Please help me decide.. which lens first ?

Hi experts,

this may sound a little silly question. I bought my D5200 with 18-55 kit lens few months back and i'm really happy with it. I decided to go for a DSLR because of my new borns (twins) to take really nice pictures. Even though my kit lens is not perfect, i'm really happy with the quality of images.

Ok, the question, i will surely buy 70-300mm IF VR ED and 50mm 1.8G prime at some point (lets say within the next 6 months). It just a matter of time. My question is, what should i buy first ?

The best use of camera for me now is to take stunning pictures of my babies as they grow every weeks. So given that my main objective is to take stunning pictures of my babies... can someone tell me which lens i should be on top of the priority ?

I understand that my babies are not so far away from me but after testing 70-300mm with IF i was really impressed with its quality. So may be thats not so bad after all. Open for suggestions.

On a DX camera for baby shots consider the 35mm AF-S on a crop sensor DX camera it's 52.5mm closer to a normal lens than a 50mm on a DX. 50mm is 75mm on your DX. I've found 50mm to close for general use.

I have the 50mm F1.8....It's a fantastic lens for the cost as I'm sure the 35mm is...Either would be a better option then the 70-300 for portraits IMO....

I too would suggest either the 35mm f/1.8G or the 50mm f/1.8G for you. The 35mm will be a few bucks cheaper but not enough to suggest it over the 50mm. Either would be a superb choice.



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I have an older 50mm lens, and that would be the lens I would use out of what lenses I have. I haven't tried the 35mm, so I can't say on it. But I've heard its a real good lens to have.

Almost forgot to suggest the following...

Go into your "Settings" menu, "Picture Control" sub-menu and adjust the "Sharpening" setting to +6 or +7 and see what you think. Nikon sets this setting strangely low in my opinion and bumping this up really improved the look of my shots when I was using a '5100. I think you'll be surprised how good a picture that 18-55mm kit lens can produce.



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Hi , I also have the 50mm 1.8G and LOVE it ! You will always be happy with this lens, from taking photos of your babies to photos of their babies ! The 50mm 1.8G is a very good portrait lens on DX camera , did I say I love this lens ;-) and congrats on the twins ��

Horoscope Fish said:

Almost forgot to suggest the following...

Go into your "Settings" menu, "Picture Control" sub-menu and adjust the "Sharpening" setting to +6 or +7 and see what you think. Nikon sets this setting strangely low in my opinion and bumping this up really improved the look of my shots when I was using a '5100. I think you'll be surprised how good a picture that 18-55mm kit lens can produce.



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you beat me to it ! This makes quite a difference !

Ijustwant1 said:

you beat me to it ! This makes quite a difference !

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It really does; and it really baffles me why the factory setting is so soft...



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Thank you very much on the sharpness directions!

I have also found that bumping up the vivid settings +1 +2 makes a diferance !

Ijustwant1 said:

I have also found that bumping up the vivid settings +1 +2 makes a diferance !

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Just a reminder these settings affect JPG's... Photos taken in RAW will not have these in-camera adjustments applied to them, unless you're using the Nikon software.

ViewNX, I believe, applies the in-camera adjustments to RAW files. I'm not 110% sure that is correct, however since I don't really shoot JPG and I don't use ViewNX so... Yeah... There ya go.



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Horoscope Fish said:

Just a reminder these settings affect JPG's... Photos taken in RAW will not have these in-camera adjustments applied to them, unless you're using the Nikon software.

ViewNX, I believe, applies the in-camera adjustments to RAW files. I'm not 110% sure that is correct, however since I don't really shoot JPG and I don't use ViewNX so... Yeah... There ya go.



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So does Capture NX2

Lightroom 5 doesn't, or at least from what I have found, which is a little annoying... but not the end of the world.