Nikon D5100 with Nikkor 55-200mm lens? - 1

I'm wondering if I should purchase the Nikkor 55-200mm lens for my Nikon D5100. I love taking photos of my sons outside while he's playing & I take my families family photos. I really want the pictures to turn out very clear with the background very blurry. I love that look! Is this a good lens for that?

What you are referring to is shallow depth of field. You get that by;
- having a wide aperture (low f number)
- having a close camera to subject distance (and a far away subject to background distance)
- having a longer focal length

So… You'd use the lens at the 200mm end, with the aperture the widest it will go (probably f5.6), be as close as you can & still frame the shot how you want & ensure that any 'background' is far away.

If you want very shallow depth of field, you need faster lenses with apertures of f1.8 or f1.4. There are 50mm prime lenses available with these sorts of apertures & they may be more what you need for portraits.

I like the disposble cameras you buy aty walgreebs

Here is a group dedicated to one of Nikon's fast lenses, the 35mm f/1.8G, $200. You will see lots of blurry backgrounds.

http://www.amazon.com/...zon.com/s/

Other fixed focal length lenses do just as well, such as the 50mm f/1.8, which is in the link above. If you don't mind manual focusing, Samyang has a surprisingly sharp lens, the 85mm f/1.4.
http://www.amazon.com/...006MI1W1A/