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peachy

peachy

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A camera is only as good as the glass in front of it - or something.

If you get a new camera body only would you go for your first lens:
a) a wide angle zoom - say 18-55, covers lots of every day situations
b) a longer zoom - say 18-105

both (a) and (b) coming in at £230.

I'm guessing (b) wont be as good quality? or a meringue.

c) a telephoto 55-200 about £250

d) a prime lens say 50mm 1.8 at £200

I'd be tempted with (c) then (b)

any thoughts dear smb readers?
 


Generally any prime lens will outperform a zoom, but then your bag will be heavier and your wallet lighter

Look at reviews of the specific lenses
 
Is this a full frame or crop sensor? Just that Nikon and Canon crop cameras both have 18-55 kit lenses so I'm guessing that's what you're talking about. In which case the choice might more sensibly be between an 18-55 or 18-105 as a zoom option or a (for example Nikon 35mm 1.8 DX) 35mm prime lens which is nearer a 50mm perspective in old money or on full frame, rather than a longer zoom. That particular lens is also quite cheap.

Personally I'd prefer a prime always. Better image quality, better in low light and better ability to narrow the depth of field if you want to. Also just a more straightforward way to do photography which IMO leads to better results, and usually smaller and lighter. But for some the advantages of zooms outweigh those factors.
 
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Personally, I'd get the 50mm prime, but it really depends on your circumstances and what you are going to be taking photos of.

I'd expect the prime image quality to be far better than any of the zooms at the same price point, but if you are looking for a travel lens you might be better off accepting lower image quality to get the versatility of a zoom.

Canon 50mm 1.8 is about £70 :)
 
Roger said:
Personally, I'd get the 50mm prime, but it really depends on your circumstances and what you are going to be taking photos of.

I'd expect the prime image quality to be far better than any of the zooms at the same price point, but if you are looking for a travel lens you might be better off accepting lower image quality to get the versatility of a zoom.

Canon 50mm 1.8 is about £70 :)
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Aye but if it's a crop camera then that's like a short telephoto, hence my comment about a 35mm lens. We need to know what camera it is really.
 
peachbum said:
A camera is only as good as the glass in front of it - or something.

If you get a new camera body only would you go for your first lens:
a) a wide angle zoom - say 18-55, covers lots of every day situations
b) a longer zoom - say 18-105

both (a) and (b) coming in at £230.

I'm guessing (b) wont be as good quality? or a meringue.

c) a telephoto 55-200 about £250

d) a prime lens say 50mm 1.8 at £200

I'd be tempted with (c) then (b)

any thoughts dear smb readers?
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A 50mm 1.8 is only around £70.. possibly cheaper for a good second hand one as well, so you could potentially look at that and something else. It really depends what you're going to use it for.

Also, a) and b) are both kit lenses iirc. They're not going to be anywhere the quality of then 50mm even for about the same price.

What camera are these to be going on?
 
The Great Soprendo said:
Is this a full frame or crop sensor? Just that Nikon and Canon crop cameras both have 18-55 kit lenses so I'm guessing that's what you're talking about. In which case the choice might more sensibly be between an 18-55 or 18-105 as a zoom option or a (for example Nikon 35mm 1.8 DX) 35mm prime lens which is nearer a 50mm perspective in old money or on full frame, rather than a longer zoom. That particular lens is also quite cheap.

Personally I'd prefer a prime always. Better image quality, better in low light and better ability to narrow the depth of field if you want to. Also just a more straightforward way to do photography which IMO leads to better results, and usually smaller and lighter. But for some the advantages of zooms outweigh those factors.
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The camera can be bought as body only and is not a full frame.

UaeExile said:
I'd spring for the 50mm for no other reason than they're versatile and fun to use....
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Everybody has gone for the prime.

OK - so prime lens lens first then .

On my old SLR film camera 50mm was the prime you'd first buy but as the camera I'm looking at is not full frame is it a 35mm I should be looking at then?

Camera is Nikon D5300.

@Lonz

lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

also the two lenses below from same site seem to have identical detail apart from the DX. Does anybody know what DX means, and why it makes the lens more than £200 cheaper?

