Best for kids and low light? 50mm or other?

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Crispy

Senior Member
Hello all!

Been lurking for a few weeks here and love the forum - did a few searches and didn't see anything specific enough to answer my question, so here goes.

I'm a new D5100 (kit) owner that has been torturing myself in manual mode almost exclusively for ~6 weeks so I have a pretty good idea on what all aspects of the camera controls do and what it MIGHT mean for a new lens. The problem I'm having is figuring out what my next lens will be. I think based on what I've read here and elsewhere a 50mm makes sense. I'm trying to get more shots "of the kids" in lower light situations and struggling with acceptable ISO on the D5100 w/ the kit lens. This has lead me to 50mm but I'm not quite sure that's the best solution, to compliment the kit lens. IF it is, does 1.8 vs 1.4 factor here at all? I figure I'm willing to spend up to $400 for the RIGHT solution but just can't seem to sort out the justification for the 1.4 vs the 1.8. Would love some first hand experiences/knowledge here before I spend my hard earned money. :)

Thanks in advance!
 
Marcel

Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
I think the 1.8 is the better deal since it's less money and you'll get better Depth of field. At 1.4 the sharp zone will be so small that a lot of your kid pictures might not be acceptable (you don't want just part of their eyelashes to be in focus do you. The 50 is a very fine lens and it should help you get the shots you've been after with the kids.

Enjoy your Nikon!
 
C

Crispy

Senior Member
Marcel,

Thanks for the quick feedback. I've seen your posts and always appreciate your straightforward, to the point approach. So with that... just one more question! Passing on the 1.4, what do I give up mostly? Is it just macro DOF stuff or something else? Just trying to weigh all of the options.
 
Marcel

Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
Crispy said:
Marcel,

Thanks for the quick feedback. I've seen your posts and always appreciate your straightforward, to the point approach. So with that... just one more question! Passing on the 1.4, what do I give up mostly? Is it just macro DOF stuff or something else? Just trying to weigh all of the options.
Click to expand...

I think you won't give up as much money and the 1.8 will be smaller and lighter to carry. Of course the 1.4 is a little faster so you'll give up a little bit of shutter speed but maybe about 2/3rds of a stop if my memory serves still at this late hour for me. :)
 
P

pedroj

Senior Member
You can spend your money on an SB700 and still use your current lens...

Just something else to consider...
 
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P

pistnbroke

Banned
Or a YN465 they all say the f 1.8 is sharper but I still feel for objects that are close,,ie kids your DOF will be the big problem ie there isnt any.. stick the lens you have on F11 and blast away with the flash or let the iso rise. We do hundreds of pictures each week at iso 6400 ..no problem..
 
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Geoffc

Senior Member
Have you considered the 35mm 1.8? You may find the 50mm is too much, especially indoors. After using an 18-200 a lot I even found the 35mm quite close after having enjoyed the 18-34 part of my other lens. Just a thought but it's as fast and still in budget.
 
S

stmv

Senior Member
kinda surpised that you are thinking Prime lens and kids! typically they don't really mix, if you are talking studio, and framing, yes, 50 mm (the short tele on a DX) is a perfect lens, but,,,, with Kids, Zooms tend to reign king. So, perhaps if you are looking for a flexible but high quality lens, consider the new 24-85 zoom, great reviews, (I have an older used 24-85 afs), and the new one has VR which is great for those indoor no flash setups. a bit more than your budget, but just might be the perfect lens.

I own both the 50 mm 1.8 and 1.4, both are great lens, you do see the quality difference in build, but I have not heard of any failures of the 1.8, so, for 130 dollars or so.. brand new! how can one beat the 50 mm 1.8.

now,, if the 5100 has an internal focus motor, I am going to suggest a real gem, a used 35-70 nikkor zoom (around 350 dollars - below your budget), this is perhaps the sharpest zoom lens Nikon has built, is compact, gives you the flexibility of the zoom, quality of a prime, and low light of 2.8 (fast for zooms).

enjoy,, lens are one of the true pleasure of SLRs.
 
