Which lenses for my D600?

tapetheescape

tapetheescape

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Having moved from Canon, where I knew pretty much what I was doing with regards to lenses, I'm in a whole world of confusion.

The D600 came with the new 24-85mm kit lens which I'm pleasantly surprised with. The only thing I miss is the slightly faster aperture. With my Canon (crop), I was using a 18-50mm Tamron 2.8 and rather happy with it. Are the Tamron F/2.8s for FX sensors any good? I see the 24-70mm F/2.8s start at about £700 which is a bit of a stretch.

I'm also looking for a nifty fifty equivalent, perhaps at F/1.4 instead of F/1.8 but unlike Canon, there doesn't seem to be a defined favourite out there.

Also how on earth do I know if something is for a full frame sensor? I understand on Nikon that anything that is not "DX" will be fine (right....?) but what about Sigma, Tamron etc. How do they define what sensor size it is built for?

Apologies for the newbie nature of this post....
 
It so many to choose from...

Best for portraits would be 85mm lenses on full frame (zero distortion etc.)

Nikon 85mm f1.8D (or) Nikon 85mm f1.8G

D- older lenses with aperture ring
G- newer lenses (faster AF)

Nikon 50mm f1.4D (or) Nikon 50mm f1.4G


From Tamron about lenses:
http://www.tamron.eu/en/lenses/technology/didi-iidi-iii.html

Well known:
Tamron 28-75mm f2.8 (older lens) but hard to find reallllly sharp copy
Tamron 24-70mm f2.8 VC (newest lens)
 
or just look for some crazy good lenses from Nikon

Nikon 24-70mm f2.8
Nikon 28-70mm f2.8
Nikon 35-70mm f2.8

and the leit can go on and on...

What is your budget? do you want primes or zooms?
 
I have the 50 F1.8G and the 85 F1.8G primes and they are fantastic. I have used them on the D5100 with great satisfaction and hoping to get better images with the D600.

You won't regret buying them, but if you are looking for a wide aperture medium zoom, the Tamron 2.8 is a good choice and popular.

A couple of shots with the two primes I have on a D5100

85 1.8G


untitled-52 by Anirban.acharya, on Flickr


DSC_2565 by Anirban.acharya, on Flickr


untitled-169-Edit-2-Edit-Edit by Anirban.acharya, on Flickr


untitled-207 by Anirban.acharya, on Flickr

50mm 1.8G


untitled-10 by Anirban.acharya, on Flickr


Ashmi 2 by Anirban.acharya, on Flickr
 
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I have a Tamron 28-75 which I bought as a cheap walkabout lens for my D700 on which it works brilliantly, but then that's not a surprise as it is very forgiving on lenses due to it's monster sized pixels.

Even better, I was surprised to find, is that it will resolve to pixel density (more or less) on my D3200 so I would expect it to work really well on the D600 which has larger pixels.
 
asaspasas6 said:
or just look for some crazy good lenses from Nikon

Nikon 24-70mm f2.8
Nikon 28-70mm f2.8
Nikon 35-70mm f2.8

and the leit can go on and on...

What is your budget? do you want primes or zooms?
Click to expand...

Budget changes by the day!

But £200 tops for a prime and roughly £300-600 for a walkabout zoom.

The Tamron is preferable at the moment due to price. Whats the going rate would you folks say? And how can I be sure its built for FX?
 
You can be sure it's built for FX because it has an FX focal range, i.e. 28-75. The DX equivalent is 18-50, hence the focal length of common DX kit lenses. I think Tamron's DX denotation is DiII as opposed to Di for FX - not the easiest distinguishing names ever :lol:

A grey import is £250 so a 2nd hand UK model would probably be around the same - can't remember what I paid for mine but it was in that ball park.

edit: you could probably, if you're lucky, get a Nikon 28-70 for £600 but it is a beast of a lens (hence it's nickname - The Beast), the reason I went for the Tamron is that it is small and light which is what I want from a walkaround lens - otherwise I'd take my "proper" lenses...
 
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tapetheescape said:
Also how on earth do I know if something is for a full frame sensor? I understand on Nikon that anything that is not "DX" will be fine (right....?) but what about Sigma, Tamron etc. How do they define what sensor size it is built for?
Click to expand...

Sigma: DG means designed for full frame, DC means designed for a crop sensor. Neither DG nor DC means it's an old design (pre-digital) so it's full frame but the quality may not be good enough for your D600.

Tamron: Di means designed for full frame, Di II means designed for a crop sensor. Neither Di nor Di II means it's an old design.

Tokina: DX means designed for a crop sensor.

tapetheescape said:
Having moved from Canon, where I knew pretty much what I was doing with regards to lenses, I'm in a whole world of confusion.
Click to expand...

All this stuff is the same whether you use Canon or Nikon. Clearly you've experienced some sort of brain failure. The question is, did that happen before or after you decided to switch to Nikon? ;-)
 
Tamron 28-75 f2.8 @ £349.99 is my choice on the D600.
(Uk model with 5 year warranty).

I also have the 50mm f1.8g and 70-300 VR.
 
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