£700 to Spend on a Lens - What would you buy?

psenior1

psenior1

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Phil
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I've got around £700 quid to spend on a new lens (or two), currently got a 50mm f1.8 and 105 Sigma Macro, along with a Nikon 18-70mm.

I'm a bit confused as what to do, I love my nifty fifty and do take a lot of indoor portraits in less than perfect light, so ideally looking for something reasonably fast with good AF speed that I can get great results from wide open.

Length wise I primarily I'd like something that sits between 50 and 105mm for head and shoulder pics, though a zoom that goes longer or a 30mm prime is also appealing.

At the minute I've come up with five options -

1) cream machine nikon 85mm f1.4

2) sigma/nikon f1.4 50mm + nikon 85mm f1.8

3) sigma 30mm + nikon 85mm f1.8

4) sigma 70-200mm (though I'm concerned about sigma QC)

5) sigma 50-150mm + Sigma 30mm


I'm tending to sway towards the 85mm f1.4, I like the idea of option 4/5 but worried about Sigma QC and the size/weight of the lenses...

Any other options, which would you pick? :thinking::thinking::thinking:
 
I'd say option 1 or 2 personally. I love my 85/1.4 and wouldn't ever get rid of it.

Pete
 
Sigma 105mm f/2.8 Macro? It's a cracking portrait lens for the money and you don't often hear me praise Sigma :LOL:

The 85mm f/1.8 is a lovely lens, not as lovely as the 1.4 version though.....
 
I've got a 105mm Sig Macro (its just a little too long for me to use for portraits indoors at home) looking for something to bridge the gap between it and the nifty fifty...
 
psenior1 said:
I've got a 105mm Sig Macro (its just a little too long for me to use for portraits indoors at home) looking for something to bridge the gap between it and the nifty fifty...
Click to expand...

I missed that in your op :bonk:

So really it needs to be something like one of the 85mm lenses or perhaps the 80-200 f/2.8 AF-D or a secondhand AF-S version, or for a wee bit more a secondhand 70-200 VR?
 
Flash In The Pan said:
I missed that in your op :bonk:

So really it needs to be something like one of the 85mm lenses or perhaps the 80-200 f/2.8 AF-D or a secondhand AF-S version, or for a wee bit more a secondhand 70-200 VR?
Click to expand...

I did look at the 80-200 and 70-200, how are they to handhold when you are moving around subject? I could probably stretch to a 70-200 new but would it really be worth the extra £400 :thinking:
 
Is it worth the money? I couldn't see how the £600 over the cost of an 80-200 could be justified, but for what I primarily use it for (motorsports) it was money well spent, if it's mainly for indoor portrait work then it might be a bit cumbersome for using in the house...
 
You could look at getting....

Sigma 30mm and the Nikon 70-300mm VR

You could also chop the Sigma 105mm in for a Tamron 90mm - portrait and macro in one. ;)
 
If I had the spare cash (which I don't :() I'd go with the 85mm f/1.4
What a lovely lovely lens.... but my head would say the f/1.8 and spend the saved cash ;)
 
sounds like you have already picked the 85mm 1.4(y)
 
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