
I was cleaning up my camera gear the other day and looking over my Nikon D850 DSLR kit, I came to the realization that I didn’t have lenses with a focal length wider than 24mm. This got me to surfing the web for possible lenses to use on the trusty old D850.
Some time ago I made the decision to keep the D850 until it breaks. I just couldn’t see a reason to ditch the DSLR for a new full frame mirrorless body. Yeah, I now have the Sony a6700 in the kit, but the D850 is a different animal. At 45 megapixels, it’s a perfectly good camera and my copy is in very good shape. I’m making images with the D850 that are as good as any mirrorless camera on the market. Why waste the money on something new that doesn’t solve a problem for me?
Surfing eBay, I came across the Nikon 20mm f/2.8 D. This is an older style lens with the screw drive autofocus and manual aperture settings. Checking the written reviews of this lens indicates that it’s actually a pretty good prime lens, but one can’t find them new so the used copies are all I had to select from. This lens is tiny too, compared to the more modern versions of 20mm, but optically, it still holds its’ own. I found a copy for sale on eBay for $149, used, in excellent condition. I clicked buy it now and the lens in on it’s way to me as I write this.
$149. Now where can you buy a mirrorless 20mm f/2.8 prime lens for that kind of money? You can’t. This is why I’m hanging on to my Nikon D850. There are tons of used lenses on the market that will work on the obsolete DSLR’s, at a fraction of the cost of a mirrorless lens. It’s a no brainer.
So, I’m accumulating a decent selection of prime f/2.8 lenses for my D850, which will be used as my landscape photography kit for the foreseeable future.
Here’s are the prime lenses I have in the kit at the moment. (Including the newly purchased 20mm f/2.8)
Nikon 20mm f/2.8 D
Nikon 28mm f/1.8 G
Sigma 70mm f/2.8 EX DG Macro
Sigma 105mm f/2.8 EX DG Macro
The main idea here is to have a good kit of f/2.8 lenses, so I also have the Nikon 24-70 f/2.8 VR and the Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 VR II, both of witch were purchased used and have really good optics and are in like new condition. I’m now covered from 20mm to 200mm at f/2.8 aperture.
I had a Sigma 50mm f/2.8 Macro I picked up used but it broke while in Yellowstone a couple of years ago, so I’ll have to fill that hole in my prime lens selections. That’s the problem with old used gear, sometimes you get something that just wears out. I think I paid $130 for the Sigma lens, no great loss. In the meantime, I have the Nikon F24-70mm f/2.8 VR which is a decent lens. The point being I have f/2.8 lenses for most any type of landscape photography to use on the D850. The two Sigma lenses I still have are ancient as well. Both are the EX DG Macro variety that use the screw drive autofocus, and are extremely good optically. All of my primes were purchased used at a fraction of the cost of new mirrorless primes or even new F mount primes. On the D850 they make some damn fine images. The slower autofocus of the screw drive lenses doesn’t bother me. They are for landscape work, not photographing NFL football or birds in flight.
Yep, I’m gonna keep the D850 and fill in the holes in my lenses by buying used gear. I’ll keep the money I save in the bank. My image quality won’t suffer at all.
Sometimes, old tricks work just fine for us old dogs.
*** Update***
I received the lens and guess what, it was bad. Totally hazy. What a shame, externally it didn’t have a scratch on it. I’ll be returning it to the seller and looking for another copy. Historically, I’ve had pretty good luck buying used gear on eBay, but sometimes you get a lemon. The seller is very cooperative and apologized for the bad copy. Bummer. Funny thing is that I owned this lens back in 2018 but I hardly ever used it and sold it. I should have kept it, as the copy I had was pretty good. I’ve been down this road before though. Sometimes I’ll sell a lens only to buy another after a few years. Stupid is as stupid does.