Question on lens

I owned 2 lenses. Afs 18-105 & afs 70-300 VR. F stop is 3.5 biggest. 18 mm seem adequate for me but 11 mm would be ideal for tight indoor apace.

I shoot almost anything and am toying with the idea of switching my 18-105 with a 17-50 mm lens with a lower f stop of 2.8.

Would the increase in aperture be of importance and would I be handicap with the 50-70 gap due the the change? Or should I keep the existing lenses and but a 50 mm f1.8 prime? What is my best option without breaking the bank?

Why not add a wide lens like the tokina 11-16 2.8 and keep your 18-105, it seems to be a popular lens. The 2.8's will allow you more flexibility in lower light. Folks here that have bought the tokina really seem to like it and it is on my wish list.

Would it be too short with the 11-16 mm. although I get the wide angle, I will need to go close to the subject.

Yeah, that Tokina 11-16 is on my wishlist, too.

Bukitimah said:

Would it be too short with the 11-16 mm. although I get the wide angle, I will need to go close to the subject.

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That all depends on what you're shooting. It's a matter of perspective.

I guess indoor should be ok. I tried ny 70-300 this afternoon indoor. With f4.5, i need to increase iso to 800. I guess the f2.8 would do a wonderful job.

Bukitimah said:

Would it be too short with the 11-16 mm. although I get the wide angle, I will need to go close to the subject.

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But, if added to your kit, you still have the 18-105, there is no one perfect lens my friend.

Bill I know with the 11-16 mm, I would have 11-300 mm covered. I am now looking into how to overcome the low light problem. Beside fast lens, I have tried lower the shutter speed but it end up with softer images. Is there good software I can consider? I understand the noise ninja is good. Is it part of adobe?

No it is not a part of adobe, I've used one that's called picture cooler that worked pretty well. The truth is how do you take pics with low light, increased iso = noise, slow shutter = blur so what's left, light. You can use primes that go down to 1.4 (expensive, then you have no depth of field which is desirable at times but not for a group. Strobes/flashes, lighting systems if studio or portable, it just never ends in how we overcome less than perfect picture taking situations. Full frame will also improve your low light options, in the old days we used chemicals to boost asa and go to larger format cameras. Light has always been the photographers challenge.

If you have to choose between these all at f2.8. What would you consider for general walk about lens?

1) 17-50 mm
2) 28-75 mm
3) 50 f1.8

I was thinking. If you are shooting indoor, you do have a good chance to use a flash. However if flash is not permitted, at least you can still get result.

Bukitimah said:

If you have to choose between these all at f2.8. What would you consider for general walk about lens?

1) 17-50 mm
2) 28-75 mm
3) 50 f1.8

I was thinking. If you are shooting indoor, you do have a good chance to use a flash. However if flash is not permitted, at least you can still get result.

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Well, since you asked...I would pick the 17-50. I already have a 50mm 1.8, and I have a 28-105, so I'm covered there. Alas, I don't have any 2.8 lenses. I don't have that kind of money. Actually, I don't have ANY kind of money! lol But watch out if I ever win the lottery! I'm gonna go NUTS!!

I have the 24-70 f2.8 from Sigma. It is a wonderful lens although a bit on the heavy side (24.7 oz.). I use it for special occasions where I need the extra speed. For just a walk around lens I prefer the 18-55 kit lens that came with my D50.

So lens is still a very subjective item. Of course the bigger the appreture the better.

If you have to shoot with f4.5. The subject has low light, obvious choice is to reduce speed and up the ISO. But if you can't reduce speed because subject is moving, what else can you do?

Bukitimah said:

So lens is still a very subjective item. Of course the bigger the aperture the better.

If you have to shoot with f4.5. The subject has low light, obvious choice is to reduce speed and up the ISO. But if you can't reduce speed because subject is moving, what else can you do?

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If you're shooting in aperture mode, switch to shutter mode for anything that moves. The camera will take care of the aperture. It would also help to use Auto ISO in cases like this. Try it......see if this works for you.

Jack thank you. Yeah I did try out auto ISO and it works well before. I switched back to manual just because I want to be able to control the camera, hahaha. Well, maybe I need to learn walking first.

Bukitimah said:

Bill I know with the 11-16 mm, I would have 11-300 mm covered. I am now looking into how to overcome the low light problem. (...) Is there good software I can consider? I understand the noise ninja is good. Is it part of adobe?

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The noise reduction features in Adobe Lightroom are very good. I'm not sure if noise ninja is better. Nik Software's Dfine 2.0 is excellent as well.

johnking said:

The noise reduction features in Adobe Lightroom are very good. I'm not sure if noise ninja is better. Nik Software's Dfine 2.0 is excellent as well.

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Yes, the noise reduction in lightroom is very good, another great reason to use lightroom, I have not used the Nik software, Helene uses some Nik I think, maybe she will chime in.

I realize some basic I didnt read initially. Although I keep saying that I shoot with my kit lens 18-105 mm. I am actually shooting above 75 mm most times for portrait because I am using a DX camera.

It is only when I need the wide angle then I would set to 18 which is abbot 27 mm. So on the wide side I am quite limited. I was trying out with my kit lens fixed at 50 mm and I don't think this will work for me most times unless the subject is within 10 feet.

First to help clear something up if you are wondering... 18mm on dx is the same as 18mm on ff. Just think of it as taking a ff pic and cropping a smaller center out of it.. so 18 is not really 27mm, just looks like 27mm when compared to a 18mm ff pic... You can try it your self, use your 18-105 at 70-105mm and compare to 70-105 on 70-300mm lens which is a full frame lens. I just got the 24-70 f2.8 and love the fast glass.... a lot of money yes... but all well worth it to me as a walk around. I would say try shooting at 35mm on your 18-105 and see if that's ok, if it is get the 35mm f1.8 for indoor/closer shots and use the 70-300 VR for portrait work.... longer focal length will help isolate subject better, shoot portraits at about 135mm ish wide open and have backgrounds further away and will get better bokah..

Also the difference between 18mm and 24mm is about 2-3 steps with foot zoom. Again try using only the focal ranges you are looking at on your 18-105... just my 2 cents hope this helps...