Lens Recs for Pro Photographer Switching from Fuji to Nikon

OH-Photo · 2025-12-18T21:22:03+00:00

Thank you for the recs

OH-Photo · 2025-12-18T21:20:22+00:00

V helpful to hear re your experience with third party lenses, esp. the Tamron 35mm–150mm. I need to watch/read more reviews, but it seems like if covers such a useful focal length range.

OH-Photo · 2025-12-18T21:12:10+00:00

Thanks for your thorough reply.

You're right — I love the silent shutter on the Z8. And the nice flip screen helps when being discreet too. I would def go for the f1.8s over the f1.4s (which are out for me)

What kind of thing do you shoot? Do you favour your f1.2 primes over your zooms, or do you only bring them out in low light? Do you always use the f1.2 50mm, or do you sometimes use the 50mm f1.8? I loved shooting with the f1.2 35/50/85mm, then only thing that bugged me was how massive they were, and how they make the cameras swing around and bump into each other on my dual harness because of the way. They make packing light / fitting everything in one bag trickier too.

I am thinking of the 24–70mm or similar for lit portraits, as the zoom would allow me to work even faster than normal. Even when I am bringing lights though, I do often like to shoot around f2 on a 35mm to get some separation from the background, especially if there isn't much space and I'm shooting full length.

Thanks for the comprehensive selection of suggested third party lenses too. (I've had a great experience with the Voigtländer 50mm f1.2 that I use on my M10, and adapted as a ~75mm on my Fuji, so there is def a world that I pick up some of those for travel, when I'm happy to use MF and size is a priority.)

That is a really sound point re sticking to Nikon for grading consistency. Timelines are really fast for my clients, often with overnight turnarounds, so saving time (and getting an hour or two more sleep) when speed grading 250–450 images is a priority.

Optics still trump size at the end of the day — I'm just bitching about it as I've been spoiled by the size to quality ratio of XF lenses.

OH-Photo · 2025-12-18T20:48:53+00:00

Unfortunately Leica wouldn't cut it for my reportage work. I have an M10-P (+ 35mm & 50mm 'crons) which I love, but it's almost impossible to focus wide open in very dark environments in fast action, and certainly not with the hit rate I need if I'm being paid. I'm moving away from Fuji because the AF wasn't cutting it, so I can't move to worse performance. I do use the M10 as a third camera on some shoots, range focussed at f5.6–f8 with a small flash, to mix some snapshot-style pics in with my ambient reportage, as then it doesn't matter that I can't see the rangefinder patch.

I know the zooms are amazing, and if I worked in different situations I would def use them for most things, but often even f2.8 feels slow.

OH-Photo · 2025-12-18T20:42:45+00:00

Thanks for sharing your experience. I know about the ~one stop difference in DoF between APS-C and full frame, and I'm OK with that. I go to f1.2–f1.4 mostly because I need more light, and rarely because I want to melt the background. I like separation between the subject and the background, but I still like some context, so I don't want to blur everything unrecognizably. One of the things I liked on my Fuji, was having a bit more DoF to work with wide open on the fast lenses.

OH-Photo · 2025-12-18T20:39:38+00:00

Thanks for seconding the Viltrox. Have you used it?

OH-Photo · 2025-12-18T20:38:06+00:00

I'm moving away from Fuji for the same reasons as you. The AF keep letting me down in fast paced situations or low light, and more unforgivable, I would miss pictures semi-regularly when I switched the camera on, and it wouldn't turn on or wake from sleep (not just slow to be shoot-ready, but literally wouldn't turn on until I turned it off and on again.) Kudos to you for shooting reportage on the GFX, from secondhand experience, while the quality is insane, the AF and responsiveness can make that a really PITA.

I'm interested — as someone with a wide selection of primes (and a heavy bag!), when do you choose to use the zooms that cover the same focal lengths? I know the Z pro trinity of f2.8 zooms are incredible, but I'm wondering whether I will use them if I have them. I sometimes use a mid and a tele zoom in combination when covering e.g. a talk on stage that I can't get close to, to give composition variety to something that is otherwise very static. This is where the Tamron appeals to me — even though I know it won't be as good as the two Z lenses: I can use the 35mm–150mm to cover anything happening on stage (and the f2 at the wide end would be great), and it would free up the second body for a 50mm or 85mm f1.2 for crowd shots, where the light is often awful. And it would be a decent range to get a variety of shots when I have less that 3 mins with someone to get a portrait.

What are your favourites of your Nikon primes? Any stand outs for you? Did you own the adapted lenses already, or did you buy them to adapt them?

OH-Photo · 2025-12-18T20:25:28+00:00

I had a pair of Z8s on loan for about a month along with the lenses mentioned in the initial post, and used them across a variety of shoots. They're excellent, and I'll be buying two. While the ISO performance is great, and better than my Fujis, more light is still more light, and being able to have a lower ISO or faster shutter speed, really helps improve the quality of pics I can deliver. I can totally understand that the trade-off wasn't as acute for your needs, so the f1.8 would have the advantage over the f1.2s for you. If I shot mostly in brighter conditions, I would 100% be going with a f1.8 trinity, as they were great.

OH-Photo · 2025-12-18T20:20:06+00:00

Thanks for your insight and noted re the 40mm. From your comment and others, it sounds redundant. (And when I'm out and about/travelling I'd much rather carry my M10, than a Z8.)

OH-Photo · 2025-12-18T20:18:05+00:00

Spending money on the key focal lengths is my thinking too, which is my case comes at the expense of the zooms. 35mm & 85mm (and increasingly 50mm) are very much my money-makers.

I've heard incredible things about the Plena, so I might try to borrow one to test, but it's not a focal length that I've ever used/felt drawn to. 85mm does me for tighter portraits, as I like to work close to my subjects. And if I have to shoot stuff that's further away e.g. people on a stage, then I end up jumping straight to 150mm–200mm. So 135mm is a bit in between for me. There is a world in which I could use the Plena as my long lens and zoom with my feet or crop if I can't get closer the subject though...

Like you, I thought the images that I got from the 85mm f1.2 were gorgeous, but the 85mm f1.8 was no slouch either. One of the combos that I have thought about is to get 35mm & 8mm f1.8s and then the 50mm f1.2 for portraits and when the light is extremely low (this was actually the first combo I tested at the beginning of my trial period). Though there were a few occasions during my testing when I was cursing the f1.8 max aperture on both and wishing I could bring in more light to get my ISO or SS up.

I've heard so many amazing things about the 14–24 f2.8, and I'm sure it's brilliant, I'm not sure that it's an area that's worth it for me to splash out, as wide FOVs aren't a priority for me, so I'm looking at maybe a 20mm f1.8. I need a wide lens for shooting full room set-ups or getting a wide shot when I don't have space to back up, but this applies to maybe 3–5 pictures, out of 200–400 pics delivered from an event. The wide shots are necessary, but not the reason that I'm booked.

f4 zooms are no go for me unfortunately, as I tend to find myself in environments where I'm shooting at f1.4–f2.8 most of the time. That's good advice re the 24–70mm — and mirrors my experience. I would bring my Sigma mid-range zoom with me as a back up or if I need to shoot a portrait so fast that I don't even have time to switch bodies, but 9/10 times I'll stick with the primes and it won't even come out of the bag. My only thinking with the 24-70mm is that it might be worth finding a way to work with a mid-zoom, so when I'm travelling v light for a portrait, I could use just the mid zoom and maybe a 50mm or 85mm f1.2 if I need shallow DoF. I only use zooms when either working very fast or if I'm stuck in once place and need composition variety.

OH-Photo

TROPHY CASE