Zoom lens prices

Fredsie

Fredsie

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Fred
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Hi

New to all this! So this may be daft but I can't fathom what's going on with lens prices. My Nikon DSLR comes paired with an 18-55 zoom lens. The lens on its own retails around £100 or less. I also have a 55-200 which I see I could currently buy for about £110. But it occurred to me that a good all-purpose lens for my general use would be one which straddled the middle of these ranges. So I have a look at, say, a Nikon 24-70 and I get hit with a £1250+ price tag.

Can anyone enlighten me as to why these 50mm-straddling zoom lenses cost so much more then their wider or longer-angled neighbours?

Cheers

Fred
 
Some designs are costlier.
That 24-70 is a very high quality optic with professional grade performance and build quality. It is much costlier to produce than "run of the mill" kit.
Also, lenses of that quality will not sell in anything like the same numbers as kit lenses and therefore have a smaller production run which pushes up the unit price.
 
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I bought a Nikon D7000 with an 18-55mm and a 55-200mm. I sold these two lenses for a total of about £145 on e-bay have now replaced them with an 18-200mm bought for £260 used.
A v11 version of this Nikon lens costs about £445 new.
I am finding this lens brilliant to use all round. Please see Ken Rockwell's very positive review.
 
Also the 24-70 is a constant f/2.8 aperture, which means considerably more glass is needed to make it.
You hold a 24-70 and you'll soon feel the difference in quality over and budget zoom lens.
 
The original two lenses quoted are designed down to a price, the other is designed upto a standard; if a professional who is looking to earn his or living theough lenses of that standard.

It's like asking why corner shop burgers are so much cheaper than a prime steak even though both are allegedley beef products
 
Thanks guys.

I didn't intend to compare apples and oranges, so it's looking like the 24-70 lens was a bad example to pick.

I understand that the two cheaper lenses I cited are probably made in bulk and can therefore be kept down in price. I would expect that the same could be done for my hypothetical overlapping lens. So my question turns to why this has not happened. Surely something in the 30 - 80 area would be a very useful general-purpose lens? If so it too could be made "down to a price". But it doesn't seem to have happened. Actually I see there's an 18-200 from Nikon at around £530 - thanks Mag1cp2x! - that pricing makes a lot more sense to me.
 
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Perhaps the demand is not there, as you say there is an 18-200 so why would you need to limit yourself to 30-80 when you can have wide angle to telephoto in one lens. 30-80 on crop anyway is a bit of a nothing range for me, its not wide enough for a lot of situations and it isn't long enough for a telephoto lens (not sure whether your camera is full frame or crop)
 
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The 30-80 is not a very useful general purpose lens. Neither is the 24-70... but you didn't mention, which camera you have?

If it's a DX model, you'll need wider, and if if it's one of the 3000, 5000 or 7000 series, it balances very bad. Front heavy!

So... DX and in the above series, look for the 16-85. Or the 18-105...


Re. prices, you really need to hold one in your hand and it will all become clear! :D
 
No, maybe you're right and it's not as potentially useful as I've been suggesting.

In terms of picture quality though, I would have thought that a "budget" 18-200 would be a lot harder to "get right" in all aspects of performance than one of more limited range. So in terms of "why go for 30-80 when you can have 18-200", perhaps end to end performance would be a factor?
 
can be confusing if you've not seen this before.
look at the long zoom sigmas for an all round
but don't forget that the more a lens can do, the more compromises the manufacturer has made. that's why you don't get many lenses that go from the 20-300 range that are used by professionals.
for some nice easy snapping when on holiday though, they're bob-on
 
Exactly at the budget end of the market the user will most likely want 1 all around lens and not to be carrying around a wide angle, standard and telephoto zoom
 
Fredsie said:
... and the camera's a D7100.
Click to expand...
Ah! Then I would certainly recommend the 16-85 (y)

Sold mine to a friend with a D5100 and it just fits and looks good. He haven't missed his 55-200 since... and the quality is much, much better.

But of course, you didn't mention, if you were looking to upgrade anything at all! :D
 
I didn't intend to compare apples and oranges, so it's looking like the 24-70 lens was a bad example to pick.

Surely something in the 30 - 80 area would be a very useful general-purpose lens? If so it too could be made "down to a price". But it doesn't seem to have happened.

An alternative to this lens (24-70) would be a Tamron 28-75 F2.8 lens. I had one on my D7000. And as it's designed for FX cameras, you always have a sharp pic from edge to edge on DX camera bodies. They can be bought new for around £300.00

Highly recommended from me, and very popular with other members on here and Flickr.
 
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