I have been heavily involved in the non-commercial and commercial photography worlds for many decades, starting with good old film back in the late 70s and moving through various technologies such as rangefinders, SLRs, etc.

And yes, when it comes to film, I have used mainly 35mm transparencies, but also, from time to time, shot using medium format.

This page contains the details of the gear that I use regularly for all types of shooting, plus some links to various galleries .

Over the years, I have moved between various manufacturers before finally settling on Nikon, so now that I have a substantial investment in high-quality lenses that's where I am staying.

And yes, I am well aware of the general move away from DSLR to mirrorless technology, although at this time, I have no plans to move, and yes, I know most of my lenses can be used with the new Z series with an adaptor, just for me at this time, there is no benefit in making the move.

Back in the day, when I finally outgrew my old legacy Pentax cameras, I went through the usual research on what to move to, going to great lengths to avoid the Nikon vs. Canon flame wars.

For me, the decision was not down to the specs, which were basically the same, but rather which body felt the best in the hand, and in this case, it was the Nikon F100 .

Using this body with the 50mm f1.4 lens it came with and shooting film, usually Fuji Velvia or Provia, left me wanting a better lens. Just check the rest of this page to see what I ended up with.

When Nikon released the D700 body, and after monitoring the progress in the digital world, I finally decided to go digital, with this being the first DSLR I had ever used.

Expensive, yes, but well worth it. Anyhow, after many years of being my primary DSLR body, the D850 was released with many substantial improvements, so is it time to upgrade?

Upgrade yes, but after decades in the technology business, I am very nervous about going for anything as it's just released, so I decided to wait and let others work out the issues. Years later, the price for the body was at the point where it was a realistic option, and with an upcoming overseas trip, the decision was made, and my upgrade to the D850 happened.

When I went for my old D700 DSLR, I rushed into getting one of these GPS units to let me add geotags of my shots.

While this does work, it's not even close to what I was expecting; from day one, it was not as accurate as it claimed to be and had issues locking onto the satellites, even while outside with a clear sky. And yes, forget about anything indoors.

Not good, and as I did not get this new, there was no real option to send it back.

Doing some research, it seems that these things were never that good and have since been discontinued by Nikon, with no replacement available.

Moving forward, this thing is going to be replaced, so after much research, the way forward is interesting, [read the full story here]

With my interest in landscape and architecture photography, a non-fish-eye super wide-angle lens had been on the shopping list and yes, I have used various fisheye lens over the decades and not been impressed.

Not that there is anything wrong with these things, but I just do not like the effect they give. Anyhow, I needed something good, very good.

When researching, I found this new Nikon lens. It ticked all the boxes, and, best of all, it was not fisheye.

The only downside of this lens was cost; it was very expensive but still way worth looking at, and based on the reviews, it was at the top of the shortlist.

So, a while after it was launched, the opportunity came up to get one of these things without breaking the bank.

As for what I think of this lens, now that I own one and have used it for several years, well put simply "stunning" is the only thing I can think of to describe it.

Crystal clear, pin-sharp with next to no distortion, even shooting at 14mm f2.8. Have a look at some of the travel blog pages, many of the photos on those pages are taken with this lens.

This lens was my first encounter with the new silent wave technology, which makes the AF almost totally silent, and as close to instant as possible without time travel.

I have been using this lens for the majority of my shooting for several years now with no problems at all, its optically stunning, well built, and well balanced with the D700 and D850 .

The only downside would be the size, weight, cost, and power consumption of the silent wave motors. OK, these are not really killer problems, but they are worth letting you know about, and the cost is higher than most amateurs would want to pay.

Now for the usual question, is the silent wave technology is worth the extra cost? Well, I like it, even though for the type of shooting I do (architecture and landscape) the speed of AF is not really an issue, nor is the almost silent operation.

And yes, when used with the D850, I was warned about this lens being a little soft when used at the higher resolution this DSLR has, although from many shots, there is no sign of this.

Be aware that this lens, as good as it is, is not manufactured anymore. The replacement, which from the published information is of similar performance, just made of plastic, while the original is mostly metal construction.

With my liking for hand-holding while shooting, Nikons vibration reduction technology was a must-have, although when it was first released it was very expensive, way out of my price range.

Things changed so well after this technology was released; the prices dropped to the level where it was realistic for me to get one.

I added this to my lenses after I sold my very old first-generation non-AFS 80-200mm. This new lens has both the silent wave focus and the vibration reduction technology, and from several years shooting with this on the D700 and later the D850, this lens is another one which I class as stunning.

It's rock solid, pin sharp, crystal clear, and built to take abuse, and take the abuse it has; it's been used in dusty and damp environments, dropped several times, and taken being tossed into a bag all the time.

