reccomendations for a decent zoom lens?

IanC

IanC

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Ian
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Hi, i will be looking at getting a new zoom lens soon so i would like to hear any suggestions. Im currently using my kit lens 18-55 but i want something which offers better image quality.

im into landscapes mostly but i want something that can work well in low light conditions also.

i have looked mainly at the tamron 17-55 2.8 and the sigma 24-70 2.8

will i notice a difference in image quality with these len's?

Thanks for any help and suggestions
 
The sigma is a very good lens, but you do realise that with your 1.5x crop sensor the 24-70mm would frame like a 36-105mm lens. Is 36mm wide enough for your landscapes?

And do you mean the tamron 17-50mm f2.8? with or without image stabilization?

Do you have a budget?
 
As I've just posted in another thread ....

Was in the same dilemma myself a few weeks ago. I looked at the Sigma one you are talking about, the 17-70, a Tokina and the Tamron 18-50 f2.8

In the end I decided to go for the Tamron.

Best place I could find for it was onestopdigital at £250. However, when I eventually went to buy it (on Sunday) they were out of stock!!!

As if by magic, someone on here was selling one that very same night!!! A quick bit of negotiating saw me picking that up for £215 !

Lens arrived this morning and I have had a very good play with it. The sharpness is absolutely immense. I know everyone always goes on about sharpness with this lens - but to see it first hand is absolute quality - the difference is amazing!!!

On a side note, I have found the AF very fast and not noticed the noise it makes!

So my advice ... go for the Tammy !!!

Cheers

Anth
 
Hi Ian,

You will certainly notice a difference going from your kits lens to either of those two lenses. Of the two, I'd give my vote to the Tamron. Incredibly sharp, quick to focus (albeit a tad noisy) and very good value for money. The constant 2.8 aperture means more light entering the lens even when wide open which means higher shutter speeds can be used in low light levels.

Note that you'll need the DI BIM version if you're using it with your D40. This has it's own built in motor for focusing.

Hope this helps.
 
pete.rush said:
The sigma is a very good lens, but you do realise that with your 1.5x crop sensor the 24-70mm would frame like a 36-105mm lens. Is 36mm wide enough for your landscapes?

And do you mean the tamron 17-50mm f2.8? with or without image stabilization?

Do you have a budget?
Click to expand...

yeah i forgot to mention that sorry, with the 24-70mm if i ever needed to go wider then i plan to stich a couple of images together as neccesary, or get a wide angle to cover this.

yeah i meant the 17-50 f2.8 with image stabilization preferably

budget is around £400
 
Canon 17-40?
 
I like my Sigma 18-50 2.8 - well, i like it enough to not need to spend the money on the Nikon one!

I want a (Nikon) 24-70, but for a different purpose. The 24-70 is no good for walkabout or holiday snaps etc too heavy and its not wide enough on a DX body, but perfect on FX :D
 
Only other suggestion would not be to plan to stitch shots together as it will make composition of wide angle shots pretty hard and most of the stitched photo's looks a bit dodgey
 
I picked up the Sigma 17-70mm OS HSM a couple of weeks back. Really enjoying using this lens, photos are coming out very sharp, the OS works extremely well.

I upgraded to this from the Canon 18-55mm, and it is a huge step up in image quality. The extra range is enough for me - I mainly shoot landscape, architecture, general travel photography etc.

Obviously if your after a lens with low light capabilities, this only has f2.8 at 17mm, and it quickly goes up from there.

If you want to see a few example photos head over to http://www.stephenwalford.co.uk/cambridgephotography/cambridgephotography.html - the first 15 or so photos are ones taken with the Sigma (need to take it out and use it some more asap). I can post up a couple of hi-res for anyone who wants to have a better look at quality
 
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