Will the 55-300mm & 50mm prime nikkor lenses be good enough for a Nikon D5100?
I got my Nikon D5100 body & am searching for a good wide angle lens & a prime lens. I can spend about Rs.30, 000(550 $). Both the lenses should satisfy my needs. I wanted to consider the 50mm prime lens & 55-300VR. Help me choose if there. Something better than the latter!
A prime lens for what purpose? The 50mm one is the most popular one, it's good for portraits and short distance indoor candid shots. Be careful, you need the 50mm/1.8G AF-S version, not the 50mm/1.8D AF. The latter won't autofocus on your camera.
The 55-300mm is a decent telephoto lens - that's the exact opposite of the wide angle lens that you are asking for. Your 18-55mm kit lens that you likely own already does a pretty good job as a wide angle lens though. Or do you not have that lens?
The 55-300mm AF-S VR is a pretty good telephoto. Not great, but pretty good. A 50mm can be useful sometimes, but not enough to be a good use of a limited money supply.
The 18-55mm AF-S VR will give you the focal lengths you need most of the time, although you will probably want more fairly often. Too bad you missed the opportunity to save money buying it in a kit.
Another possibility is to get the 18-105mm AF-S VR. That will give you very good quality and greater versatility than the 18-55mm. There may still be times you covet more focal length, but not a lot. Assuming that costs about $400, you will have just enough left for a decent tripod. Don't go cheaper on the tripod, because you will then have squandered money on junk you need to replace.
When you bought the D5100, you could have either chosen the 18-55mm f/3.5~5.6, 18-105mm f/2.5~5.6 or body only.
Both of these lenses are OK wide angle lenses to start with (and the 18-105 is a moderate telephoto as well).
If you want the best wide angle for your camera, that would be either the Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 ($600) or the Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8 ($1, 400). These are not available in the kits, and they are considered professional grade lenses.
Or if you want to go wider - to a super-wide, the best lens in this regard may be the Tokina 11-16mm DX2 ($600). Tokina makes two versions of this lens; Dx and Dx2. Make sure you get the Dx2 as the Dx version has no focus motor and will not autofocus with your camera.
The 55-300mm is not a prime, it is a telephoto lens. It again though is a consumer grade quality lens. The Nikon AF-S 70-300mm f/4~5.6 ($560) is the semi-professional version of that lens, and the Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8 ($2, 400) is the professional version.
For the 50mm, again, you have to be careful which you buy. Nikon currently lists 6 versions of this lens - and your camera will only autofocus on two of them. Chose either the Nikon AF-S f/1.8G ($220) or the AF-S f/1.4G ($460).
If you want the best lenses for your camera, my recommendation is:
Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 DX2
Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8, or Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8
Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8, or Sigma 50-150mm f/2.8
The combination of these three lenses would give you excellent coverage from 11mm to 200mm, at f/2.8, which would be an outstanding set of lenses.
While the first two lenses are not really heavy or expensive, the last lens is. So you may not want to lug such a heavy lens around. The 70-200mm f/2.8 lenses are considered sports lenses and work well in both outside and inside sports.
However, if you have no need for such a lens, especially if you are using it in daylight only, a lighter and less expensive lens would be either the Nikon AF-S 70-300mm f/4.5~5.6, or the Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/4.
Also note that the gap between 50mm and 70mm that is not covered by the lenses is insignificant - you will not likely notice it.
The Nikon AF-S 55-200mm and 55-300mm lenses also exist, but they are strictly consumer grade. I own the 55-200mm (well, I gave it to my son), and it is not the sharpest lens, and is not in the quality range of my recommended lenses - but it gets the job done. If you are budget minded, you may want to stick with those (but you did ask for the best lenses).