New lens for Nikon D3000?
I have a nikon d3000 and i want a new, fairly inexpensive lens for it and i need help choosing the right one. I have the 18-55mm lens but i want sharper pictures and id want it to be versatile so it can do more than one thing, specifically one thats good for portraits, landscape, and good in low light.
pictures comparing the different lenses would be nice too.
If you are not getting sharp photos from the 18-55 mm lens, buying a new one will not help. Although the 18-55 mm lens is an economy lens, it is plenty sharp. Buying a different lens will not make up for any undeveloped skills. Be patient and learn to use your fine camera.
It is NOT unusual for it to take a few years before you can perfect you skills to produce sharp photos every time you press the shutter release.
Portraits - your 18-55 mm at 55 mm is a fine portrait lens
Landscapes - at 18 mm it can produce very nice landscapes
Low light - you will need a lens with a large aperture like f/2.8 or faster
Which you buy and which fall withing your budget is up to you
Reasons for unsharp images:
Using too slow a shutter speed when holding the camera in your hands
Using aperture settings of f/16, f/22 or f/32. These are the least sharp of all the apertures
The sharper the picture, the more versatile it is. I agree with the previous answerer; sharper pics are usually with faster shutters. However, this would require wider apertures.
Recommendation:
I'm just going to save you hours of research and recommend this lens:
Tamron 17-50 2.8
Pros:
Fast 2.8 aperture will give you higher shutter speed. (and more DOF blurriness)
Fixed aperture. The aperture does not become smaller as you zoom from 17mm to 50mm
The egrenomics are very nice and the zoom turns the way most nikon do.
CHEAP. At 400ish USD, it's the best lens in it's pricerange, which is why it's so popular.
One of the sharpest options in that pricerange. (to get a lens that would be any sharper, you would need a lens upwards of 1000 usd.)
Cons:
not - "pro" build quality, but still better than most kit lenses (Eg.yours) it also comes with a 6 year warranty: D
noisy- you don't want to take pictures of birds with it: D but in most cases, it's fine.
There's a VR option and a non Vr option. I would spring for the VR if you have the money, but the non VR is also very good. (that's the one I have) I don't seem to need VR that much because of the low aperture.
It's range (like the previous answerer,) is perfect for portraits, (50mm=80mm on your non full frame sensor, which is THE portrait focal length plus low aperture gets you the buttery bokeh magic) landscape, (17mm is very wide, lens is very sharp) and obviously, the aperture is low enough for low light.
Here are some sites extoling the awesomeness of this lens:
http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Tamron-17-50mm-f-2.8-XR-Di-II-Lens-Review.aspx
http://bobatkins.com/photography/reviews/tamron_17-50_review.html
Test Shots:
http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Sample-Pictures.aspx?Equipment=400
Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/...B000EXR0SI
hope you like it as much as I do.
Sharpness is your responsibility. It's more of knowing how to set the camera up to obtain the least blur.
Versatility in a lens only mean one thing - zoom. The more zoom the lens has, the more versatile it is. It's a pity though that as zoom increases, optical quality decreases. Blame Physics on that.
Low light again is an issue best dealt by the photographer's abilities. If you know exactly what you are doing, you can eke out a decent photograph in low light. There are compromises but you should be able to work around it the best way you can. That is if you know exactly what you are doing.
Tamron AF 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 Di LD Macro Zoom Lens offers a lightweight, compact, high-image-quality telephoto zoom lens with macro capability of 1:2 that can be used with digital cameras. This lens is a Di type lens using an optical system with improved multi-coating designed to function with digital SLR cameras as well as film cameras
Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 AF DC II Lens is light and easy to use. Its optics are fine for me, since I don't need huge blowups. For portaits I use a 62 mm soft focus filter, since I don't want the hassel of having to employ PhotoShop for retouching. The results are lovely.