The Lens Thread!
- Thread starter Stan the Man
- Start date
Dennis David
Observer
Each lens needs to be learned. There's gold in them words. You want to learn about lenses. Keep the same on on at all times and all situations. You'll soon know how best it fits what you shoot and what it's strengths and weaknesses are.
john101477
Photographer in the Wild
X2
I only advise against it as a second lens because you are missing a vary wide spectrum of uses with what you have now, and the 50 will only help that to some degree. The common second lens people buy is the 70-300, be it canon or nikon. As for taking the camera into a bar, be ready to explain your self to the bouncers. it may be a double standard but a guy bringing in a camera like that is usually frowned on by the establishment. women seem to have no problems in this area though.
The best advise i can give on any purchase. go to your local store and test it out a few times along with a couple of others. you might save some time that way. Having a lens just to have it is kind of pointless. Having a prime, just to say you have one is pointless as well. If it is not going to get a LOT of use, I.E. portraits, there is no reason. I own one because I use it. I swap between the 70-200 and 50 all the time on a shoot. i never carry it on nature/landscape work.
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john101477
Photographer in the Wild
Love the 35 1.8 and the 12-24 f/4. As I think I stated before I have never found an exact reason for me to carry the 24-70 but the lens itself is awesome. I am just so not into the 18-200 that I can not even express how much I do not like it. On the other hand many really like it. It has the ability to take decent pictures but is very limited and slow to focus
HB 4X4
Adventurer
It is slow compared to primes or f/2.8 glass but is a sharp lens for its class and will be staying in my collection even though I have the 12-24, 24-70, and next is the 70-200.
Wander
Expedition Leader
I need a new lense for my D70s-I'd like the 18-200 VR but the budget would like the AF-S Nikkor 18-105 ED VR... better.
Any one use this lens? I checked the site linked a few pages ago but this lens did not have a reveiw yet, maybe it's new??
If I get a grey market import it's just under $300, too good a deal to be good?
I've got a 70-300 ED for when I want long zoom/telephoto.
There are some great shots here-I wish I had 1/10 the talent of some of you.
Any one use this lens? I checked the site linked a few pages ago but this lens did not have a reveiw yet, maybe it's new??
If I get a grey market import it's just under $300, too good a deal to be good?
I've got a 70-300 ED for when I want long zoom/telephoto.
There are some great shots here-I wish I had 1/10 the talent of some of you.
Lost Canadian
Expedition Leader
Wander
Expedition Leader
Thanks Trevor, good link. I don't like the idea of as plastic mounting ring so I was think maybe I should just go with he 18-200 but the reviews aren't that great for that lens-especially since it's over 2x the price.
I checked out the 16-85 and that sounds pretty good and I also spotted the 24-70 f2.8 which is limited in range but fast and a good price-about the same as the 18-105. It doesn't have VR but it shouldn't need it for that range, but would it be too limiting as the lens I would have on the most? I guess the f2.8 aspect has me interested the most.
Lost Canadian
Expedition Leader
I'd check that price again. The 24-70 is pro glass and comes with a price tag to match at around $1700 bones.
HB 4X4
Adventurer
I doubt it, unless it was in very bad condition. Used ones will still cost you $1400-$16XX even with signs of wear.
Pro glass holds its value to a ridiculous extent. So much so, that if you bought a lens today, and sold it in a few years, you would probably get more for it than you originally paid since lens costs go up. A good example is the 70-200 VRI that jut got replaced. A few months ago it was around $1700-1800, but at the time of the VRII's release, it was over $1900 for the VRI. In 6 months time the lens price went up $200.
This only applies to pro glass though. Cheap lenses you can expect to take a 30-50% drop in value assuming it's in pristine condition.
nwoods
Expedition Leader
I don't know anything about that lens, but will encourage you to keep this in mind when reading and analyzing reviews:
Reviews for a professional grade lens are going to be from pro's, who are both more knowledgeable and exceptionally acute and picky at any minor issue. If you read a review from Aunt Sally who is just gushing over this amazing lens that was "hugely expensive at $400 so it better be good" when she took "colorful" JPG pictures of her daughter at the soccer game last weekend, you are going to get an entirely different impression, neither of which are really relevant to where it seems YOU stand in knowledge, expectation, and skill.
In the Canon world, the cheap kit lens that comes with the Rebel is really not good, but I can find thousands of reviewers who love it, after being used to a cheap PNS. I can also find thousands (well, okay, maybe only a few hundred) of reviewers who did not like the 70-200mm F2.8 L IS lens from Canon, which is widely regarded as one of the sharpest lenses ever made (an assertions that my personal experience completely supports).
Just bear in mind the user of the various lenses you are reading about, is really what I am trying to say.
Every Miles A Memory
Expedition Leader
Funny you say that about the reviewers.
I was looking for something over the weekend and started reading different reviews for various lenses.
One was on the 70-200 f/2.8 which a few different reviewers said something like "I returned this lens and went with the 75-300 f/3.5-5.6 because it was lighter, cost a quarter as much and gives me more reach."
Those reviewers have to be complete newbs when it comes to lenses because they'll be the same ones saying that they need to upgrade their camera because their photos of little Johnny at the soccer game keep coming out blurry.
Had a woman tell me just yesterday that she was saving up for the 7D because all she had now was the 30D and she wanted her photos to come out better.
I asked what she was talking about because she had just commented on a bunch of my photos and how much she liked them. When I told her I used the 30D on all of the ones she had just commented on, she just looked at me like she was dumbfounded.
She was using a 75-300 f/3.5-5.6. I was using the 400 f/2.8. Big difference that $7500 makes when it comes to glass:Wow1:
I was looking for something over the weekend and started reading different reviews for various lenses.
One was on the 70-200 f/2.8 which a few different reviewers said something like "I returned this lens and went with the 75-300 f/3.5-5.6 because it was lighter, cost a quarter as much and gives me more reach."
Those reviewers have to be complete newbs when it comes to lenses because they'll be the same ones saying that they need to upgrade their camera because their photos of little Johnny at the soccer game keep coming out blurry.
Had a woman tell me just yesterday that she was saving up for the 7D because all she had now was the 30D and she wanted her photos to come out better.
I asked what she was talking about because she had just commented on a bunch of my photos and how much she liked them. When I told her I used the 30D on all of the ones she had just commented on, she just looked at me like she was dumbfounded.
She was using a 75-300 f/3.5-5.6. I was using the 400 f/2.8. Big difference that $7500 makes when it comes to glass:Wow1:
Wander
Expedition Leader
Good point about the reviews. It seems that people can be really picky when they hide behind their keyboard.
I went to a local shop today, told them I wanted fast glass and something that would work on both FX and DX-unless the DX only version was too good a deal to pass up (ie I wouldn't cry if/when I go FX and can't use it anymore)
They went right for the DX only stuff-didn't know the difference and their used stuff was priced the same as discounted new on-line. I was kind of frustrated when I left.
I went to a local shop today, told them I wanted fast glass and something that would work on both FX and DX-unless the DX only version was too good a deal to pass up (ie I wouldn't cry if/when I go FX and can't use it anymore)
They went right for the DX only stuff-didn't know the difference and their used stuff was priced the same as discounted new on-line. I was kind of frustrated when I left.