New lens for my 5100

Hey guys - I'm looking into getting a new fairly inexpensive lens for my 5100. I have the starter kit, which came with a 18-55mm and a 55-300mm, I also have a 35mm 1.8/g which I love. I'd like to get something that I can use on a daily basis - not picky about prime versus zoom, but I really love the consistency of the prime lens. I've heard good things about Tamron, but everything I have is Nikkor.

I just want really solid, sharp images - any suggestions?

For really solid sharp images you need to spend money!!!! Money!!!! $$$$$$$

I have a 18-105mm as my walk around lens. This has taken the place of the 18-55mm and I am happy with the lens - sharp enough for me.
Then I have the 70-300mm

Your configuration is slightly different but you have the same distances covered. Use what you have and save the $$$$$$ for something great later.

Just my $0.02's worth

What sort if shots do you take? Where do you feel the current lenses are not sufficient? I have the 5100 with the same lenses (70-300 rather than 55-300 and an additional 50mm which never gets used!) and I have been eying up a 2.8 zoom although really I can't justify why.

For sharpness the 35 is superb, for day to day the kit lens ain't ba at all and for reach 300mm is good.

If you want a good prime walkaroud on a crop sensor dont go more than 50mm in focal length as it will be too narrow. Ive put it in my will to be buried with my 50mm 1.8 , would not be without it. Another option could be the 40mm which also gives you some macro capability, its quite close to your 35 however. Try them both and see what you think!

Good walkabout lens for a crop sensor is the nikon 16-85. You won't regret it


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For sharp images you need :
1. Good technique. This means that either your hands do not shake, else you use a heavy tripod at relatively high shooting speed. At times using inbuilt flash "strobes' light ad you get very sharp images.
2. Sharp lenses. Most lenses are quite sharp at their sweet point, very few wide open. So find out at what F stop your lense is sharpest.
3. Low chromatic aberration. CA reduces edge sharpness, hence search for lenses with low or practically non existing CA.

The kit 18-55 lense with D3300 is reasonably sharp. It compares quite a bit with the 50mm f1.8 and 35mm f1.8 primes. Apart from sharpness, what matters most is the micro contrast and accutance (edge sharpness). Most of the lower cost lenses are lacking in these. If you want super sharp lense then check the Zeiss APO 135mm F2 lense. You cannot get better than that.

Here are two shots with the kit lense. That is as sharp as I could get.




These are full frame shots

What's wrong with working with what you have? For the $$ you've invested, you have a good assortment of glass there. I used the 18-55 for a good long while, and now I use the 35mm for my main lens. No complaints about the sharpness, and you learn to adjust zoom with your feet. The subject has been somewhat beat to death here, but 18 - 55 "kit" (and I really hate to call it that) is not all that bad. Not sure of your experience level, (and mine is certainly just hobbyist) but before you start investing $$ in all types of lenses, learn to work with what you have.

The Nikon 18-140mm f/3.5-5.6 or the less expensive, nearly as awesome, Nikon 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 would be two worthy of your consideration.

If you've got some money to spend, though, the Sigma 50-150mm f/2.8 DC OS HSM will give sharpness like a prime *with* a constant f/2.8 aperture. Price-wise this lens breaks into the fourth digit, so no, it's not inexpensive. My gawd it's nothing short of pure awesome, though...

....

Well you can certainly spend more money on glass if you'd like, but a lot depends on what your using it for as to whether or not it would really be a good investment for you. If your just looking to get sharp images and your working with enough light really your best bet is to stop down the lens and up your shutter speed.

If you want really razor sharp images, try upping your shutter speed to 3x to 4x the focal length your shooting at and stop the the lens to somewhere between F8 and F11. Assuming you have enough light you can get some really remarkably sharp images that way. Just keep an eye on your ISO and don't let it get to out of control, the upper end limit on ISO will depend a lot on your camera body and your own tolerance for what you believe is an "acceptable" amount of noise.

If you find some of your lenses are "soft" in the corners then shoot a little wider than what you actually need and crop out the softer portions of the photo.

Primes are great, don't get me wrong. I use a 50 mm 1.8 AFS-G and an 85 mm 1.8 AFS-G quite a bit, and I love them both. But in my case I do often find myself in situations where I need the faster glass because I'm shooting in situations where there isn't enough light and I can't use a flash. In those cases, when possible try to back up a little bit and shoot wide - the further you are away from the subject the greater the DOF (Depth of Field) will be and the more likely it is that your subject, all of your subject, will be in sharp focus.

When your shooting at shorter focal lengths like 35 mm or 50 mm and you need to shoot with the lens wide open or close to it, say 1.8 - well on a 35 mm if you are 4 feet away from your subject your depth of field is only about 5 inches. Back up to 8 feet and you increase your depth of field to roughly 1 foot, 4 inches which makes a huge difference. So I usually recommend if you have to shoot wide open, back up a few feet and shoot wide, don't try to compose the shot as you'd like it on camera or odds are good your going to wind up with too much fall off and a photo that looks too soft as a result.

So my recommendation would be to save your money for now unless you find that you really need a lens that will work in lower light than your current 18-140 in something longer than the 35 mm focal length you currently have.

Just my two cents worth of course, YMMV

I notice you don't have 50mm prime, a classic lens. They are really sharp and compared to other lenses quite inexpensive too. But the choice in buying a lens does depend on what you want to do... macro, bird, street photography, portraits...