electronics to theft or natural disaster. As for security, it is my understanding that Carbonite is double encrypted: on my devices and on their servers.

Have used Carbonite for backup for years. Has saved my bacon a few times. Nothing negative, in my experience. According to the website, the current subscription is $72 a year, but I received a discount for purchasing a multi-year subscription.

This is something I can write about. I have been using a Sigma 105mm f/2.8D macro lens on Nikon bodies for many, many years (over 75,000 photos). Used it on a film camera and then on Nikon dslr cameras since 2006 (D70s and D300). It is old, still works very well and I'm sure newer lenses are even better. The Nikon 105mm f/2.8 macro was the gold standard back then, but I had other things to spend my money on at the time. My guess is that today's model won't disappoint, but I haven't had the need or a GAS attack since my original purchase. Generally, we wanted 1:1 image capability in the slide days, but with a crop sensor, I get better than that. I find the 105mm length better than the 60mm focal length lenses some use because it keeps me out of the patient's face when taking photos. You will need a ring flash for even light distribution to minimize shadows or a point source of light if you do. I shoot in Aperture mode and although the lense is autofocus, I focus manually. Lester Dine (www.dinecorp.com) or Photomed (www.photomed.net) are two reputable sites that have a lot of info and equipment related to intraoral photography.

Interesting point. Is my Nikon charger able to use European voltages or do I need a converter? I know my Apple product can handle it and only need an adapter. I just assumed that the Nikon camera chargers would also.

Our family party of 17 has cruised twice in the last three years. My wife’s father turned 92 on the last cruise and he has always loved photography, both taking photos and being in them, so LOTS of photos each cruise (~1000 each cruise in my camera alone). I took family group shots on a travel tripod set up on a little used interior elevator bank (scouted out for a couple of days). Left the VR on and did not notice or feel any great vibration or rocking during the shoot. Photos turned out fine. We also purchased a pro package of photos and posed for several different ship’s photographers on each cruise (My father-in-law takes NO chances 😉). None of them used a tripod. Their photos turned out fine as well. So my guess, is either way will work fine as long as you don’t sail in crazy weather.

BTW, thanks for all the GREAT advice supplied thus far. I knew the wisdom of Hoggers would be invaluable!

Anyone have any opinion on pros and cons or “D” lenses? I know they have an f-stop ring, and I assume they are older, but are they a good value?

I have used both the older Eneloops and the newer ones in my Nikon SB-910 speed light. They last, work well and cycle the flash fairly quickly, but one set does not last for a whole wedding for me (No, I’m not a wedding pro. I’m jus the “other guy” taking pictures, trying really hard not to get in the way of the pros)