A prime lens vs a zoom lens for a holiday/landscape?
I know this MAY be a bit vague to answer but i'd appreciate ANY input. I currently own a D5100 with a Kit 18-55mm lens (which is worse than my old Bridge camera lens in terms of quality. I think it has a fault) and a 55-300mm lens which is amazing. Seeing as I normally use the 55-300mm lens I have never thought about getting a wider lens… Until now.
In a few weeks time I will be travelling to Greece with my girlfriend on our first holiday. As it's our first holiday I want to be able to get some great photos of us and of the scenery (beaches, etc). As you can tell my 55-300mm lens isn't really going to do the job. So, I've decided to buy a new, somewhat cheap, lens that would be great for landscape/scenery, museums and also for portraits.
My budget is £100-£250 (at a push for a prime) but I will go a little higher for a zoom.
My first idea was to go for a 17-70mm lens like this one http://www.amazon.co.uk/...00AXZZ034/
However, i've noticed a lot of people saying you can't go wrong with a good 35mm lens when it comes to Landscape and portraits photography due to the pin sharpness compared to a zoom lens. Is this true?
My only requirements is if possible it has to have some kind of Optical Stabilizer, fits to a D5100 and also is as cheap as possible. So if you're kind enough to give a suggestion. No £900 lens lol.
When on holiday the best single lens is a zoom, probably one like the 18-200 mm, but they cost in excess of £570 if made by Nikkor, however you can find such lenses made by Tamron for around £150 on Amazon.co.uk
However, you already have those focal lengths covered with the lenses you have now.
My guess is what you really need for shooting landscapes and those small village streets found in parts of countries like Italy and Greece is wide angle zoom like the Nikkor 10-24 mm (around £500) or a Tamron 10-24 mm for around £530.
The people who say that you can't go wrong with a 35 mm lens are NOT those who shoot much in the way of landscape photos. You can prove that to yourself by tapping your 18-55 mm lens at 35 mm and then walk around for a week to see just how poorly that lens will work as your go-to landscape lens.
Unless you can find a good used lens like the Tokina 11-16 mm, 12-24 mm or 12-28 mm lens, you are going to be over budget when you pick your lens you need for our holiday as well as your landscape photography
NOTE: You will never notice the difference between the sharpness of a prime lens vs a zoom until you have a camera like the Nikon D800, D800e or D810., so do not get stuck on buying a prime lens
At focal lengths shorter than 100 mm, image stabilization is not really necessary as long as you hold your camera as shown on page 26 of your user manual and use shutter speeds higher than 1/125th second. If you are in the bad habit of holding your camera at arm's length and using the LCD as your "viewfinder", then you will always introduce camera movement and thus blur in your photos.
If you think your current 18-55mm lens is worse than the lens on your bridge camera, then you are not using your camera properly. Buying a new lens will not change the issues you are having. The techniques for achieving sharp landscape images are the same no matter which lens you use. Stick it on Aperture Priority, dial in F/8, ISO 100, focus to infinity, use a tripod, and remote, shoot mirror up, shoot RAW, process in post.
Your kit lens certainly is good enough for landscapes, unless you want an ultra wide lens like a 10-20mm or so. Your budget isn't enough for one of those.
A 35mm lens on an APS-c camera is not wide enough for general landscape photography. On your camera it won't be wide angle at all. Your camera has a 1.5x crop factor so the 35mm will be equivalent to 52.5mm on full frame camera. A prime is not as useful or as convenient as an ultra wid zoom lens for landscapes.
Optical stabilization isn't really that important for ultra wide angle lenses. Anyway, if you are using a tripod, you need to switch the optical stabilization off. Obviously if you are taking shots of a distant horizon with a telephoto zoom, hand held, then you will need optical stabilization.
The kit lens is awesome if you know how to use it properly. Picture quality depends mostly on your skill. The lens and the camera are only tools.
With the D5100, the 35mm will be normal/standard which will be very difficult to use for landscapes (maybe if you had a full-frame camera instead). The 18mm end of the kit lens is good enough and if anyone says this lens is bad, they don't know photography at all.