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G = £339
Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G DX = £115
 
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DX is Nikon speak for crop sensor, that is the one you need. The other is an FX full frame lens and will work but unless you have ambitions to get a full frame body at some point in the future it is complete overkill and won't give any advantage over the DX lens on the D5300 or any of the D3xxx or D7xxx range either.

That DX 35mm has an excellent reputation also - superb lens.

Also to answer your question about why it is cheaper, the DX lens doesn't need to cover as big a sensor area so can be made smaller and more cheaply. It's still a well made lens (better than the kit zoom lenses) though and highly rated optically. The sensors in Nikon's DX cameras now are so good they are probably limited by the optical quality of the standard 18-55 or 18-105 lenses, but not the case with the 35mm.
 
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peachbum said:
On my old SLR film camera 50mm was the prime you'd first buy but as the camera I'm looking at is not full frame is it a 35mm I should be looking at then?
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If you liked the 50mm on the 35mm film camera, the 35mm lens is roughly the equivalent on a crop sensor

If you got a 50mm lens on your crop sensor, it would be like having a 80mm lens on your old film camera.
 
IMHO, right now, forget about image quality. You need to consider what you will be taking photos of. For example, if its predominantly landscapes, then 50mm on a crop is going to leave you unsatisfied. The image quality will be better but it probably won't be an image that you're happy with.

If you take pics of stuff that you can zoom in and out of with your legs, then grand, the 50mm is a good bet.
 
Steeeeed said:
IMHO, right now, forget about image quality. You need to consider what you will be taking photos of. For example, if its predominantly landscapes, then 50mm on a crop is going to leave you unsatisfied. The image quality will be better but it probably won't be an image that you're happy with.

If you take pics of stuff that you can zoom in and out of with your legs, then grand, the 50mm is a good bet.
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Think the 50mm thing is out of the equation. The 35mm is what she should most likely looking at as a first lens if she wants a prime. A 50mm might be a nice choice as a second lens if portraits are of interest.

Just one spanner in the works though: Nikon practically gives away the 18-55 kit lens when you buy together. I just got a D3300 for the bairn from Digitalrev and got the 35mm DX as you are thinking of. But it was only another £30 extra to get the kit 18-55 as well, so made sense to get both. Then arguably you have the best of both worlds.
 
The Great Soprendo said:
Think the 50mm thing is out of the equation. The 35mm is what she should most likely looking at as a first lens if she wants a prime. A 50mm might be a nice choice as a second lens if portraits are of interest.

Just one spanner in the works though: Nikon practically gives away the 18-55 kit lens when you buy together. I just got a D3300 for the bairn from Digitalrev and got the 35mm DX as you are thinking of. But it was only another £30 extra to get the kit 18-55 as well, so made sense to get both. Then arguably you have the best of both worlds.
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Funnily enough I have found a price for the camera I'm looking at body only (was going to take the advice of choose your lens rather than accept what comes with camera) and then I was going to go for the prime lens 35mm DX to go with camera.

BUT with a bit of looking around on the same website I have found the same camera with an 18-55 with it for £10 less than body only. So will go for that and get my prime lens too. :)

Thanks for all the info all. :p
 
The Great Soprendo said:
:cool: Naturally. Want to share?
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I will but currently am trying to enter April comp with random internet access.

:evil:

The Great Soprendo said:
:cool: Naturally. Want to share?
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I did as AB22 easy tiger says and went to the camera shop to try out my intended purchase (Nikon d5300). Felt great. Got chatting about wanting a full frame....,

Found a full frame [high St price £1000 ) so less than the 2 k I thought I'd need to spend for a full frame. (Can't afford £2k).

Found out the lightness of Nikon is because of plastic lenses rather than glass.

But best of all I can use my glass canon lenses on this full frame camera. So justifies spending more on camera body as no lenses need purchasing (£40 for adaptor).

So originally it was a Nikon crop for approx £430 with free 18-55 and prime plástic 35mm =£530
But now
Sony alpha 7 full frame body =£660 (internet price rather than high St)
Adaptor £40
Total
£700
Free lenses as I have already
Prime 24
Prime 50
Telephoto 75-210
All my lenses are glass not resin\plastic

Is this new plan good ?
 
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