What to get next?

C

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Name
Scott
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I've decided to increase my collection of equipment. I've currently got a D90 with the 18-105 kit lens. Two lenses that I want to "invest" in are the Nikon 35mm prime & also the 70-300 VR. The 35mm is affordable this month, the 70-300 will take a little longer to hide the required money from the wife.

Another alternative (after looking at prices on ebay) is the 18-200mm VR Nikon. These look to be cheaper second hand than the 70-300 and give me the option of selling the kit lens to part finance another purchase.

The questions is, given the choice, what would you do, and which would you get first?
 
All comes down to what you want to shoot i'm afraid. If it was me i would see what i had coming up, anything that you're going to use the 35mm for in the next month or so? or are you buying the 70-300mm for birds etc, with it being spring plenty are coming home from warmer climates (or should be soon) or perhaps motorsport as plenty of motorsport will be kicking off soon with the improved weather?

the way i see it is that you already have the 35mm range covered with your 18-105 but certainly nowhere near the 300mm range :)

alternatively is it definately the 70-300 you want? i was in a similar predicament recently and picked up a nikon 70-210mm f4-5.6 very cheaply last month and i'm very impressed with it. yes its getting on abit now but it produces some lovely pictures and was 1/7 of the cost of a new 70-300mm :)
 
Depends what you are shooting (as previously mentioned).

I'd look further ;) just because I've had the 18-200 (found it versatiole but too soft) and I've played with a 70-300, the cheaper one... again soft.

Have a look at the 50-500 sigma or the 80-400 (tamron/tokina?). Should give you ample zoom. They are a bit pricy tho.


If you are not sure about the zoom/range you could experiment with m42 filter and older lenses, 80-200 (equiv 120-300) on ebay or a 200 or 300mm f4 for a relatively cheap price. But manual is way more tricky to get right. I think the 70-300 is around 100ukp used (the more basic one) which will show you whether you will use it.

As to portraits,
50mm f1.8 (100ukp) f1.4d (200ukp) f1.4g (300-350 ish)
30mm f1.4 sigma (200ukp used)
35mm f1.8 nikon (around 170ukp)

Have a search on ebay and london camera exchange and warehouseexpress for prices of new/used. Check on Flickr for the type of pictures coming off the lenses (take that with a pinch of salt tho) and if its a lot of money, perhaps hire one for a few days/weekend to try it out?
 
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If you think you want the 35 1.8 and if you would like the wide aperture capabilities, then just get it. On the D90 it almost is like there isn't a lens. And with ISO 3200 (6400 is still usable) and 1.8 you can take pictures in nearly the dark. Of course this is only useful if you take pictures nearly in the dark. If animals are your thing, then get the 70-300.

Thanks,
Rick
 
My pictures are a mixture of just about everything at the moment - I don't seem to have developed any "style" as such (in fact, I'm not sure I've developed any talent if I'm honest).

I do find that I'm missing the extra reach that I used to have on my Panasonic FZ28 - the 105mm is a bit short sometimes. I took the dogs for a walk along the canal earlier and I was surprised at just how short the 105mm can be for animals - the 18mm wide angle is great though.

I do like the idea of the 70-300mm. It's not going to replace the kit lens as a walkabout, but being able to get "closer" to subjects would be good. My only concern would be whether I'd use it enough to justify buying one - what do most people find that they use the most? I have a niggling doubt and wonder if a 18-200 VR may get more use (I could recoup some of the cost by selling the kit lens then) and just see how cropping my images afterwards works.

I think I've decided that the 35mm lens might just find its way into my kit bag one day when the wife isn't looking - it's only small and I'm sure she'll believe me if I tell her it only costs £25 :thumbs: ).
 
I was in a similar position to you (albeit with a D5000 rather than a D90).

I got the 18-105 as a walkabout lens and the 35mm as a low-light / shallow DOF lens and was pretty happy with both when I was in the States on Honeymoon. I didn't find the 105 to be too short very often.

The killer was when I went to the zoo a few weeks ago - 105mm just wasn't long enough.
I toyed briefly with getting the 18-200, but decided in the end to keep the 18-105 and buy a 70-300VR. Not cheap (almost £300 s/h), but the 18-200 isn't cheap either, and getting the 70-300 tripled my range rather than doubling it. I might one day trade in the 18-105 against a 16-85 to give myself a bit of extra width (and still have overlap with the 70-300).
My view was that 105 is plenty most of the time, and on the occassions when I need to go longer, I tend to need to go quite a lot longer. The 18-200 would have been an improvement on 105, but still a compromise. And having a 18-200 AND a 70-300 would be a bit silly!
Also, don't expect the 18-200 to be quite as sharp across the range as lenses with a shorter zoom range.

I guess it's the old trade-off of convenience against quality.

I've found that I use the 18-105 and 35 a lot more often than the 70-300 (most of my holidays are city breaks), although if I went to the zoo again I'd probably take the 70-300 and nothing else. As a result, I'm pretty happy with my current set-up, and don't think the 18-200 would do much for me.
 
Thanks for that input Andy. It sounds as though you have come to the same sort of conclusion I was slowly getting to myself.

Looks like I'll be saving up for the 70-300 VR then (as I said, I think the 35mm may be "appearing" in the bag before long anyway). In the mean time, I'm going to see some friends in a couple of weeks so I'll have to make the most of trying their 18-200mm while I'm there just to confirm things. :cool:
 
i have the 70-300 vr

its awesome, but a tiny bit limiting with the aperture range - but hey, theres a reason the 70-200VR is 1500, right?
 
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