Is the nikon 18-105 kit lens a good lens? What would be a good upgrade?

wonderer

wonderer

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I love the length of this lens, it suits most situations that I shoot and it rarely comes off the camera. It came with my D90 from new but is it actually a good lens or am I missing out on better quality shots if I upgraded?

I always seem to struggle with sharpness in my shots and I'm not sure if this lens plays much of a role in that.

Please can I get some suggestions to good alternative lens with the same focal lengths, I would love some opinions.
 
It is a good value lens. A better one is the Nikon 18-70 - and around £100 or less used. Or you have the Tamron 17-50 2.8 which is very good.
 
It's as basic as you get really. Not bad, just not great. It's not very 'bright' and not the sharpest either. It's fine for very casual shooting, family photos, that sort of thing. Most people sell it on to fund a better zoom, even if it's to be shorter like the 17-50 mentioned already.
 
I've used it for a year since purchasing it with my D90 as my walk about lens and its served me well but I'm starting to see its limitations. In 60% of circumstances its been fine but there are times when it's just not quite as sharp as I'd like or the aperture just doesn't go as wide as I'd like. That's not to say I think its a poor lens, far from it. I have some lovely images that I have taken with it however but it is what it is; a decent quality and versatile, mid range kit kens.
 
Thanks for your replies all.

I have a home based studio and its a nice focal range for that. Is there an alternative great performer in the 18-105 range or am I better off getting two decent lens with shorter range like the ones mentioned?

Cheers all
 
wonderer said:
Thanks for your replies all.

I have a home based studio and its a nice focal range for that. Is there an alternative great performer in the 18-105 range or am I better off getting two decent lens with shorter range like the ones mentioned?

Cheers all
Click to expand...


How big is your home studio!? I'm surprised you would need anything more than 50mm. People seem to love there Sigma 17-70mm
 
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wonderer said:
Thanks for your replies all.

I have a home based studio and its a nice focal range for that. Is there an alternative great performer in the 18-105 range or am I better off getting two decent lens with shorter range like the ones mentioned?

Cheers all
Click to expand...

Im in exactly the same position. I need an alternative for a home studio. I have a 50mm prime but sometimes need to go a little wider on an DX as kids tend to move around a lot. The room of my studio is about 13ft long so there's rarely a need for me to go longer than 50mm. The Tamron 17-50 2.8 gets really good reviews on here. Search it and there's a thread from the other day where the images are unbelievably sharp for a £200 lens. It's a DX lens however and I'm thinking of moving to FX soon so unfortunately its not for me. I'm looking for an alternative that suits both DX and FX.
 
I purchased this lens for my D3100 last year as I was going on holiday to Bali and wanted a bit more then the kit 18-55 and my other lens is my bird lens at 70-300VR. I think its ok but it just didnt inspire me and I did think it had poor low light performance even though i appreciaet at 18mm it is F3.5 as soon as you start zooming a bit the F dives. I will be looking to replace it this summer with an F2.8 lens like above myself.
 
I've also been using this lens for about 2 years now as it was my kit lens with my Nikon D90. I have always found the pictures sharp and crisp. I also tend to use the Sigma 10-20mm F4-5.6 EX DC as I take a lot of sky shots, and i've not noticed any difference in quality between photos.
 
Well oddly enough I am just looking at swapping mine out for a shorter zoom 18-60 ish with an F2.8 as the one thing it lets me down is low light and its inside like pubs and beer festivals where i use this lens and outside landscapes, so if your interested i might have a gently used one :)
 
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