Going to full frame and lens advice

Dan_uk_mids

Dan_uk_mids

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Dan
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Hi All
I'm about to go ahead and upgrade from my current D7000 to a Nikon D610 and get the full FX sensor.

I've got a few decent full frame lenses already, including Nikon 50mm 1.8g, Sigma 105mm f2.8 Macro, Sigma 70-200 F2.8.

However my standard zoom is a DX zoom only. I don't really want to get a new full frame camera and use it at 10mp in dx mode. My thinking was I would go for a wide standard prime, and ditch the DX zoom lens. Something around the 24mm or 28mm area. Since i don't really want to put any more money into the upgrade right now. I can do the upgrade to the D610 and somewhere round £250 for a wide prime. But im struggling a bit with the lens. I looked at things like the 24mm f2.8d but the reviews seem to vary massively, some saying they are extremely soft, and just not to bother. Others saying its a pretty decent lens. DXO mark gives the 28mm f2.8d pretty decent scores on the D610.
I'd really appreciate any advice you might have?
 
Dan_uk_mids said:
Hi All
I'm about to go ahead and upgrade from my current D7000 to a Nikon D610 and get the full FX sensor.

I've got a few decent full frame lenses already, including Nikon 50mm 1.8g, Sigma 105mm f2.8 Macro, Sigma 70-200 F2.8.

However my standard zoom is a DX zoom only. I don't really want to get a new full frame camera and use it at 10mp in dx mode. My thinking was I would go for a wide standard prime, and ditch the DX zoom lens. Something around the 24mm or 28mm area. Since i don't really want to put any more money into the upgrade right now. I can do the upgrade to the D610 and somewhere round £250 for a wide prime. But im struggling a bit with the lens. I looked at things like the 24mm f2.8d but the reviews seem to vary massively, some saying they are extremely soft, and just not to bother. Others saying its a pretty decent lens. DXO mark gives the 28mm f2.8d pretty decent scores on the D610.
I'd really appreciate any advice you might have?
Click to expand...

Dan,

I've used the Nikon 24mm f2.8D on a D7000, D600 and now D800.

Cracking lens on DX and was really happy with it on the D600 I'd highly recommend it especially as its fairly cheap used - I did go through a couple of copies to get a good one though!
A lot of folk seem to suggest that it performs as well as the much praised Nikon 24-70 2.8 Zoom.
 
Dan, I have been using a Nikon 20mm on D700 for the last year and am happy with it. Its relatively small and light and the distortion is easy corrected in LR. You should be able to get on of these for ~£250 used in the forum here.
 
I've had multiple copies of the 24mm 2.8D, 20mm 2.8D and the 28mm 1.8G - the 28G would be my pick every time, unless you absolutely need the extra width. It makes a great companion to the 50mm 1.8G which you already have, so that's where my money would go if I were you.
 
Thanks. I'm thinking the 28 is about the same as an 18mm lens on my current d7000. So wide enough for shooting cars and similar?
 
jpw said:
I've had multiple copies of the 24mm 2.8D, 20mm 2.8D and the 28mm 1.8G - the 28G would be my pick every time, unless you absolutely need the extra width. It makes a great companion to the 50mm 1.8G which you already have, so that's where my money would go if I were you.
Click to expand...
I agree with this. I am always saying how great this lens is to anyone who will listen, more expensive than the others though. Other alternatives might me an Ai-s lens instead which you may be able to get cheaper, but lack autofocus?
 
You could consider a Sigma/Tamron 24-70 f/2.8 2nd hand. I would try before you buy just in case you are looking at a bad copy but a good one should fetch what you pay for it if/when you upgrade. There's also a Cosina/Vivitar 19-35 but that does distort quite a bit (probably correctable in PP).
 
I wonder if I'm trying to jump to full frame too soon. Perhaps my money would be better invested in a very high quality general purpose lens. Such as nikon 24-70 f2.8?
The full frame upgrade maybe comes a bit later.
I think this might be more sensible?
Nikon 24-70 best of the best all purpose lens?
 
Looking at dxo mark scores it seems like whatever lens goes on my d7000 it scores pretty low now. Is it definitely time to upgrade to body?
 
Ok. I'm in a position where I can upgrade my kit.
I'm really eager to have the absolute best image quality.

Right now. I could either upgrade to a d610 and make do with the older 28 f2.8d for my wide option.

Or I can hold on to the d7000 and invest in a really good lens.

What would you all advise?
 
You appear to be viewing full frame as some kind of panacea and saying you want the best image quality with the lenses you have doesn't seem to stack up unless of course 'best' is being used in the same figure of speech as all these 'world class' footballers that make up the England team:p:D.

Personally I'd be looking to get something like a Zeiss 100mm Makro, Nikon 70-200 f2.8 VII, Zeiss 55mm Otus or maybe Sigma 50mm Art to replace what you have if you really wanted to exploit your sensor and hope to get the best image quality. Then I would be looking to upgrade your body. Still not sure that would mean FF. Depends really what you want to do- how big do you print, are you constrained by the high ISO ceiling on DX etc. To be honest I always view anyone asking whether they should upgrade their body as not needing to- it's one of those things when you instinctively know that the current one isn't cutting it as a tool and is holding you back rather than the other way around. Of course if you have the money and it's not going to do anything else then why not but I think it's always useful to get people to think a bit and be honest with themselves rather than pandering to their desires.

I wouldn't get too hung up on DxO Mark either- plenty of pros still use Canon 40D's and D300's or older and I bet it classes them all as crap. It's entirely possible to take perfectly good images that sell without DxO or any other website telling you whether some data point on a graph means you shouldn't be able to.
 
For what it's worth, I have a Sigma 24-70 f/2.8 Nikon fit lens which I was planning on putting on ebay at some point as I've switched over to Pentax. It's been up in the loft in a sealed container with all my old Nikon film gear and I need to get it down and check it over anyway.
 
Thanks. You've helped me realise I don't need to jump into new gear right now. I already have some great gear. What is it they say about wanting better photos? Stand I front of something more interesting
 
tbh if you want the best quality then theres a sigma dp1m in classifieds
thats d800 + damn good lens quality right there
 
If it were me I'd suggest the 28 instead of 24mm, unless you absolutely need the wider lens. It would probably be sharper too since it's hard to design a sharp lens the wider it gets. Going for the full frame format is a good idea I think.
 
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