Ok in this article I am going to give you the advice for having the best lenses on your camera (Nikon). Where you really get the most for your money and also the best optical quality/brightness for the cheapest amount of money.
So once you have got bored of your kit lens
which sucks big time as it is super dark ie when you zoom to 55m you are at a shockingly dark aperture of f/5.6. So lets get serious and get some good glass which will not break the bank.
So first thing first, lets look at getting some nice bright, big aperture lenses that dont cost the earth, big apertures have lots of benefits including better focusing in low light, mushyier backgrounds (shallowerd depth of field) and potentially sharper when stopped down
Also remember you could be getting all these lenses for even cheaper if you buy them second hand.
Starting off with the bargain but killer 50mm f1.8
Get it and you will suddenly realise how dark your kit lens was, also you will love the shallow depth of field, for video stuff this little baby rocks for hollywood glory soft backgrounds.
For a slightly wider lens you can get the canon
28mm f2.8 but i have done a review of this and was not impressed by its quality. So unless you really need it I would advise missing this one out
the same goes for the 24mm and that is more expensive. so for the same price as the canon f2.8 you can get the sigma f1.8
so for the wider angles I would have to promote sigma again for this.
or if you want something a little different then there is a tokina 35mm f2.8 MACRO which is very unusual having such a wide angle version of a macro. that could make very interesting images and it is also a good bit cheaper than the others on offer here.
and for really wide angles Canon has its 10-22mm but that is almost £700 and is a pretty dark lens.
So for less than half the price Tamron do a 10-24mm, its just as bright / dark as the canon but a lot cheaper.
Now for a good macro lens you cant go wrong with something around 100mm and since you will already have the 50mm, going for the canon 60mm macro is not really needed so get that extra working distance with a 100mm f2.8
options for this are:
They all roughly do the same as each other and for this price range you are not getting any form of vibration reduction. All macro lenses produce some of the sharpest images and can give the best blurry backgrounds as you can get so close to your subject. focus speed for them all will be pretty slow and generally they will extend as you focus closer to the subject getting closer to 1:1 macro. I say go for the tamron.
Portrait wise the marco lenses will do a wonderful job but canon also has a brilliant 85mm f1.8
ok it is a bit more expensive but it is an amazing lens
or you could be more brave and go for the 100mm f2
where canon struggles at the wide angle canon pulls it all back at its telephoto length lenses as they rock.
Canon is also very very generous in giving a 70-200 f4
lens but if you want weather proofing then you are going to have to go with the IS version but that puts the price up a fair bit.
alternatively if you want the f2.8 canon then ups the price again a lot so i would advise go with the Tamron.
So once you have got bored of your kit lens
which sucks big time as it is super dark ie when you zoom to 55m you are at a shockingly dark aperture of f/5.6. So lets get serious and get some good glass which will not break the bank.
So first thing first, lets look at getting some nice bright, big aperture lenses that dont cost the earth, big apertures have lots of benefits including better focusing in low light, mushyier backgrounds (shallowerd depth of field) and potentially sharper when stopped down
Also remember you could be getting all these lenses for even cheaper if you buy them second hand.
Starting off with the bargain but killer 50mm f1.8
Get it and you will suddenly realise how dark your kit lens was, also you will love the shallow depth of field, for video stuff this little baby rocks for hollywood glory soft backgrounds.
For a slightly wider lens you can get the canon
28mm f2.8 but i have done a review of this and was not impressed by its quality. So unless you really need it I would advise missing this one out
the same goes for the 24mm and that is more expensive. so for the same price as the canon f2.8 you can get the sigma f1.8
so for the wider angles I would have to promote sigma again for this.
or if you want something a little different then there is a tokina 35mm f2.8 MACRO which is very unusual having such a wide angle version of a macro. that could make very interesting images and it is also a good bit cheaper than the others on offer here.
and for really wide angles Canon has its 10-22mm but that is almost £700 and is a pretty dark lens.
So for less than half the price Tamron do a 10-24mm, its just as bright / dark as the canon but a lot cheaper.
Now for a good macro lens you cant go wrong with something around 100mm and since you will already have the 50mm, going for the canon 60mm macro is not really needed so get that extra working distance with a 100mm f2.8
options for this are:
They all roughly do the same as each other and for this price range you are not getting any form of vibration reduction. All macro lenses produce some of the sharpest images and can give the best blurry backgrounds as you can get so close to your subject. focus speed for them all will be pretty slow and generally they will extend as you focus closer to the subject getting closer to 1:1 macro. I say go for the tamron.
Portrait wise the marco lenses will do a wonderful job but canon also has a brilliant 85mm f1.8
ok it is a bit more expensive but it is an amazing lens
or you could be more brave and go for the 100mm f2
where canon struggles at the wide angle canon pulls it all back at its telephoto length lenses as they rock.
Canon is also very very generous in giving a 70-200 f4
lens but if you want weather proofing then you are going to have to go with the IS version but that puts the price up a fair bit.
alternatively if you want the f2.8 canon then ups the price again a lot so i would advise go with the Tamron.
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Thanks Dom!
ReplyDeleteI often get asked for advice, so I'll pass on links to this article.
As a professional photographer, I'd like to see this article done from the other point of view - putting cost aside completely, what is the best lens in each category?
So, for example, Canon 85mm 1.2L versus Sigma 85mm 1.4... and The Canon 100mm macros - is the L version better than the one you've listed above? I'm not bothered about waterproofing (I use an umbrella!)
Thanks,
Paula
www.Ollievision.co.uk
ooh good idea i shall do that in the future, thanks paula
ReplyDeleteHi!
ReplyDeleteIt seems that you are having some kind of "rss-problem" in your blog. Latest post in my rss-reader is 25.3.2011.