Only two lenses for D3 - which ones?

[LarryLetzer]

Originally Posted by Terry Zorich

What if the question were: If you had to live with just three PRIME Nikkors, which ones would you recommend? (It might be interesting to go 'all primes' for this experiment...)

Everyone talks about prime lenses being so much better (sharper) than zoom lenses. As a photographer, I paid particular attention to the groups of photographers at the Olympics. It did not matter if they were shooting white lenses (Canon) or dark lenses (probably Nikons), but just about every photographer there was shooting with a zoom lens.

I realize that they do not know exactly where they will be positioned when photographing and the zoom lens can give them some flexibility, but the overwhelming majority using zooms speaks volumes to me as how good the zoom lenses have become.

Years ago practically all of our lenses were primes except for the 80-200 Nikkor. Now, the only primes we own are the 14mm and the 20mm Nikkor and having bought the 17-55 Nikkor I almost never use the 20mm.

We also have a couple of Tamron zoom lenses which are great.

[Terry Zorich]

UPDATE:

As I mentioned before, I bought the (Nikon) 24-70/2.8 with my D3.
I've decided that my second lens will be the amazing 14-24/2.8.

The 70-200/2.8 is a fantastic lens...on any "DX" Nikon. But I would never make the mistake of buying that lens for a D3. Hopefully Nikon will get on the ball and offer a version that works properly with the D3. Fortunately, I have my Canon 1DM3 and a 70-200/2.8 for that, but I find it amazing that Nikon wasn't ready with a new 70-200/2.8 when the D3 was released.

[atort13]

First off, obviously you have to determine what your needs are out of the lenses, but I did the exact same thing. I am a Canon shooter and have a Mark III 1D and 1Ds and decided to try the Nikon D3 since I knew it was worth trying. I personally bought a 24-70, 70-200, 16mm fisheye, and 105 Micro...all f/2.8 glass. If I were buying two I would buy the 24-70 and 70-200 lenses and as far as anyone saying that the 70-200 does not do the job they should stop sitting on the computer writing about things like this so much and get out and shoot because it works well and is a quality lens and know many others who are pro shooters who feel the same way and use it all day long on big advertising jobs with no problems and love it too. I have way too much glass to switch or make a big decision to move totally over to Nikon, but when I see what Nikon has up its sleeve in regards to a bigger MP sensor we shall see. I need at least something that is in the 17-22MP range for certain clients and print very large too at times...up to 90" or more so the bigger the file the better for that. 60MP maybe not so needed, but 22-24 and I am a happy camper! Hope this helps and there is nothing wrong with shooting both Nikon and Canon, but did feel like I was doing something taboo for a minute.