Advise on compacting my lens collection

ProG77

ProG77

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Hi All, looking for some advise here.

I am considering selling up one or two (or all) of my lenses and only having 1, max 2 lenses to go with my D300s and SB900.

My current line up is as follows:

  • Nikon 18-200 f3.5-5.6 - usually use this as my all round lens
  • Nikon 50mm f1.8 - great lens - nuff said!
  • Sigma 10-20mm - great lens for shooting wide angle landscape but stays in the kit bag for probably 360 out of 365 days of the year!
  • Tokina 105mm f2.8 Macro - bought this last year thinking I'll get in to macro, did take a few shots but has been in the bag ever since.
I reckon that if I was to sell all of the lenses above, they are worth about £800-£900 in total? I could then add a couple of hundred if required........ (although the wife's reaction would be :nono:.......:D)

I miss not having something over 200mm, which restricts me when it comes to shooting sports/wild life.
With a new baby, I do need a good portrait lens, but I also want to start getting out and about again from spring taking outdoor shots.

So, what would you do?? :thinking:
 
You could sell an get a Nikon 70-200 VR but you may need to put a a couple of quid towards it.. (get a TC at some stage for the extra reach)

:thinking: Then again you have a 18-200 VR (no match to the 70-200 VR thou)

Could sell the Tokina & Sigma as you dont use these all that often/much - save the money till funds allow you to get something else - like what ever the next few posters mention :lol:
 
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Thanks Trig's, certainly food for thought. Never actually considered or used a TC, but definitely an option I'll look in to if the max I can push to is a 200mm. Not actually a bad idea at all as 200mm is more than enough for what I shoot, but it would be nice to be able to add a bit of extra reach through a TC if I wanted to.

Anyone else?
 
Keep the 18-200 sell the rest, then buy yourself the sigma 150-500 for those times when you want the extra reach.
Sorted..
 
Keep the 50mm, sell everything else and get an AF-S 300 f4.
 
Sorry to butt in but I'm also looking to compact my lens collection, although not looking for any advice. Currently I have,

EF-S 10-22
EF-S 15-85
EF 24-105L
EF 70-300IS
EF 100-400L

The plan is to sell the 24-105, 70-300 and 100-400 and replace them all with the new 70-300L.

This may not sound logical but I don't use the 24-105 since I got the 15-85 as it's a waay better walkabout lens, the 70-300IS will be replaced by the coveted 70-300L and I just don't use the 100-400L (bought it in 2006 and I've probably used it 5 or 6 times).
 
Jackwow said:
Sorry to butt in but I'm also looking to compact my lens collection, although not looking for any advice. Currently I have,

EF-S 10-22
EF-S 15-85
EF 24-105L
EF 70-300IS
EF 100-400L

The plan is to sell the 24-105, 70-300 and 100-400 and replace them all with the new 70-300L.

This may not sound logical but I don't use the 24-105 since I got the 15-85 as it's a waay better walkabout lens, the 70-300IS will be replaced by the coveted 70-300L and I just don't use the 100-400L (bought it in 2006 and I've probably used it 5 or 6 times).
Click to expand...


:thinking: compact the whole lot & switch to a Nikon :lol:
 
I would keep the 50mm and 18-200, sell the rest and get a decent 70-200 or 70-300.
 
To be honest its what lenses do you use the most... Keep those.

Me, I like macro, added some tubes and really got into shooting close. But if you haven't got into it, there's 300ukp sitting not doing much...

I'd still keep the wide, for landscapes, cars, getting all the family in etc... Creative pictures.
The 50mm is worth keeping as it didn't cost too much to start with and people have posted that its a good lens.

For portraits, you may need a 24, 28, 30 or 35 mm
Sigma 30mm f1.4 gives great results (if the quality of the lens is good) but is 300ukp ish.
Nikon have a 35mm f1.8 for around the 170ukp mark (jessops?).

For reach have a look at:
80-400mm tokina (I think - might be tamron)
50-500mm sigma
These will set you back a bit and, in the case of the sigma, increase your muscles (its a kilo in weight).

Alternatively (and something I have yet to try) if you can live without af, you might want to consider the m42 mount adapter and lenses. Ebay quoting up to 100ukp but you can get 700mm equivalent reach... No AF tho.

If you aren't using and haven't gotten into macro, sell that lens and use it to get the portrait lens you want... the slightly wider than the 50mm one :)

I personally would say experiment more with the macro - whilst you have it...
Oh and sell the 18-200 - its soft - compare the macro 105 and the equivalent on the 18-200 to see the difference!!
 
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I'm not sure you can restrict yourself to just two lenses, but ones to consider are:

S/H 18-70mm for about £100, a great general purpose walk-around lens
70-300mm VR for the longer end (S/H about £280)

For portraiture, your 50mm, or the Nikon 35mm 1.8, or the 85mm 1.8 which sells on here for about £220. Or the Samyang 85 1.4 if you don't mind manual focus - maybe not such a good idea for a toddler, though.
 
Thanks everyone for your valued input. I will take all your comments in to account when deciding my next move. I think the 10-20mm will definitely go and the funds put towards something with a longer reach.
 
After some research, I am going down the 70-200mm f2.8 route (with a future purchase of a 1.4x or 2x TC to give me a longer reach), but unlikely that I can afford the Nikon at the moment, so looking at the Sigma 70-200 2.8 which seems to have had some good reviews both on this forum and other places.

Question now is, what do I sell to fund the lens - do I still need the 18-200? Do I need the macro? Decisions, decisions.........:shrug:
 
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