I saw another gorgeous sunset this evening in the middle of winter. The Nikkor 24-70mm lens is a great low-light lens. I like it much better than the all-purpose 28-300mm lens for one reason. When faced with low light, Live View is still usable with the Nikkor 24-70mm lens at f/2.8. With the Nikkor 28-300mm lens, Live View can become quite pixelated.
I usually focus at f/2.8, then change around the aperture and shutter speed to suit. In this case, I wanted to quiet the surface of the lake with a longer shutter speed. However, at f/18, any dust on the sensor becomes quite obvious. An ND filter may be the preferred solution since I can skip cleaning up the image in post-processing by photographing with a large aperture and long shutter speed. I didn’t think I would need one at dusk, but will keep this in mind the next time I am out.
Nikon D800, Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G ED, ISO 100, 36mm, f/18, 1.0s