lenses

my 28-70 AFS gave up and stopped working. not sure whats the issue but I have to send it in to melville. anyways took out my tamron 28-75 2.8. man this lens is very underrated. its one sharp lens. the only reason why I dont use it instead of the nikkor all the time is its a bit slow to lock focus in darker environments. but man from f/4 its amazingly sharp. not sure about corners but ill check those later when I download the pics. I just bought it as a backup because the other options was the 28-105 3.5/4.5 or the meh 24-120 3.5/5.6. so glad I bought this lens. its always important to have backup.

and on another note, I tried my friends 17-35 AFS and man I do not like that lens. at the dance floor it was crowded and tight and couldnt go back enough at times to capture the amount of people standing. they were the kind who saw the lens, stopped dancing and grouped together for a picture. and it starts with 3 people, then 5 people and then it gets to 10 people for the photo and its tight there.

holy crap this lens is not a people lens. on one hand it lets me get much more in, on the other it distorts people at the corners. it makes me cringe when I look at the photos. it also seemed to lack contrast even when I was shooting at 4.5. anyone use this lens? I held back for a long time to get a WA lens because of the distorted view. I really hate those focal lengths for people. but I had no choice and I got a nice price on a tamron 17-35 2.8/4 (will get the tokina 16-35 come spring and sell the tamron) for these weddings where I have no choice. it doesnt happen often but good to have it JIC. those focal length are not pleasing to the eye.

reason why I decided on the tokina is because of excellent reviews (if you get a good sample) the nikkor 17-35 is overpriced new for a 10yo lens and for the price of it used I get the tokina with warranty. and the tokina is sharper from what ive read. the 14-24, too wide and too expensive. 16-35VR, I need a bright VF and VR isnt useful for people who move.

Great information regarding lenses thanks, I am considering using my 16-35 for a few photos but will have to be careful how things are framed. I have ideas of backlighting the B/G and then using on camera flash with softbox in front of them while they are walking or something (still in planning stage in my head).

Rocketman - the Nikon 17-35mm f2.8 is an older design and without the nano coating, that can be expected. The newer Nikon 16-35mm has the contrast and sharpness that you are looking for but like what you have discovered, it has too much distortion to use it for people.


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Scott- Careful with getting people in the corners. it pulls and warps them. they look horribly out of perspective. but its a problem because I need it for the crowded dance floor but otoh it makes them look so distorted. kind of a catch 22. if you have the space leave it on the side. you can most certainly use the 16-35 on the dance floor, just use it from the 24is and up. get the 50 on the other camera just in case u need to shoot 2-4 people. at 35mm/half body horizontally shot will leave a lot of empty space on the sides. so take 1 step back, swing your 50 up from your side and shoot it. its much more pleasing perspective wise. although sometimes, depending on the scenerio the extra space gives detail about the place/atmosphere. but dont even try shooting people vertically with the 35. uh uh, not pleasing. like I said before, you can get away with the 50 on one camera and the 16-35 on the other and have the 85 or 80-400 on you for isolating people. and youre set. and like I said, invest in ttl slaves. it opens up a huge door for creativity. the flash optic slave for CLS can only do so much.

gqtuazon said:

Rocketman - the Nikon 17-35mm f2.8 is an older design and without the nano coating, that can be expected. The newer Nikon 16-35mm has the contrast and sharpness that you are looking for but like what you have discovered, it has too much distortion to use it for people.

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Glenn- the 16-35 focal length is fine, but the f/4 is too slow for my taste. I also think the 17-35mm is way overpriced for todays world. a 10 year old lens design selling for more than when it came out. hmm. Ive read and saw reviews that said the tokina is just fabulous. since this isnt a range I like to shoot people at all, I dont believe to invest over $1000 for a lens in this range. and for $700 its a no brainer. I get fantastic IQ for a great price. if the reviews are true, its roughly on par with the 14-24 nikkor although I think the battle starts at f/4 and im certain its better than the 17-35 AFS so for me it just makes sense. I will sell the tamron, add the difference and get VIP mack warranty. Id rather use the money to upgrade my 85 1.8 AFD to a 1.4 AFD (AFS is WAY overpriced) come summertime. after all, I do photograph people so it makes sense to get glass that makes them look good.

Obviously for indoor and people shot, it will be darker but that's why you can use flash. I used the lens mainly for landscape.
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gqtuazon said:

Obviously for indoor and people shot, it will be darker but that's why you can use flash. I used the lens mainly for landscape.
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the 16-35 is fantastic thats for sure, but I prefer the 2.8 even solely for the brighter viewfinder. even though I might not use 2.8. I prefer to shoot without flash. flash is not the only solution for low light IMO. theres aperture and iso and shutter we can adjust as well. I prefer (as much as I can) to not use flash. no matter what you do flash looks like flash. its very hard in events to shot people with flash where you hardly notice it. you can blend it with the ambient light, use FEC, but flash changed the color temperature of the pics and kills the "feel" of certain sitautions like a slow dance where its a romantic setting. again, flash is not a desirable solution IMO. Im not afraid of flash, but no matter how you try to blend it, flash is noticeable. and in events its very fast paced and you cant play around and experiment around. and relying on the metering to be accurate will just get you missed shots.