Wide angle vs. telephoto lens?

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dr_eyehead

Banned
Or both for under £200? Is that possible.

Looking at either the Tamron 70-300 or the Sigma 70-300 for the zoom. Which is best?

Would like to do some nice landscape photography as well, can anyone recommend a good wide angle lens for about £100?
 
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dr_eyehead

Banned
skene said:
Oh and I almost forgot this should be helpful as well...



knowing what you currently have at your arsenal can better allow us to recommend additional equipment versus going through random quests of unknown mentionables.
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Just the basic 18-55mm lens that comes with the D3200.

Why are wide angle lenses more expensive than telezoom?
 
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dr_eyehead

Banned
I'm talking bottom of the range here, the cheapest telezooms seem to be going for half the price as wide angle, despite the fact that as far as I can see the lens arrangement in a wide angle seems a lot simpler. Maybe it's to do with the cost of making the type of lens needed for wide angle, I speculate thusly.
 
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STM

Senior Member
I think a lot of that question can be more easly answered if we knew what you had now and what your primary use for the lens will be.
 
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dr_eyehead

Banned
1. As I already stated I have a Nikon D3200, that's why I'm posting this in the D3200 subforum and also why it says so in my profile.
2. There is no primary use for my camera, I want to use it for a range of techniques including experimental. My main focus will be nature and landscapes, night photography/night photography. I'm hoping to do some nice starlapses, probably the other side of the solstice now and pending weather and transport.
 
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skene

Senior Member
Well now you need to figure out what you are going to focus on.
If you just want a lens to compliment your 18-55 then fill the gap with the 55-200, 70-300 or anything else in between. Night time shots look to spend more on lenses that offer a wider aperture F1.4, F1.8, F2, F2.8 primes and more expensive teles will fill these gaps.
Everything around you is experimental, from people, nature, wildlife, plant life, concrete to the cracks that break it. You need to know what you want to focus your photography on, as there are no set lenses that will fully fill a gap on everything. Every lens does certain things better than each other. Primes, Macro, Telephoto... You can say you want to do this and that, however you can easily find limiting factors in this hobby. Pricing and your budget will come into play.
If you can go and purchase something used, maybe this will help you with getting another lens, but do research as you can easily find out that you may end up not liking a great lens, because you find no use for the lens.
 
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dr_eyehead

Banned
I want to focus on the moon with a nice zoom lens taken at different focuses and blend the foreground in with the background. I also want to take some stunning landscapes, night photography, starlapses etc. I have a collection of some 50,000 photographs from the past few years of snap and hope photography with a cheap pointer and shooter, so basically all of that and anything else that catches my eye, I will want to zoom in on and take some nice shots with a little more care and thought this time for the camera settings. I guess I can wait until I have mastered the basics with this first before investing further, but let's just say I'm kind of dying to get my hands on a decent zoom right now.
 
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aroy

Senior Member
You must be cognizant of a few facts and compromises in lenses.

1. Primes offer better IQ and speed compared to equivalent (in cost zooms).
2. Zooms offer a range of focal length, while primes have only one.
3. The larger the zoom ratio, the less the IQ at the extremes.
4. Primes are normally much lighter than equivalent zooms.

That said, at wider angle zoom IQ approaches those of primes, but they are much slower. The exceptions are professional zooms, like the 14-24 which is rated better than the primes.

At telephoto end the primes tend to be much better IQ, faster speed and lower cost. A good example are the 70-300 or the 18-300 zoom. They are much slower than the 300mmF4 prime, and quite soft at the 300mm end. If you want to do serious photography (and want good IQ) at 300mm end, then avoid these zooms. They are good as a general purpose carry along lense when the light is good, and when you want a light rig. They will get the shot, but it will not be exceptional.

So if you want to shoot fast action far away the way to go is with prime lense.

The best option is to first use what ever you have. Get familiar with the camera and try all sorts of shots in varying light. Once you become thoroughly acquainted with you camera, you will appreciate what you have, its pluses and its shortcomings. Then explore what sorts of shots you are taking and what you missed (or messed up) due to inferior glass.
 