C

Crispy

Senior Member
Wow - great suggestions all around and I feel like I have more choice! I suppose there are worse problems to have.


Just to quickly address some of the feedback:


Flash - I've always been sort of anti flash but that prejudice comes from point and shoots, I do need to give it more of a try. I also figured staying in manual mode for the first few weeks with flash off would stretch me a little more. Mission accomplished I think, so time to start considering flash more. Great input.


35mm vs 50mm - also something to think about and I tend to be a little newbie here on how these will look so I glossed over it. Stupid question, Is the 50mm going to be the same as the kit lens adjusted to ~50mm? That does seem a bit too close.


stmv's alternates - When I say kids, I'm talking indoors - the kit lens does great outside shooting the kids so I don't feel like zoom is a HUGE deal. I suppose I got a little obsessed with aperture and convinced myself that 1.4 was going to give me extra love I needed for low light but coming from the kit lens, I also only have one point of view here. I'll take a closer look at the ones you're suggesting.


Regarding low light, I'm getting the feeling 1.8 or even 2.8 would be a nice leap and I can back off from thinking 1.4 is the way to solve this problem.
 
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pistnbroke

Banned
If you get one of those flash flippers at about $25 to keep the flash always on top ..the ones from HK are fine and a diffuser on the flash you will find all the flash problems of shadow and flat burn go away ..always under expose 1/2 stop and pull up in lightroom etc
 
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pedroj

Senior Member
Crispy said:
Wow - great suggestions all around and I feel like I have more choice! I suppose there are worse problems to have.


Just to quickly address some of the feedback:


Flash - I've always been sort of anti flash but that prejudice comes from point and shoots, I do need to give it more of a try. I also figured staying in manual mode for the first few weeks with flash off would stretch me a little more. Mission accomplished I think, so time to start considering flash more. Great input.


35mm vs 50mm - also something to think about and I tend to be a little newbie here on how these will look so I glossed over it. Stupid question, Is the 50mm going to be the same as the kit lens adjusted to ~50mm? That does seem a bit too close.


stmv's alternates - When I say kids, I'm talking indoors - the kit lens does great outside shooting the kids so I don't feel like zoom is a HUGE deal. I suppose I got a little obsessed with aperture and convinced myself that 1.4 was going to give me extra love I needed for low light but coming from the kit lens, I also only have one point of view here. I'll take a closer look at the ones you're suggesting.


Regarding low light, I'm getting the feeling 1.8 or even 2.8 would be a nice leap and I can back off from thinking 1.4 is the way to solve this problem.
Click to expand...

With flash you can adjust the strength of it up or down depending on the situation..
 
E

Eye-level

Banned
I wouldn't be to worried about the speed because the D5100 has a great high ISO capable sensor. The crop factor and DOF is what I would be concerned with. I suggest the new 28 G. It is a little outside of your budget but I think it would be the best indoor active children snap maker.
 
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ndaniel

New member
I'm new owner of D5100 as well, so far I consider Tamron 90mm f2.8 for my indoor work, still have to save some money though to realize, but base from review from so many site, I found that this lense is adequate for me
 
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§am

Senior Member
I debated the whole 50mm or 35mm lens question too - what might be better for indoors (and kids), and what fits my budget.
Luckily both lenses are more or less the same price (about £15 more for the 50mm here in the UK at the moment)

The 50mm is a FX lens so on a D5100 its the equivalent of a 75mm so you need to think of that when deciding. I had a little play around with setting my 18-55 at ~35mm to see how close/far I need to be to my subject, then swapping to my 55-200 and setting it at ~75mm to see what difference it makes to distance to subject.
Certainly in my house given the space I have in rooms the 50mm seemed OK especially if I needed to move back to capture a 'wider' picture.

I've had a play with a 35mm lens in a shop and its a lovely little lens too - but I'm hoping one day to go FX so at the moment the 50mm is the more sensible option :)
 
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