Beginner Nikon users - What is everyone's favourite lens and what do you use it most for?

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Hi,

I've not been taking pictures for ling(just over 3 months) and recently bought a Tokina 11-16mm lens for Landscape pictures. I've not used it much but really like it. W Hat is everyone elses favourite lens?
 
steve_lyt said:
My Nikon 24-70 2.8 , its on my camera most the time
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This. It really is a wonderful all round lens.

(wouldn't mind the 14-24, though :))

BTW I had the 11-16 and it was a great lens for the price.

Remember, though, it's not the lens/camera that makes the photograph (y)

Cheers.
 
At the moment, my Tamron 28-75, would like the Nikon 24-70 but is just out of budget...[emoji17]
 
My favourite for both wildlife and landscapes is a 70-200. Don't forget landscapes isn't all about the ultra wide. I recently looked on Lightroom at my most used focal lengths for landscapes, 40-50mm was my most used. I quite like the 70-200 to zoom into a landscape to pick out details.
 
300 f/4. Fast things and large things that bite.
 
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24-120 f/4. Covers most eventualities. If I'm out and about with the Nikon, this is what'll probably be fitted unless I feel that I'll be shooting wider or longer!
 
Used to be 70=200 2.8 but these days tebd to be my 80-400
 
If your shooting dx then the 35mm F1.8 dx is a superb portrait prime, sharp as a tack
 
Depends what I'm doing, for wildlife the Nikon 200-500 on my D500; for everything else, the 24-70 2.8 is the go to lens on the D500 and my D810.
 
70-200mm VR2.

Contemplated getting rid of it to fund a couple of lenses, but figured I'd miss it too much.
 
JohnH said:
Hi,

I've not been taking pictures for ling(just over 3 months) and recently bought a Tokina 11-16mm lens for Landscape pictures. I've not used it much but really like it. W Hat is everyone elses favourite lens?
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You are shooting with a DX crop sensor camera so any lens mm length is 1.5mm times, if my memory serves me correctly. So your Tokina is actually shooting at 16.5 - 24mm

My first Nikon DX camera was a D70s and came with a kit lens of 18-70mm which in all fairness was a good lens for most types of subject matter except Landscape
Now with my D800 is FX the 24-70mm lens is on most of the time as with working with a 36Mp camera for general walkabout and the 70-200mm or the 80-400mm for extra reach

As for favourite lens that is a wide open question and depends on what you want to take photos of . there are specific lenses for particular purposes and best to say what you want to photograph.

Remember best a DX lens for a DX camera if your after a nikon lens, I am not really in favour of third party lenses anyway
 
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realspeed said:
As for favourite lens that is a wide open question and depends on what you want to take photos of . there are specific lenses for particular purposes and best to say what you want to photograph.
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This is a very good point, lens choice is very much dependant on genre of photography. I doubt many portrait photographers first choice would be a 600mm lens whereas it would be the weapon of choice for many bird photographers. The list above shows is quite interesting and only comparable once you take genre into account.

What are your interests? You mention landscapes, anything else?
 
50mm f1.8g on FX. Takes pics of most things!
 
My problem is I want to take my 24-70mm non VR lens and my 70-200mm VR lens on holiday shortly together with my camcorder ,but my camera bag is not big enough to take them. Seeing cabin bag/weight restrictions on the aircraft limits me and no way would I put in in the hold in a suitcase.
S it looks like only my trusty 24-70mm lens will have to cover everything yet again. reminder to myself ,don't forget to take a UV filter as the Caribbean can be quite bright
 
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85 f1.4 Samyang. It's my sharpest lens, and also delivers very pleasing results wide open for portraits or stopped down for landscapes.
 
Nikkor AFS DX VR 55-300mm. Use it for birds, and closeups of anything at least 5 ft. away, including flowers, and also use it for moon shots.
 
On a DX body, a Tamron 17-50/2.8 -- this or the Sigma equivalent are really nice for walking around.
 
Interpreting favourite lens as most used, my Nikon 16-85 3.5-5.6 VR. It's slower than some, but hand held in low light the iso can be increased with acceptable results. On a tripod there's no issues. I usually think of my favourite lens as the one on the camera that's getting a good result. Future lenses, along with my last purchase, will all be FX lenses getting ready for a D750.
 
On dx the sharpest lens I ever had was the sigma 18-35 1.8 art ! Sharp as a pin!
 
rob-nikon said:
This is a very good point, lens choice is very much dependant on genre of photography. I doubt many portrait photographers first choice would be a 600mm lens whereas it would be the weapon of choice for many bird photographers. The list above shows is quite interesting and only comparable once you take genre into account.

What are your interests? You mention landscapes, anything else?
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I mainly shoot only landscapes at the moment with the occasional family pic. I have a Nikon 35mm 1.8 for my portrait stuff which I also used for landscapes until I go the Tokina.
 
JohnH said:
I mainly shoot only landscapes at the moment with the occasional family pic. I have a Nikon 35mm 1.8 for my portrait stuff which I also used for landscapes until I go the Tokina.
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The 35mm on a crop body will still be useful for landscapes. The 11-16 will be great for getting foreground interest along with a wide vista. Have a look at Joe Cornish, he does some great ultra wide landscapes with foreground interest. There is even a phase coined after him because of his liking of foreground interest, 'Joe Cornish Boulder' or 'JCB' as some call it.
 
