Camera & Lens Advice

[DarkAngel]

I have recently purchased a Nikon D3100 as im trying to get back into photography and decided on a entry level SLR.

With a upcomming holiday to Morocco im looking at purchasing a wide angle lens and was looking at some advice into what would be the best option?

I'm also looking to purchase a 18-200mm lens but that's a few months off until i have enough saved up.

Any recommendations?

[smilodon]

Ha you just knew I'd be on this like a fly on poo

I assume you have the lens that came with the camera (the D3100 is a superb camera by the way) so you have 18mm at the wide end of the zoom. That's within the wide angle range and should work for al lot of the stuff you might want to shoot. So the quick answer is if your camera came with the standard kit lens (18-55mm Nikon) then you're more or less good to go for general wide angle. If you don't have that actual lens or any lens at all (you just bought a camera body) then anything in the range of 16mm up to about 30mm at the wide end is roughly in wide angle territory and will be fine for shooting landscapes etc.

You can go for a fixed focal length lens but as it will have no zoom capability (obviously) it will be hard to compose shots quickly and you'll be running about getting closer or further away from your scene to get the pictures you want. Also if you do suddenly spot something nearer that's worth photographing you'll need to swap lenses or miss the shot completely as you can't quickly zoom into the subject and get the picture. So I would recommend sticking with zoom lenses as they are far more versatile.

Nikon branded lenses are usually very good but also very pricey. The 12-24mm Nikon is about £850.00! and even the consumer level 16-85mm lens is £450.00 which is more than the camera! Two decent 3rd party brands are Tamron and Sigma and I think they would be worth a serious look. They make lenses for Nikon and Canon cameras and while they aren't always as 'top of the range' they are perfectly decent and far cheaper.

Sigma make a nice 18-50mm lens for about £180.00 which is arguably better than the Nikon 18-55mm lens. It takes a very decent photo, is very compact and excellently priced. The Tamron 17-50mm is a little sharper but costs a hundred pounds more. I'm not at all sure it's worth the extra money though so the Sigma is my choice.

If you can get something second hand (Ebay for example) then a Nikon 10-24mm would be good or if you want to go mad a Nikon 12-24mm might be worth a look. However even second hand they will probably still cost more than the D3100 :sad:

The 18-200mm you linked to is a great lens as it means you don't have to swap lenses to move between wide angle and telephoto. You can shoot a landscape and then quickly zoom in on a distant object and get that shot too. The down side is that over such a long range it's hard to keep everything pin sharp. So while between about 50-150mm the lens will be able to stay pin sharp below and above that range you might find the images getting a little softer and maybe showing some colour shifts (chromatic aberration). It won't be significant and probably not a problem unless you plan on making posters out of you pictures

[ArithonUK]

I've got the D5100, which I'm very pleased with. I bought the Nikon R715 (AF-S DX 18-105G VR)  when I was in much the same position as you, but my father has the 18-200mm lens and when I tried it, while good, it was just that little bit heavier and bulkier.

If extreme zoom is required, then go for the 18-200mm lens, but I've found the 18-105mm lens to be flexible enough and not felt particularly limited.

If money was not object, I'd buy the 18-200mm AND the Nikon AF-S DX 35mm f1.8G Lens as well. While I'm dreaming!

The 35mm lens has no zoom but with the f-stop you can get great point-and-shoot photos. The zoom lenses give you the ability to frame your photos better "on the fly" and bring subjects closer.

I took these three photos with the 18-105 lens. A danylion head in my office car park. My cousin's Aberdeen Angus cow licking her nose. And a berry tree in blossom on a walk over the fields.

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[DrunkenZombiee]

The 18-200mm is great if you are looking for a walkabout lens for use during the day and want to only have a single lens attached to the front of your camera. I know a lot of friends have bought a superzoom like this to go on holiday and its been great for them as you have some flexibility with focal lengths. The Tamron superzoom is quite a bit cheaper and gives you a bit more reach at the telephoto end with some stunning results coming from my friends with that lens.

