OK, I have the 50mm 1.8 lens, which others?

[Ratpack]

I love the 50mm 1.8 lens, just may beat out my 18-135 for a walk around. Now I am curious as to which other single focal length lenses most would recommend to have in the bag.

 

[handicap18]

After that it depends on your photographic needs. I have the 50 f/1.8 and my only other current prime lens is the Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Macro.

What are your shooting habits? Do you have kids that are in any kind of activity or sports? Do you like taking macro/close-up photos? This is really what you have to start asking yourself now.

 

[mabas9395]

I love my 85mm f/1.8. The image quality is SOOOOOO much better than the Canon Nifty Fifty.

 

[Scottl]

I don't actually have any primes but I've seen a lot of people talk about the 85mm f/1.8.

Another thing, you didn't mention it but you may want to look at an external flash (sb-600 or sb-800 if nikon) instead of another lens or both.

Scott

 

[Ratpack]

I don't actually have any primes but I've seen a lot of people talk about the 85mm f/1.8.

Another thing, you didn't mention it but you may want to look at an external flash (sb-600 or sb-800 if nikon) instead of another lens or both.

Scott

This is what I have so far:
Nikon D50
18-135mm lens
55-200mm lens
70-300mm lens
50mm 1.8 lens
SB600 Flash (although a friend who is a pro says 90% of photos should have NO flash)

My style is all over the place. I have three kids, so there is lots of opportunities, then I like nature, sports and everything in between. So I guess I just need every lens Nikon makes!

 

[Scottl]

This is what I have so far:
Nikon D50
18-135mm lens
55-200mm lens
70-300mm lens
50mm 1.8 lens
SB600 Flash (although a friend who is a pro says 90% of photos should have NO flash)

My style is all over the place. I have three kids, so there is lots of opportunities, then I like nature, sports and everything in between. So I guess I just need every lens Nikon makes!

LOL, I have NAS also. I just ordered the 18-200 vr. I have the D50, 18-55, 28-80 and 70-300. Most pros say use natural or ambient light as much as possible others say bounce flash or other flash methods look just as good. I guess it's a personal preference.

 

[Anewman]

OOPS, you have Nikon gear.

Hope others can help.

 

[handicap18]

This is what I have so far:
Nikon D50
18-135mm lens
55-200mm lens
70-300mm lens
50mm 1.8 lens
SB600 Flash (although a friend who is a pro says 90% of photos should have NO flash)

My style is all over the place. I have three kids, so there is lots of opportunities, then I like nature, sports and everything in between. So I guess I just need every lens Nikon makes!

AMEN!!

Here are my thoughts. I have a VERY similar set up. D50, 18-70mm lens, 70-300mm VR lens, 50mm f/1.8, 90mm f/2.8, SB-600 (that is used 90% of the time with a Gary Fong Lightsphere II Difuser).

I love the Tamron 90mm f/2.8 macro, it is crazy sharp, the sharpest of my 4 lenses, even sharper than the 50mm f/1.8.

A few lenses I have on my list are a Sigma 24 or 28mm f/1.8. With the digital crop factor the 50mm is like 75mm. So the 24 or 28 would be more like the 50 would be on film. 36 and 42mm respectively.

When my kids get older (have 3 myself) another lens will depend on their activities. The 85mm f/1.8 could come in hand for indoor sports/activities.

While I probably wont get one, the Nikkor 60mm f/2.8 Macro is a great lens. I like the Tamron 90mm f/2.8 better and I got it for a great price used at keh.com. Though Nikkor has a 105mm f/2.8 macro with VR which is veerrrrrry nice.

You might consider getting better zooms like the 70-200mm f/2.8 VR or if thats to much the 80-200mm f/2.8 or Sigma's 70-200mm f/2.8. I also would love to get the Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5-4.5. If your into birding or things that need really long reach Sigma has a 50-500mm.

My next lens is going to be an upgrade in zoom length. I'm going to dump my 18-70 and get either the 18-135 or if I can save enough money the 18-200 VR. I like the idea of having VR for those times when I don't have a tripod but need the longer exposure.

There really is almost to many lenses to go through. You'll have to see where your eye, camera and budget take you for the next step. Though it seems as though a nice macro lens might a good option as it can be used in nature and for sports because of the 90mm being croped to 135mm at f/2.8 or the 105 croped to 157mm at f/2.8.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

No Canon user should be without the Canon EF 1200mm f/5.6L USM in their bag.

 

[gruZ]

No Canon user should be without the Canon EF 1200mm f/5.6L USM in their bag.

In their golf bag!

 

[handicap18]

In their golf bag!

I was thinking travel trailer. Golf bag might not be big enough.

 

[Groucho]

Since this is a Disney board, coming from a Disney prospective, I'd definitely go with a wider prime, maybe even a fisheye. The Russian-made Zenitar 16mm can be had, but it's fully manual and needs an adapter, but gives you pretty good optical quality for about a quarter of the price of the "big name" fisheye. (I think I heard that some do exist in a native Canon mount, but you'd still dealing with a 100% manual lens.)

If not that, a 28mm is probably a good size.

After my last trip, I'm definitely in favor of primes as much as possible - for image quality and speed. I have a 28mm 2.8 that didn't get much use because it's manual focus (which usually doesn't go well with Disney) but I would have used it much more if it was autofocus. Maybe the next lens will be a 28mm 1.8 or something slightly wider even. Speed is definitely key in an environment like Disney.

I saw a pretty good number of DSLRs walking around WDW but the vast majority were just sporting kit lenses which were often unsuited for the environment. Nearly anything indoors at Disney is dark, and the kit lenses (and most zooms outside of large, big-buck ones) just don't have the speed to be able to take a decent photo without bumping the ISO way up. Consequently, I found myself using my 50mm 1.4 a lot - I haven't run an analysis of how much each focal length was used, but I'm pretty sure that the 50mm was easily the most-used (and it was the one that I originally didn't plan on getting before this trip.)

 

[Ratpack]

Well, thanks to Ebay I now have a Nikon 28mm 2.8. What is everyone's thoughts on adding the 85mm 1.8 and calling it quits? I think at that point I would have some good prime lenses for Disney as well as a good multirange lens in case I didn't want to switch around. I may even try to offload the 55-200mm and 70-300mm.

 

[handicap18]

If you think you'll get a lot of use out of the 85 f/1.8 then go for it. Its a great lens, very sharp. With the lens setup you currently have you probably are better off trying to get rid of the 55-200, but personally, I'd keep the 70-300. Otherwise right now you'd have nothing past 135mm.