For almost 6 years now, my trusty semi-professional Nikon D7000 (the photo of the blogpost shows the current model D7200 since the D7000 is no longer being produced) has been with me almost everywhere I go. From the beaches of Los Angeles to the urban jungle of New York City, from the Andes in Peru to the natural pools of Semuc Champey in Guatemala – this camera has been along and I was able to create some pretty stunning photos. I used it for my customer work on portraits and lifestyle shots as well as for my nude art in the studio or outdoors. It is – to this day – an amazing piece of gear and the best decision I ever made before even thinking about starting to take photography seriously.

Now the time has come, to upgrade to a professional camera with the same ease of use as I believe, but with far greater technical details and some pretty crazy specs: the full frame Nikon D810. I had the opportunity to get my hands on one at my favorite camera store in New York City this week – B&H. The decision to go for the D810 had been taken before – but only when I actually held it in my hands and tried it out at B&H, I knew that it was the right decision. I don’t want to bore you with every little detail of it – instead, I’m going to show you some of the photos I took in Hong Kong this week.

The camera is so much quicker, quieter, the controls are well thought out and it feels solid and pretty amazing. I used to use a battery grip on my D7000 but with the slightly bigger body size of the D810, I don’t feel like needing one anymore. Yes – I know, I would be able to shoot at quicker rates and have extended battery life…but honestly – 400 € just for the grip are a bit steep after already spending almost 3000 € for the body.

Anyway – the shots from Hong Kong show you the dynamic range and the sharpness of the 36 MP sensor.

I am currently looking for new lenses to purchase for the new body. I own the Nikkor 50mm f1.8D and the Nikkor 85mm f1.8D which are great lenses and I love using them. Still – I feel the need to get one wide angle lens for my landscape and urban photos as well as a longer telephoto lens for portraits and macro shots. Most photographers in the business recommend the Nikkor 14-24mm and the Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 and I’m sure that these are stunning lenses… Nevertheless – to spend almost 2000 € on each one of these is not an option right now. I plan on checking out the Rokinon/Samyang lineup because they got pretty interesting offers, the quality seems to be very very good and the price tag is much lower than the Nikkors.

Here are the lenses I’m considering to test and maybe purchase if I like them. The first one is the Rokinon 24mm f1.4 which is around 600 € on Amazon and the second one the Rokinon 100mm Macro f2.8 which is around 530 € also on Amazon. Reviews on Youtube say that they’re both incredibly sharp and very solid, well built lenses. The manual focus isn’t a problem for me as the lenses have focus confirmation build in.

I’m going to keep you updated on my tests and the ultimate choice I’m going to make.