70-200VRII for versatility, quality and price on full frame. Couldn't shoot everything with it though, so perhaps my 50mm f1.4D would be most useful. Both lenses are used for a bit of everything but mainly event photography
 
As general do most things lens I loved the Nikon 16-85mm VR. I used that 95% of the time (Nikon 70-300mmVR for the rest). The 2mm wider than most of the 18-whatever lenses, which makes quite a difference. I liked it so much I bought a 2nd one when the first was stolen. I have recently bought a Nikon 16-80mm VR, but haven't had much chance to get out with it yet to hopefully see an improvement. I also bought a Sigma 10-20mm f3.5, but I still think the 16-80mm will be on the camera the vast majority of the time for what I take pics of.
 
posiview said:
This. It really is a wonderful all round lens.

(wouldn't mind the 14-24, though :))

BTW I had the 11-16 and it was a great lens for the price.

Remember, though, it's not the lens/camera that makes the photograph (y)

Cheers.
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I have the 14-24 as well , whilst it a fantastic lens, it spends most it time in my bag. When I need it's
Capabilities it performs without fault. I wish I got the 70-200 2.8 I would have got more use out of it. Saying that the 14-24
Is still usefull to have
 
I've been limited to my kit lens since purchase and for the all bad rep these things get. I quite like it. I'm learning well with it. It has a decent wide angle although I really want a lens with better focal reach. Budget restricts me getting another lens anytime soon but if you have a kit lens and your starting off. I recommend going along with it. Nifty tool.
 
24-120mm f4 VR generally lives on my D800 most of the time. Lets me cover most things that I shoot with.
 
Professor1991 said:
I've been limited to my kit lens since purchase and for the all bad rep these things get. I quite like it. I'm learning well with it. It has a decent wide angle although I really want a lens with better focal reach. Budget restricts me getting another lens anytime soon but if you have a kit lens and your starting off. I recommend going along with it. Nifty tool.
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A healthy approach!
Deckard said:
24-120mm f4 VR generally lives on my D800 most of the time. Lets me cover most things that I shoot with.
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It seems odd to me, to have such a high-definition sensor body, yet use it with a wide-range zoom like that. If it was me, I'd have a couple of Zeiss primes. But then lens choice is so subjective. The perfect lens doesn't exist. For me it's about colour rendition and bokeh quality first of all - and you can read lens tests all you like, but they can't define the emotional qaulities of how any lens renders overall ...
 
droj said:
It seems odd to me, to have such a high-definition sensor body, yet use it with a wide-range zoom like that. If it was me, I'd have a couple of Zeiss primes. But then lens choice is so subjective. The perfect lens doesn't exist. For me it's about colour rendition and bokeh quality first of all - and you can read lens tests all you like, but they can't define the emotional qaulities of how any lens renders overall ...
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Ah, but which primes? Also the small matter of cost for a couple of Zeiss primes, £6-7k? The 24-120 may be a bit of a "Swiss Army knife", but it's quality is better than you appear to assume. But then I generally lean towards my zooms than my primes for convenience.
 
On widgetal? the 18-55 kit, probably.
Camera + lens 'kit' was actually cheaper than the camera, body only, so it was effectively less than 'free'!!! You cant get much better VFM than that!
Focal length range covers that 'most used' range for most stuff, from wide to mild tele; Aperture range is respectable and more than useful for most stuff. Its a great all round, general purpose lens.
I have an 8-16 UWA, which for landscapes is pretty much unused.. more land does not more landscape make... good for restricted access situations, and opening up small spaces, grabbing big ones? Tends to shrink the drama observed on the spot rather, cram in more clutter and capture so much more 'boring'.. it's a 'nice' lens, and cost more than the camera! But I wouldn't say it's my favorite!
For the 'fun' I was inspired by fish-eyes a long time ago, by a cheap fixed focus 12mm on film...which convinced me to get the Siggy 4.5mm full round for Electric-Picture-Maker.. which is 'fun', but pretty limited on situations you can make it work.
When I first got the EPM, I got an M42 converter for it, so I could mount my old legacy lenses from film on it, until I could build up a kit of electric lenses around it.... which ultimately concluded in me using the film cameras the lenses are native to more.... which PROBABLY suggests the answer is my M42 Carl Ziess Jena 50...... that keeps hopping between the EPM and the film camera... utterly irrational choice, it's just a lovely lens to 'use', so tactile having to twiddle its focus ring and aperture control, which is 'completed' on all metal, fully manual clockwork sigma MK1 film camera it belongs to!
 
realspeed said:
My problem is I want to take my 24-70mm non VR lens and my 70-200mm VR lens on holiday shortly together with my camcorder ,but my camera bag is not big enough to take them. Seeing cabin bag/weight restrictions on the aircraft limits me and no way would I put in in the hold in a suitcase.
S it looks like only my trusty 24-70mm lens will have to cover everything yet again. reminder to myself ,don't forget to take a UV filter as the Caribbean can be quite bright
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Camera and 70-200 around your neck, camcorder and 24-70 in the bag. Or wear a jacket with a pocket big enough to hold the 70-200. Once past the weighing station, reload the bag.
 
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