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dr_eyehead

Banned
Already done that with 4 years playing around with a cheap P&S camera. I was thinking prime lens for wide angle stuff, since ultimately I'd be looking at widest angle possible there, and zoom for the telephoto stuff, so I can zoom in on the moon as it rises above te horizon etc. Not really bothered about fast action. Whatever I invest in it'll be budget end, unless I can find a decent second hand lens somewhere.

So these prime lenses, are they fixed fixed or just the focal length, I mean do they have to be adjusted for focus? I'd guess yes because they would need to be calibrated for each camera.

I'd love all the most expensive equipment, but at the end of the day even at the budget end I'm still going to be getting good quality, or better quality than before.
 
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ShootRaw

Senior Member
dr_eyehead said:
1. As I already stated I have a Nikon D3200, that's why I'm posting this in the D3200 subforum and also why it says so in my profile.
2. There is no primary use for my camera, I want to use it for a range of techniques including experimental. My main focus will be nature and landscapes, night photography/night photography. I'm hoping to do some nice starlapses, probably the other side of the solstice now and pending weather and transport.
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The Sigma 17-50mm 2.8 would fit the bill for your D3200....
 
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ShootRaw

Senior Member
What do you mean who said anything about that lens? That is one of the best crop sensor lens out there..Check out the reviews..Nice and fast lens for low-light...This way if you decide to use it indoors for another purpose then you have the capability without raising your ISO levels too high..And of course for landscapes you would be shooting around F/9 to F/16. Your kit lens is more then capable of shooting landscapes at 18mm...What you seem to be looking for is Ultrawide which would be the Nikons 12mm-24mm or Tokinas 11-16mm...Invest in good glass the first time..Save for what you really want...
 
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dr_eyehead

Banned
I'm goping to do a few nice starlapes, if I can get to somewhere nice with no or less background pollution. It strikes me that I'd get a better shot of that with a wide angle.

I misread your post there as 'wouldn't with the bill' not would sorry. Would be nice, but I'm already more or less covered for that focal range. I already saved up for a new camera and budget range is what I can afford.
 
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Eyelight

Senior Member
Looking thru the photos here like the photos you want to take and checking the focal length where listed would help you see what different lenses can do.

Also, there are some threads in the lens forums for photos with specific lenses that may be helpful.

And the thread for photos in the D3200 forum.
 
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aroy

Senior Member
dr_eyehead said:
...........

So these prime lenses, are they fixed fixed or just the focal length, I mean do they have to be adjusted for focus? I'd guess yes because they would need to be calibrated for each camera.

I'd love all the most expensive equipment, but at the end of the day even at the budget end I'm still going to be getting good quality, or better quality than before.
Click to expand...
1. The primes have fixed focal length.
2. Manual Focus primes have to be focused manually.
3. AF primes have auto focus capability. Some have motor in the kense, so can AF with all DSLR. Some do not have motors in the lense, so have to use the motor in the body. The D3xxx and the D5xxx series of bodies do not have motor in their body.

If you are on a budget, and will be shooting mostly static scenes, then the older manual focus AIS primes are ideal for you. Just read up on the net on these older lenses and select what suits you. My wish list for future acquisition consists of
. 28mm F2.8 AIS
. 50mm F1.2 AIS
. 300mm & 400mm AIS
 
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dr_eyehead

Banned
They have this 10mm prime lens in Curries just now for £79. Is that a decent price? One of them and the sigma, ok for a budget?

This one I tihnk-

http://www.photographyblog.com/reviews/nikon_1_nikkor_10mm_f28_review/

They also have the Nikon D5200 on sale now for £379! I'm really annoyed at not shopping around a little more. Only main difference I can see though is the screen that comes out and swivels round. One day I'm going to want the use of that feature I know it.

It says here on the second page of the review that diffraction starts to seep in around f/8 which I'm guessing might limit the quality I can achieve for night landscape photography.

http://www.photographyblog.com/reviews/nikon_1_nikkor_10mm_f28_review/sharpness_1/
 
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