New Lens

Time for a poll!! lol.

Currently I have the Nikon D50 with the kit lens (18-55) and a Nikkor 80-200mm. I'm looking to invest in another lens, but I'm really just not sure what it should be?! Mainly I shoot landscapes, etc. but have been getting into more informal portraits lately. (Check out my Flickr site if you need a better idea of my 'style'...)

Any thoughts? Suggestions?

Thank you in advance for your help/feedback!!

Everyone needs a fast 50mm prime. I'm crazy for 50mm's. Yesterday, at work Chako asked me how many 50's I now have and to be honest, I lost count after about 8. I think I have 10 or 11 now counting 2 lenses that do not work. The 50mm is an almost perfect lens and for me it is the closest focal length to how I see if I ignore my peripheral vision. I have trained myself to visualize a 50mm frame without looking through a viewfinder. At 50mm I can take nice portraits at 1-1.5m distance from the subject... for example, when I'm sitting at a table. With a fast lens, wide-open and up close, you get a short DOF that will separate the subject. Now a crop factor would screw it all up for me. I guess a 35mm lens with a 1.5x crop factor would be very close to a 50mm lens but then the DOF would be different. Fast 35mm lenses for SLR's are humongous and expensive if they are faster than f2. Due to the extra space for the mirror box on an SLR, wide-angle lenses are basically inverted telephotos which are more difficult for engineers to deal with than the simple, and smaller wide-angle designs for cameras that lack mirror-boxes.

The AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D would probably work well for you. I'm not familiar with its bokeh quality. Nikkors, historically, don't have the best bokeh as it often sacrificed for sharpness. I like gooooood bokeh though - some people are indifferent about bokeh. I'm not familiar at all with the new Nikkors though - just the old ones for rangefinders. The best 50mm for the Nikon, in my opinion, is the Zeiss 50mm f/1.4 Planar ZF but it requires manual focusing and it is more expensive than what Nikon users are accustomed to but for Zeiss glass, it is actually quite cheap. The current 50mm Planar is widely thought to be the highest resolving 50mm lens ever made for any SLR. Probably one of the sharpest 50mm too. I would like to get the Pentax version of the lens for my MX. However, you would probably have to be super-human to see a difference in a final print in terms of resolution and sharpness. But, wide-open, I think that you would see a slightly different look or 'signature' to each lens.

Ok... I looked at some photos with both lenses...

Flickr photos taken with the Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D:
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=af+nikkor+50mm+f1.4D&s=int

The bokeh on this Nikkor, while wide-open, seems pleasant to me.
A cutie:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/itahashi/2108732632/sizes/l/

The Nikkor with a busy background. I find that it's not that bad but bad enough that I would try to be careful with it. Much better than the older Nikkors I'm familiar with. The older Nikkor 50mm f/1.4's are sharp as hell but the bokeh could get really ugly with busy backgrounds.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/duncanchen/213033454/sizes/o/

Flickr photos taken with the Zeiss 50mm f/1.4 Planar ZF:
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=zeiss+50mm+ZF&s=int

This is one spectacular lens.

Portrait sample wide-open:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tathei/354670934/

The Zeiss handles busy backgrounds better imho:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kunel/638584543/sizes/l/

The Zeiss handles highlights quite nicely wide open:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/joart/436276659/sizes/o/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/joart/476670893/sizes/o/

Edit: As good as the Zeiss Planar is, my favourite all-time 50mm for any SLR is the old Pentax 50mm f/1.4 SMC Takumar - not the later K-models but the classic screw-mount Takumar. That lens makes such beautiful photographs and it extremely well built as Pentax was competing directly against Leica and Zeiss at the time. Unfortunately it's hard to find a good one. Most were well used. It also has radioactive glass element that causes yellowing - ok for B&W photography but horrible for colour. (An example) Unfortunately, old m42 mount lenses don't tend to work very well on Nikon cameras. I believe that m42 adapters for the Nikons require a correction lens otherwise they won't focus at infinity. The extra correction lens will degrade the quality of the m42 lenses.
Examples from Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=takumar+50mm+1.4&s=int

If you’re feeling that you need something, Why not get something completely different to add some variety to your lens line up?

You could get:

1. A fisheye lens or an ultra wide lens? I love my Pentax 10-17mm fisheye zoom to death. Very creative lens that is rather liberating to use. Here are some examples from the lens. You can get this as a Tokina variant for the Nikon mount. It is a rather unique lens on the market. An ultra wide such as the Sigma 10-20mm could expand your landscape capabilities also.







