Shopping List

Here's my wish list:

Wide Lens: Tokina 11-16mm ATX Pro DX + Filter
Adorama: $569 US
Priority: High
Reason: need a good wide angle for real-estate photography, and just really want a ultra-wide angle... :) I was originally going to get the Tokina 12-24mm because the Nikon equivalent was twice the price, but then the 11-16mm was announced. Seems to still be in short supply as it's listed as out of stock at both Adorama and B&H.

Colour Profiling: X-Rite Eye-One Display 2
Adorama: $210 US
Priority: High
Reason: need to get colour management happening. The mac calibration seems a bit hit & miss. It was the Eye-One or the Spyder3 Pro, but this one seems to have a better reputation and gets better reviews.

Lens Cleaning Kit
Adorama: ~$10 US
Priority: High
Reason: to clean lenses properly... duh!

Filter for Nikon 80-400mm
Price: ?
Priority: High
Reason: Filter that came with the lens causes weird artifacts/striping in the out of focus areas.

D300 Battery Grip: MB-D10
Adorama: $240 US (total + shipping [~$30] + currency =~ $282 AUD)
DDD: $299 AUD (total + shipping [$16] - gst = $287 AUD)
Priority: Medium
Reason: makes portrait shooting much easier and natural, plus of course extended battery life and higher burst rate. Would like it for when I do my first wedding, but not essential.

Memory: 16 or 2 x 8GB Compact Flash cards
Wholesale: ~$150 for 16GB
Adorama: $189 US for 16GB
Priority: Medium
Reason: need at least 28GB of storage when I do my first wedding... you can never have enough memory. The speed of the Extreme III's and IV's are a bit confusing, but I think that either is fast enough.

Macro Lens: Sigma 150mm f/2.8 EX DG APO + Filter
Adorama: $589 US
Priority: Medium
Reason: Really need a macro lens to supplement what I already have, plus makes a good fast telephoto. Other choices were the Tamron 90mm, Nikon 105mm, Sigma 100mm, but chose the Sigma 150mm because of the better working distance and it is internal focusing.

Speedlight: SB-800
DDD: $449
Adorama: $315 US
Priority: Medium
Reason: coupled with the external power, is an ideal speedlite for weddings. Gotta get the SB-800 for the external power connector.

External Power for SB-800: SD-8A
B&H: $139
Adorama: $149, or $139 Grey
Priority: Medium
Reason: faster flash recharge time :) Much cheaper than the 3rd party solutions, and arguably better because it takes standard AA's.

Flash diffuser: Harbor Digital Ultimate Light Box Kit (to fit SB-800)
Adorama: $65 US
Priority: Medium
Reason: need some good diffusion for wedding shots. Still looking around at other options.

Tablet: Wacom PTZ-631W
Wholesale: $495inc (total + shipping - gst =~ $460 AU)
Adorama: $370 US (total + shipping ($30) + currency =~ $425 AU)
Priority: Low
Reason: Make editing in photoshop (and Lightroom 2 when it's released) easier, faster and better. Choose a middle of the range tablet, and went for the wide aspect ratio to match the MacBook Pro 17" wide screen.

Photo Albums
Adorama: A couple of Photo Albums for portfolio, weddings, etc.
Priority: Low
Reason: to both display my portfolio and show as example wedding albums


Ok, so quite a shopping list - there's over $3000 worth of stuff there so I'm not going to splurge in one hit. It's a shame that most things need to come from the US... why can't the Aussie shops be a little more competive, then I could save on the shipping costs :)