Lenses advice please

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D4nz0

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Danny
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Hi guys,

I see there's a thread similar to this one by someone else, but doesn't go down the same route, so here's my own thread.

I only just got my first dSLR last month, spent the last month reading tonnes of stuff about Aperture, ISO, Shutter speeds, but I am still using the standard lens, the 18mm-50mm lens I got with my Nikon D5100.

I am in no great rush to grab new lenses as I'm still learning the basics, but I'm looking for any form of hints, advice, tips, anything for when I look at buying a new lens.... e.g. get a 'Nifty Fifty', get a macro, get a wide lens, figure out what you wanna do, anything.... talk to me people :D

Danny
 
Don't buy anything yet. Find out how your kit lens limits your photography, and then work out what you need to overcome those limiations.
 
I think my main personal problem is wanting to do too many different things.

I absolutely love the macro stuff, but unfortunately, due to family and house, I can't setup any dedicated lighting areas, which I know doesn't rule out macro entirely, just a fair amount.

I don't fully understand yet the advantages of different focal lengths and types of lenses, and I don't fully understand what lenses could open my options to learning..
 
If you like macro work you only beed a very small area to work in. Your background could be smaller than an A4 sheet of paper! As the subjects grow (like people) you need more room - I struggle in my home for space putting up 3 or 4 lights in a tiny room.

Regards lenses - A macro lens is ideal for close up work which means your backdrop can be very small. Longer lenses compress perspective and have a narrow field of view so if you have space behind rather than at the sides, a longer lens won't need a large background.

Wide angle lenses ave a wide field of view and in the house will take in the side walls and potentially even your feet.

For landscape work, wide angle lenses are ideal. They capture wide scenes

For portraiture, the longer the lens the better - 85mm to 200m is perfect.

For sport you need long lenses to get close and these need to be quite fast so large apertures like f4 or f2.8 to allow fast shutter speeds, As always there are compromises and weather dependant.

Short to telephoto lenses do most average things well. But they are not quite as wide or long as other more dedicated lenses -nor are they as fast as prime lenses (fixed focal length).

The main thing other than focal length is the maximum aperture. Some lenses are shown as f3.5 - 5.6. This means as you zoom out, the largest your aperture will be at the wide ens is f3.5 but as you zoom to the long end it will change to 5.6.

Comp[are that to a lens with f2.8 across all focal lengths like the 24-70 f2.8L and you'll see that even at 70mm you can maintain a large aperture of f2.8 which lets in 4x more light than a lens at f5.6. So in lower light it's more useful.

Indoors without flash and you want to start looking at primes like the 50mm f1.8 (a cheap but fast lens). This lens can let in 8.333x more light than the kit lens at 50mm. So if you are at a shutter speed of say 1/8th @ f5.6, at f1.8 you would be able to shoot at around 1/80th (can be the difference in stopping motion and getting a sharp image or getting a blurry one at f5.6)

Most fast zooms are more expensive though. Primes can be relatively cheap in comparison.

Just depends what you want to shoot :)
 
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Massive thanks for all the replies, alot of great information, much appreciation!

I look forward to being in a place where I need the added equipment to take my photo's further.... right now I'm a few miles behind what my camera can do :D I'm catching up fast though me thinks :D

Good shout on the hiring idea, would allow me to try stuff out without committing to a fortune. I'm very much of the idea that I don't want to 'buy cheap, buy twice'... I've done this with audio equipment in the past and wasted alot of money, so your words are of great help.


Thanks again guys, and massive thanks to EOS_JD for the time taken to give a great description. I think the top of my list is definitely going to be the Prime 50mm F1.8, not too expensive and will open up new options quickly.

Danny
 
As has been said, enjoy your camera and see where your photography takes you.

As you have Nikon, with regards to your 50mm - I think you need to make sure you get the lens with AF motor in (I'm sure a Nikon bod will be along and clarify this)

As a good start, if you have the 18-55 kit lens and a 55-250 (ish) lens then you are covered for most areas of photography...
 
D4nz0 said:
Massive thanks for all the replies, alot of great information, much appreciation!

I look forward to being in a place where I need the added equipment to take my photo's further.... right now I'm a few miles behind what my camera can do :D I'm catching up fast though me thinks :D

Good shout on the hiring idea, would allow me to try stuff out without committing to a fortune. I'm very much of the idea that I don't want to 'buy cheap, buy twice'... I've done this with audio equipment in the past and wasted alot of money, so your words are of great help.


Thanks again guys, and massive thanks to EOS_JD for the time taken to give a great description. I think the top of my list is definitely going to be the Prime 50mm F1.8, not too expensive and will open up new options quickly.

Danny
Click to expand...

I recommend you go with the 35mm f1.8 not a 50mm f1.8 for a d5100.
 
the 35 is a nice lens but depends what then OP wants to shoot. None can recommend anything really.
 
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