2. A macro lens? A true 1:1 macro could be just the thing to get you going on a different tangent. Before you know it, you will be taking interesting photos of mundane objects. If you get a 90 or 100mm macro, they make terribly sharp but excellent portrait lenses.

3. I won't mention a 50 seeing that Nando has that covered.

4. A lens baby? Now that is a really different piece of kit.

You mentioned lens babies, twice in two days now Chako - yesterday in the teacher's lounge and now here. Are you gassy for one? I didn't think you liked them.

I'd like to chime in on the 50mm. The 1.8's are dirt cheap, although not as well constructed as the 1.4's. And if you're into landscape a wide angle is a must. 18mm is fine, but 10mm just gives you that much more in the frame. The Sigma 10-20 is a pretty fair price.

If you're going to get into landscapes, don't forget about getting a nice polarizer to go along with that. At 77mm, a decent CIR-PL can get up there in price.

I also have a LensBaby 2.0 but find that I don't pull it out as often as I thought I would.

No I don't like them all that much. However, if someone is looking for something different to play around with, I could think of worse things to spend ones money on lol.

I find that the bokeh on the AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 to be on the ugly and distracting side under some conditions. I must admit, there is more to a lens than just the bokeh quality but bad bokeh really turns me off. Bokeh quality itself is quite subjective and different people have different tastes.

Examples:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ikayama/784139355/sizes/l/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/86013963@N00/300292099/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/d_lindholm/2095876601/sizes/m/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/abiola/1623981874/

With simple backgrounds, the bokeh that this lens produces is much nicer.

Example: http://www.flickr.com/photos/calanan/123411789/

One would have to be very careful using this lens at wide apertures with busy backgrounds and backgrounds with strong highlights or light-sources.

Chako,
Just checking...

Of course a 50mm lens on these cropped sensors doesn't give you 50mm, closer to 75mm. That makes it more of a portrait lens.

I have a Sigma 30mm f/1.4 which "acts" like a 48mm on my Rebel XT. I would recommend that.

I'm far from a professional, and don't often voice my opinion, but I have the Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 and find it a fun lens to play around with, especially for the price. The 1.4 version may be of better quality, and can produce a nicer looking background, but I cannot comment on it as I have no experience with it. I can't argue the example shown, the 1.4 does look nice, but for the price, the 1.8 is a steal.

As for landscape shots, the Sigma 10-20mm lens is what I'm planning on purchasing next. The quality of the shots I've seen look great, and the price isn't too crazy. However, lens selection can be a touchy subject, as everybody sees things differently. The way I see it is that you get what you pay for.

Actually Kenneth probably has the best suggestion. A 30mm f/1.4 on a typical dSLR with a cropped sensor would be really close, at say 1.5-2 meters, to a 50mm f/2.8 on a 35mm camera in terms of focal length and DOF. I can't get to sleep for some reason, so I've been looking at photographs on Flickr taken with that Sigma and I like the results.

http://www.flickr.com/search/?s=int&w=all&q=Sigma+30mm+1.4&m=text

Yah Nando, it's a good lens. I'm not sure why I don't use it more. I actually just sent my Canon 50mm f/1.4 in for repair so it's going to be my only low-light option for a while. Too bad the 30mm vignettes on my 1D because it takes on the focal length of a 40mm with the bigger sensor, which is one of my favorite lengths.

I was tempted in getting the Canon 50mm f/1.4, but instead got that first suggestion..the 50mm f/1.8 II that feels like it should fit on a Holga. For the Pentax camera, I did go for the 50mm f/1.4. I haven't used it much, but I must say, I sure do love the bokeh. It beats the cheap Canon hands down.

Here are two examples from the Pentax FA 50mm f/1.4.

It used to be that if a camera or optical company didn't try to make the best 50mm in the world, their engineers would be considered wimps. Today, 50mm lenses are often dismissed and made on the cheap. Just a few years ago, people were saying that the development of the 50mm lens for 35mm cameras was at its peak - no 50mm lens could be made any better. Then Leica made the 50mm f/1.4 Summilux-ASPH to prove everybody wrong. Voigtlander came out with an astonishingly sharp 50mm f/3.5 Heliar. Zeiss came out with a new 50mm f/1.4 Planar for Nikon, Pentax and m42 mount for SLR users. Happy days are here again. Unfortunately, I doubt that the bigger companies will follow until cropped sensors are a thing of the past.

Yah Chako, the Canon 50mm f/1.8 II is really not that good a lens, but it's usually the next lens people buy after the kit lens on their Rebel and they realize how nice it is to shoot with a fast prime, even i it's not that great.