The result is just as good as the day I got it. With several of the other lenses I own, it looks like it has been replaced with a newer version, not that I have had a chance to investigate the differences.

This is a new addition to my camera gear collection and was added specifically for wildlife photography on the advice of a friend.

I started looking for options to get something longer than 200mm and even considered using a teleconverter with my 70-200 until a friend suggested I look at this 200-500, and after extensive research and finding my employers had a discount program with Nikon which meant the price for this lens was killer.

So far, I have not done much shooting with this lens, but from what I have, I found it to be massive and heavy but perfectly balanced when paired with my D850.

The results from a visit to Taronga Zoo, speak for themselves, the shots are crystal clear and pin sharp, the vibration reduction technology makes hand-holding this monster very doable. Just check out my Taronga Zoo gallery to see how good this is.

This was the lens that came with the last film camera I ever bought, the abuse-proof Nikon F100. It's one of the most useful lenses there is, good for just about all general shooting, etc., and being so fast, it's ideal for low light.

As for what I think of it, given that it's been hammered into the ground for several decades, I can say it's as good now as it was the day I first used it with the F100.

First, the good: it's optically excellent, very sharp across the range, small, light, and relatively low cost.

That was good; now, for the less-than-good: it's not even close to the build quality of all the other Nikon lenses I own, but it has survived decades of abuse, so it cannot be all bad.

There is more to these things than most expect; this one is plastic, and there are older ones that are of metal construction and are better built than this one is, and there is even a faster one with an f1.2 aperture. And yes, if I see one of the metal F1.2 ones in good condition on the second-hand market, I will be tempted.

Macro photography has always been a special interest of mine; maybe it's down to my background in electronics and all the time spent looking through a microscope working on circuit boards.

When I decided to buy a dedicated macro lens, I did not know much about this type of shooting, so I ended up with this lens on the advice of several friends who had been using it for years.

Now, as for what I think of it, well, as expected with Nikon, the results are crystal clear and pin-sharp. What's not so good is the build quality; there is lots of plastic, so I'm not convinced it would survive my sort of abuse for long. This is not a lens I use all the time and rarely take outside, so so far, it's still in pristine condition.

Watch this space for updates, and here's hoping I have not just jinxed myself. Speaking of Macro photography, as mentioned above, I own a microscope and fairly recently invested in an adapter to allow me to use my D850 DSLR as a microscope camera. So far, I have not done that much, but I have enough to put up a gallery, which can be found here.

I hunted for one of these special-purpose lenses for several years before finding one a few years back; even then, I could not believe my luck when I found it in mint condition with not so much as a scratch on the mount.

Anyway, as for what a PC perspective correction lens is, it's used for architecture photography and as the name suggests corrects perspective (buildings that seem to lean back etc).

Now, just like some of the other lenses I own, there have been several versions of this lens over the years; mine is the original, so I cannot comment on the newer ones. As for mine, it's very well built, all metal construction, and optically sharp.

Before continuing, some final words: before you go out and buy one of these (if you can find one), it's manual focus and needs careful use as there is no automation at all; you need to understand the manual controls on your camera to get the most out of any PC lens.

Yes, this lens is old; it dates from the 1980s, but do not let this put you off; it's a very good lens, producing super sharp results with every SLR/DSLR body I have ever used it with.

Nikon does make a new version; however, it's slower than mine but is wider at 19mm vs 28mm, and I have zero hands-on experience with these things, so I cannot really comment on how good or otherwise it is.

For many years, my workhorse tripod was from Manfrotto, which is so old, has seen so much use and abuse that even the model number has fallen off.

Old heading for ancient, but it did the job. The only problem it had was a sore back, given the weight of several kilos.

Even back when I bought this thing, lighter options did exist, but given the nightmare price for these light carbon fibre tripods, they well and truely off the shopping list.

All that changed back in 2010 when, during a visit to Hong Kong, I found a carbon fibre tripod from a company called "Rollei" at a price that looked too good to be true, but from my initial look, the quality seemed better than expected given the price, it was stable, the included ball head was almost identical to the one I had on my old tripod, and best of all it was light very light.

For once, I actually decided to override my usual "too good to be true" rule and get one of these, half expecting it to fall apart after some real-world use.

I will freely admit I was totally wrong. It's now over 14 years later, and this tripod is just as good as it was when I first used it all those years ago; it survived all the abuse I can give it, think high humidity, mud, rain, ice and multiple airline baggage handlers.

Now, Rollei no longer makes the specific model I have, but they do have multiple others, all at prices that are still hard to believe, so assuming they have not gone down in quality, I would not recommend anything else.