Please reccomend a good Lens for my nikon d700

C2photo

C2photo

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Name
Audrey
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Hey im a nikon d700 user with mostly using my 24-70mm lens for studio work,weddings... well basically everything lol
I'm looking to add a zoom lens to this as I find with photographing children in the studio my main lens isn't good enough as I like to go for close ups, therefore I would really like a good zoom lens...

Been checking out the nikon 70-200 mm lens but really expensive can any one please gave me any feedback on this or if there are any cheaper alternative?

Ne advice atall would b appreciated :)
 
The 70-200 is probably "best" but a 70-300VR would also do the job. Or you could sell the 24-70 and get the new 24-120 F/4 VR which seems to get very favourable reviews
 
Very pleased with my 24-120 f4 VR, the range is great, not sure I'd want to use it in a studio situation though. For portraits I'd rather use a long prime, Nikon's 180mm 2.8 is a good alternative to 70-200 zooms if you're going to be at the long end all the time anyway.
 
The 70-300VR is a nice lens, and good range, but I think once you have got used to f/2.8 its hard to go to slower ones. The 80-200 is a little cheaper than the newer 70-200 and by all accounts, not much in it. Have heard the Tamron 70-200 2.8 is decent, but the AF is slow.
 
You could always look at a Nikon AF 80-200 f2.8, the last version of it is optically not far behind the 70-200. I have used this in the studio and out and about. The quality is great.
 
Thanks again for all the replies just getting use to TP and so far everyone is very nice and helpful :) well pleased

... Anyhow I Think i will bite the bullet and buy the 70-200 lens, need to search now to compare prices i normally buy of warehouse express or Photomart or local supplier but if anyone knows of any other 'reliable' companies which may be cheaper it would b great if u can let me know.

Regarding ** last post psilverman I only have one other body which is my old D80, if I did buy the other lens would it b possible to put it on to this for the weddings only or is that a stupid question lol not really tuned in much with lens!! I wouldn't want to b stalling at weddings to change lens thou!!
 
Typically for Weddings and Events, 2 cameras is recommended for the purpose you've mentioned, swapping lenses, and also in case of failure of one of the bodies, you can utilise the other as the back up as it were.

If your question is will a 70-200mm 2.8 VR II work on a D80...the answer is yes 100%

Regards

Danny
 
C2photo said:
Thanks again for all the replies just getting use to TP and so far everyone is very nice and helpful :) well pleased

... Anyhow I Think i will bite the bullet and buy the 70-200 lens, need to search now to compare prices i normally buy of warehouse express or Photomart or local supplier but if anyone knows of any other 'reliable' companies which may be cheaper it would b great if u can let me know.

Regarding ** last post psilverman I only have one other body which is my old D80, if I did buy the other lens would it b possible to put it on to this for the weddings only or is that a stupid question lol not really tuned in much with lens!! I wouldn't want to b stalling at weddings to change lens thou!!
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Buy right, buy once :thumbs:!

I doubt that you'll regret that decision, Audrey. All of the other choices mentioned involve a compromise of some sort (I'd heard that the 80-200mm was slow to AF, which is probably not great for shots of kids :shrug:).

Since I doubt that your budget (or mine ;)) runs to buying all of the main fast 'portrait primes' within that range (900GBP for the 85mm f/1.4 ED, 975GBP for the 135mm f/2 with de-focus control and 4,400GBP for the 200mm f/2 VRII), I guess that the 70-200mm isn't going to seem like any sort of a 'compromise'. Besides, they hold their value well, in case you ever change your mind ;).
 
thanks andy, def gona buy soon, took a look at your site there and your pic of the belly dancer are great, so sharp. can i ask what lens and settings you used for this, as i find in studio while using 24-70 its not as sharp as i would like it to be, i think this lens should have better results from what im getting, any thoughts on what might b wrong? mayb its my settings??
 
C2photo said:
thanks andy, def gona buy soon, took a look at your site there and your pic of the belly dancer are great, so sharp. can i ask what lens and settings you used for this, as i find in studio while using 24-70 its not as sharp as i would like it to be, i think this lens should have better results from what im getting, any thoughts on what might b wrong? mayb its my settings??
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Hey

What 24-70mm do you have? And on what camera?

Regards

Danny
 
C2photo said:
thanks andy, def gona buy soon, took a look at your site there and your pic of the belly dancer are great, so sharp. can i ask what lens and settings you used for this, as i find in studio while using 24-70 its not as sharp as i would like it to be, i think this lens should have better results from what im getting, any thoughts on what might b wrong? mayb its my settings??
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Hi Audrey.

Thanks for your kind words about the pics. The (non-strobe effect) belly dancer pictures were shot with two lenses - the Sigma 50mm f/1.4 on the wider shots and :naughty: ... the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II on the facial shots and general close ups.

I don't know about you, but I always shoot in RAW and then decide how to process each shot afterwards (I'm an amateur, I have the time for that ;)). I also use 'unsharp mask' to sharpen my images for web display. This makes a huge difference to the final appearance of the images, as mine tend to come out of the camera looking fairly soft :( (I have image sharpening set at "0" as a default in both of my Nikons).

If your 24-70mm images don't look as sharp as, for instance, my 'belly dancer' pics, I wouldn't automatically suspect the lens - it could just be a case of them needing more/different sharpening applying in post-processing :).

Hope that helps.
 
yeah helps loads you dont look very amateur to me lol:thinking: yeap i think that might b the problem - more post processing to b done then, althou i thought with the price of these lens they should b super sharp already, no??
danny its the nikon 24-70mm im using, good all round lens but i expected images to b sharper. like when i zoom into an image it should be great quailty... mayb im expecting too much from this lens lol
 
C2photo said:
...althou i thought with the price of these lens they should b super sharp already, no??
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Yes, the lens should be capable of resolving a lot of fine detail, that's true. But these sensors on DSLRs have these things called anti-aliasing filters, which (for reasons too complicated for me to understand and be able to explain :D), can make digital images appear softer than they would if shot onto 35mm film :shrug:. I think that it's widely agreed that some degree of sharpening is essential, to get the best 'sharpness' in digital photography. Most people have the camera do it for them, automatically, but it doesn't always deliver the nicest looking results.

Anyway, there should be no major difference in sharpness between your 24-70mm and any other quality lens that you own, when viewed on the same camera. If, on the other hand, you meant that your 24-70mm looked soft compared to other lenses that you had, then it could of course be a lens/focus issue :shrug:.
 
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