The bokeh on the Canon 50mm f/1.4 really is noticeably better. I haven't used the Pentax one though.

Cropped sensors are here to stay for quite a long time.

I am hoping so, and so are most other wildlife photographers. The increased range found on super telephotos due to that cropping factor is something many of us are not willing to give up anytime soon for a full framer.

I think both formats will co-exist.

In fact, Pentax is coming out with a 14.6 megapixel 1.6x cropped camera, and from all the photos posted from it, it looks to be a great IQ performer. They even seem to have increased the ISO quality quite a bit. With greater development and technology going into digital sensors, things will only get better with each subsequent camera release.

No, cropped sensors are here to stay.

Ken that is why I suggest it to the OP. It isn't worth much to spend, you do get a good optical formula for the money, and it opens other areas of photography that a slow lens can't do for you on the cheap. This way, if you need something better, at least you won't be chasing money on something you don't need due to lack of experience with such a lens.

Ordered a Sigma 10-20 today. Something 'different'. Can't wait until it gets here. Now I'll have to find something to 'justify' it's existance in my life!

That 10-20mm is a lot of fun, I have borrowed one before.

You'll have to post some initial shots and thoughts when you get it. I'm still interested in getting this lens, hopefully sooner than later.

Did you order it online, or from a local shop?

I was going to order it from Henry's but they were on backorder. I ordered it online instead from B&H. The price was very reasonable (comparitivly anyways...) but I'm still not sure how much I'm going to have to pay for duty/taxes. I'll let you know. Here's hoping it gets here soon so I can use it for a couple 'events' I have coming up.

Another site to try for camera gear (usually cheaper than B&H if buying in the US) is Amazon. At times you'll be able to get the super saver shipping on gear as well which is a bonus.

I tend to buy most of my major purchases there as I end up saving a large sum. I ship it to Weir's (don't hate me) pay them their money, hit up Taco Bell (you must) and then come back and declare it (because I'm a good guy like that). Depending who the border guard is they'll either say okay go ahead or they'll get you to pay the taxes on it. Basically they convert to Canadian put the 13% on it and that's what you end up paying.

Basically check out all your options B&H, Amazon, Camera Canada, Henry's etc etc (Adorama sells through Amazon so they're covered there) then figure in your shipping/taxes and the like and you'll find you'll be able to get a number of solid deals through the different retailers.

I figured it was worth a shot. Glad to hear that you've had good experiences though...that makes me feel better! I've never shipped to Weir's...thought of it many times but just not 100% sure how to make it all work. lol. I feel pretty confidant with my decision, but this is my first 'big' online purchase, so until it gets here safe and sound I'll be a bit antsy. They said 2-3 business days for shipping....we'll see.

viewsthroughmylens wrote:I figured it was worth a shot. Glad to hear that you've had good experiences though...that makes me feel better! I've never shipped to Weir's...thought of it many times but just not 100% sure how to make it all work. lol. I feel pretty confidant with my decision, but this is my first 'big' online purchase, so until it gets here safe and sound I'll be a bit antsy. They said 2-3 business days for shipping....we'll see.

If you have any shipping questions let me know. I believe all my gear (except my backup and tripod) has been bought online and trust the shipping estimates -- especially if direct to the states, if coming through to Canada they may get held up at customs.

If you go to the gear thread you can see what I have and all of it has been shipped through the states except my original purchase of my 20D, 28-75mm and 50mm lenses -- these were done through Camera Canada as I was purchasing them through a grant.

For Weir's if it's your first time shipping there you'll have to try to track your package online then call to confirm it came in. You show up and it's actually a UPS Depot (B&H will not ship to them), swing around to the counter give them your name and they'll go in the back and get your package. I think the cost is up to $3.25 CDN now for picking up a package but if you do the free shipping that Amazon often offers you're paying $3.25 for shipping if you want to think of it that way. After your first time you can "sign up" at Weir's which is basically writing your name and email address on a piece of paper on the counter (I'm sure you can do this before even getting anything) and they will email you when your package arrives which is pretty convenient as well. I think the last large order I did which was the 85mm, some books and another random thing came in within two or three days (ordered on a Thursday or Friday and picked up on the Monday or Tuesday).

I've been trying to talk myself into ordering this lens for months...the main hold up was the shipping business. I guess these days it's far less complicated than it used to be. It just opens up so many more options. I think now that I've got the first one out of the way, I'll feel alot better. Which may or may not be good for my wallet.....

(I see I'm not the only one working tonight? lol.)

HAHA yep. Glad I found this forum (along with my other two that I'm somewhat active in) it helps make the 7-7 pass somewhat by during those slow times.