Buying a NON vr lens

Right, I am going to bite the bullet and buy a non vr lens, I know some of you will be screaming at the keyboard but thats my spending limit so please dont tell me not to, I would love to get the vr version but it aint going to happen.

My question is what with all the different lenses and types of autofocus which make is best and also which type is best? I will get the 70-300 they seem more common in the second hand market place.

thanks

Tell us what your budget is first. What are you going to be using the lens for? From there, we can perhaps suggest a lens and secondly, give you tips on using a non-VR lens.

How and what you shoot has a lot to do with just how much VR means to you. If you're always shooting at ISO's that allow you to match shutter speeds to focal length (or do better) then VR may not mean a hill of beans to you. Same holds for if you've got hands of stone. I do enough work in dark(er) areas that I prefer to have it available. On something like a 70-300mm then you better be shooting at shutter speeds that minimize/eliminate minor movement, especially at the long end.

Can't comment on specific lenses. The only ones I've had in that length was the 28-300mm and it was a VR lens.

good point, sorry. I have a budget of around £110, at that price you can get a new sigma, however there does look like some very good second hand deals around.

what do i want it for? the usual i suppose, wildlife, my son plays rugby so that would be good to get a few shots. Also airshows. I do realise that what i want it for my be stretching it with a non vr lens but i am willing to give it a go, good thing with digital if its no good delete it.

iasha said:

good point, sorry. I have a budget of around £110, at that price you can get a new sigma, however there does look like some very good second hand deals around.

what do i want it for? the usual i suppose, wildlife, my son plays rugby so that would be good to get a few shots. Also airshows. I do realise that what i want it for my be stretching it with a non vr lens but i am willing to give it a go, good thing with digital if its no good delete it.

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Yes, shop around for used deals. Best thing to do, is try and find a reputable camera web-store (Like B&H) and look what they have. For the wildlife part, i would suggest a tripod. For all the type of photography you want to attempt, you really need to get your shutter speed up; therefore, you will minimalize the picture coming out blurred. Practice your panning technique as well and follow through with the pan, don't stop when you take the pic - kind of like skeet shooting. Keep in mind that VR has not always been around. What you want to do is doable, you just need to fine-tune your technique.

In ALL honesty, if you're hand-held shooting, VR won't really make or break your shot. @300, you'll have to have shutter @ 80-100+ regardless of VR and then you shouldn't get much wobbly-hands blur as is. At night, you might as well just have a tripod since lighting won't allow you to shoot/at a proper speed anyway.

Reading about VR and VRII on fancier glass left me with a general impression of, why not just for another 100 or 2, but that's for glass that costs 1000 or 2(for the sake of the sentence). For something where VR = %50 of the cost, I feel its only really worth it for the resale value.

Stick a 300mm in 100 hands and tell them to shoot at 1/80-1/100sec and I'm thinking 40-50% couldn't come up with 2 clear shots out of 10 without VR. At 1/250sec different story.

The Nikon 70-300 f/4.5-5.6 ED G lens is well within your budget. Ebay has them for as little as $70US. Some reviewers have rated it as "a good bang for the buck".

I have a Sigma 70-300mm F4-5.6 APO DG Macro. I bought it used at a very low price. At that time, I was debating about buying a new AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 55-200 mm f/4-5.6G ED. I was intrigued with the additional range, the macro capability and the $100 savings.

Am I happy with it? All I can say the AF-S DX VR Zoom-Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6G IF-ED would have been better fit for me.
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