telephoto advice

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stokieguest

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I am a complete novice photographer.I have just bought a Nikon 3200 and would like a telephoto lens. Any advice would be appreciated to get a value for money lens please. What are the risks of buying second hand? Are there compatibility issues?
 


There are a few things to consider including budget, and what you intend to do with it, but this might be a consideration without spending too much:

http://m.digitalrev.com/#product?id=9936

However if you have just bought the camera I'd be tempted to advise getting to know its capabilities and learning what you can do with the lens you have before getting another one.
 
Soprano
Thanks for that.
I wa looking at that lens, about £230 at John Lewis, but I realise that the website you recommend must be safe.
You are right about getting used to it, but I think that I will only get full enjoyment ftom it, if I can do 'distance shots' , as that is why I bought it.
I don't know if you have time to answer this stupid question.....
Is it the correct technique to revolve the lens manually when changing the distance of the photograph? Is the focus simply automatic?
 
Sorry, that link might not work 100%. Try this (and if the price isn't in £ then go to the bottom of the page and change country to UK):
http://www.digitalrev.com/product/nikon-af-s-dx-nikkor/OTkzNg_A_A

It's a supplier from Hong Kong but they are much cheaper than UK suppliers and have a good reputation. Have used myself.

You don't need to focus manually, it's an autofocus lens and camera (though you can focus manually if you need to in some circumstances). You adjust the zoom manually though.

For telephoto shots you need to be careful when hand holding the camera. That lens has Vibration Reduction which helps a lot though (but doesn't freeze moving objects).
 
Sorry, that link might not work 100%. Try this (and if the price isn't in £ then go to the bottom of the page and change country to UK):
http://www.digitalrev.com/product/nikon-af-s-dx-nikkor/OTkzNg_A_A

It's a supplier from Hong Kong but they are much cheaper than UK suppliers and have a good reputation. Have used myself.

You don't need to focus manually, it's an autofocus lens and camera (though you can focus manually if you need to in some circumstances). You adjust the zoom manually though.

For telephoto shots you need to be careful when hand holding the camera. That lens has Vibration Reduction which helps a lot though (but doesn't freeze moving objects).
Thanks again!
The link did work, I will go ahead
 
Digitalrev and One Stop Digital are both good and reliable and you won't be stung with import duty/VAT from either of them.

Regarding "distance shots". Telephoto lenses do have the effect of bringing things closer/enlarging, but be aware that things in the distance won't normally be sharp no matter how good your lens is due to the disturbances in the air over a long distance. My telephotos are normally used to take photos of things that are relatively close - wildlife/birds etc!
 
Thanks Roger

I will look into what you say about the on line sales.
Also good advice thanks the long shots. What I sim to do , hopefully, is to take some shots to blow up enough/print to turn into "pictures for the wall" so the sharpness/pixels are important to me. I hope that this us feasible
 
Thank you everyone for your help ..
I have bought the lens from digitalrev and I am pleased.
Please would you offer advice on buying and the advantages of a macro lens , at reasonable cists
 
Only cheap Nikon option is the 40mm micro, but for serious macro work you really want something with longer focal length to increase the working distance. One way to do it cheaply is to get a reversing ring and use the lens you have backwards, but probably not going to work well with a zoom lens. Perhaps try the 40mm as a start as it can also double as a nice compact walkabouts lens for general use which is of significantly higher quality than the zoom that comes with your camera.

But if you are a beginner I would also advise getting to know the kit you have now before investing much more. There's a lot to learn about technique before getting into macro IMO.
 
Only cheap Nikon option is the 40mm micro, but for serious macro work you really want something with longer focal length to increase the working distance. One way to do it cheaply is to get a reversing ring and use the lens you have backwards, but probably not going to work well with a zoom lens. Perhaps try the 40mm as a start as it can also double as a nice compact walkabouts lens for general use which is of significantly higher quality than the zoom that comes with your camera.

But if you are a beginner I would also advise getting to know the kit you have now before investing much more. There's a lot to learn about technique before getting into macro IMO.
Thanks Soprano

I think that you are right about getting to know my camera first, I do tend to 'jump in ' without getting to know the basics

John
 
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