I have the 17-50 tamron Smilo is talking about and it remains attached firmly in front of my camera 90% of the time. I cant recommend it highly enough. The VC is top notch (I can get at least 2 stops extra in some conditions, it can beat my 1.8 prime at times for a better picture), its built like a tank, autofocus is great on my canon. One of the best walkabout lenses there is for a 1.6 sensor IMO, sharp from 2.8 right the way through the full range. I tried the sigma and for me its the difference between night and day as the sigma isn't sharp for me in the corners at a lot of focal lengths and apertures. I recommend you go to a shop and give them a try and see what you think.

The only problem with superzooms are the low light performance, sharpness and sometimes issues with chromatic aberration and colour fringing at some focal lengths. As its a jack of all trades there is a trade off.

For me the main problem however is the low light performance. In which case buy yourself a cheap 50mm prime with a 1.8 aperture for sub £100, which will be your most sharp lens, however its a bit long on a 1.6 cropped sensor, its close to 80mm which makes it a pain to use indoors as its a touch too long.

Ultra wide angles are crazy! I have found that the fish eye style ones actually give better results than the corrected versions and there are some subtle inconsistencies with the corrections. You can correct easily afterwards by post processing which seems to work better for me anyway.

Whenever I go on a work trip I have the following in my bag:

Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 - Attatched to my camera most of the time for everyday shooting.
Tamron 70-300 F/4-5.6 - Telephoto for spot and wildlife.
Canon 50mm 1.8 - Lowlight and for uber sharpness or portrait style shoots.

I am planning on swapping the 50mm for a sigma 30mm 1.4 at some stage to get some 50mm style retro goodness out of my 550d. Its an expensive purchase for the prime however and that means I will be very much limited to cropped sized sensors in the future.

Hope this helps,

DZ

[DarkAngel]

Some great advice, and lots to think about. It did come with the standard 18-55mm lens which is superb, so being i can use that for my wide shots i could just purchase a 18-200mm nikon lens as i really want the VR. Being that i don't have a spare £650 for a new one, I've been looking at purchasing a 2nd hand one for around £300.

[DuVeL]

:norty: Does this mean better pictures then the one from your mobilecamera? :norty:

[DarkAngel]

:norty: Does this mean better pictures then the one from your mobilecamera? :norty:

My god yes! Ill try and post some up later!

[DrunkenZombiee]

Go for the Tammy £400 version then which has rave reviews and great VC/VR whatever you want to call it.

[Sneakytiger]

have u looked at amazons camera and lens area you can get some good buys

[DarkAngel]

Go for the Tammy £400 version then which has rave reviews and great VC/VR whatever you want to call it.

Looks like a great lens for the price, but it only have Vibration Compensation so I'm not that sure its comparable to Vibration Reduction on nikon lens?

[DarkAngel]

have u looked at amazons camera and lens area you can get some good buys

Yep, I'm currently checking daily on amazon as well as HUK

[DrunkenZombiee]

Vibration compensation and reduction are the same thing, just different names as they are different companies. Canon call it Image stabilisation but its exactly the same technology and will give you two stops extra on a static target. If there is good light however and you are shooting above 200mm and need to follow the target its best to turn it off as it does jerk a little which is expected as that what the technology is designed to do.

I have the 70-300mm Tammy and the VC is very impressive, particularly at 300mm. You need to shoot differently with it, in fact as its so good as it doesn't like to pan at all with the shutter button down; it locks onto the target like a cruise missile and can cope with about a fith of a frames worth of movement (at 300mm) before having to reset again. Absolutely brilliant performance in my view. I am sure the Nikon will be the same in terms of performance with its Vibration reduction.

The technology will only help cope with the cameras movement (caused by you, or the wind if shooting on the tripod) and not your subjects.

UKHD is a good place but there are also some semi decent deals on ebay and also DigitalREVTV's new shop is often pretty cheap although the lenses are shipped from HK.

Good luck...

DZ

[smilodon]

Looks like a great lens for the price, but it only have Vibration Compensation so I'm not that sure its comparable to Vibration Reduction on nikon lens?

VR (vibration reduction) or VC (vibration compensation) is much the same thing just different names.

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk 2

[ArithonUK]

Saw this on Hot UK Deals today...

Nikon D5100 £529 - £479 with cashback!
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/nikon-d5100-with-18-55mm-vr-lens-camera-case-529-00-amazon-co-uk-479-00-inc-cashback-1206173