Lens advice needed please

Pootz

Pootz

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Andy
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Myself and my daughter are currently sharing her Nikon D3000
She takes a lot of photographs for bands and would like to start taking more live ones.
I know that the D3000 isn't the ideal body for this but it's all she has at present so......
1- can anyone recommend a lens for taking pictures of bands on stage? I was told a 50mm f1.8 but I was also told that a fixed lens isn't the way to go.

2 - is there any particular places to buy them from either online or in and around birmingham?

Many thanks in advance
 
I guess it depends how close to the bands she can get and what type of shots she wants to take. Also the type of venues will make a difference in terms of lighting. A fast lens like the 1.8 would be useful but if she can't get very close she may want a zoom. Maybe add a 70-200 or similar but chances are on a budget you'd be looking at 4.5-5.6 and would need to use flash or high ISO.

I'm sure someone who knows much more will be along shortly but that's my 2p worth.
 
I used mainly fixed lenses when I did live band stuff, although I did have a 70-200 F/2.8 as well. I tended to use my 85mm f/1.8 the most, but I was shooting big venues and bands rather than smaller nightclub/pub stuff.

You/she needs something that can cope with low light, so you are limited to either a low light prime like a 50 or 85mm or a 24-70 f/2.8 or a 70-200 f/2.8. Which of those comes down to both budget and the types of venue. For smaller venues a 50mm should be fine, but she might want the versatility of a 24-70. As its a dx body you could even go for an 18-55mm f/2.8 and still have the wide end and slight longer telephoto covered.
Whatever you get, make sure it's wide aperture.

Loads of places online, Amazon, wex, jessops, digital depot, mpb, misfuds etc.

Calumet have a store in Brum on Hagley Rd just out of the city.
 
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My partners daughter has done quite a lot of this for her A level project. she has a Canon 1100D (again not an ideal camera, as higher ISO's are quite poor), and the kit lens. I lent her my 50mm f1.8, and she got some really good shots, however, it isn't really long enough for many venues, though she has been quite sucessful at getting into smaller venues and being able to shoot from the side of the stage.

You will always be fighting the light, so the wider aperture the better for the low light stuff.

A 50mm f1.8 will enable some good shots but only if she can get into position. A wide aperture zoom is going to cost £££££, and you'd be better at that stage looking at the body/lens package, as more recent cameras will shoot much better at higher ISO, and therefore you can get away with lenses with narrower apertures.
 
The NikKor 50 f1.8 is a great lens and realy sharp. Doesnt matter which one you go for "G" "D" etc., there all good. You can pick up a used one for under £100 easily, I paid about £60 for mine. Its on my D7100 nearly all the time now. And dont forget on the DX sensor its about equivalent to a 70mm lens.
That said the versatillity of a zoom might be a better option, as mentioned by the other posts above.
 
Pootz said:
Myself and my daughter are currently sharing her Nikon D3000
She takes a lot of photographs for bands and would like to start taking more live ones.
Click to expand...

Fixed length lenses can have a wider aperture which will enable shooting at lower ISO's and/or faster shutter speeds but the fixed field of view may or may not be an issue.

My advice is that your daughter should go through the pictures she's taken and see what focal length she's using. If a good percentage of her shots are around 50mm then a 50mm f1.8 may be a good move but if she's using focal lengths which are significantly shorter or longer using a fixed focal length lens will mean that she's going to have to change position to shoot.

When I use to do this sort of thing I used a 28-70mm f4 lens on a 35mm camera often loaded with ISO 1600 and no one ever complained about image quality. I did have the luxury or being able to change position as and when I wanted but I realise that maybe not everyone has that luxury.

So, I think that your daughter should think about positioning and how free she is to foot zoom and if she needs the ability to shoot at wider apertures than whatever lens she has now allows.
 
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pmrud said:
The NikKor 50 f1.8 is a great lens and realy sharp. Doesnt matter which one you go for "G" "D" etc., there all good. You can pick up a used one for under £100 easily, I paid about £60 for mine. Its on my D7100 nearly all the time now. And dont forget on the DX sensor its about equivalent to a 70mm lens.
That said the versatillity of a zoom might be a better option, as mentioned by the other posts above.
Click to expand...

It does matter if it's the G or the D as the D won't AF on the OP's daughters camera.
 
Thanks folks.
She gets up close and personal with 99%of the bands.
She's shooting steel panther in London in march so needs something for that as she has the chance of being published if they are good enough
 
Thats a "D", if you look at the picture you can see on the body it says 50mm 1:1.8 D, according to the post from minnnt it won't auto focus on the D3000, (sorry I have to take his word for it I havn't had chance to check it myself. hence I say " According to" no offence itended minnnt).

this is a "G" http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-Nikon...=UK_Lenses_Filters_Lenses&hash=item2347843461 agin if you look at the wording on the lens in the picture. this should work fully.
 
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The D model doesn't have an in-built motor (swm) so it requires a body that has a motor drive so you'd be looking at D90/300/7000/7100/FF. There are some of the older models which have it also but I'm not too clued up on them tbh. The D3xxx/D5xxx model cameras need to AF-S G models to be able to AF as they have the swm built in.
 
:agree:
Well done Zarch I was trying to get a link to the Ken Rockwell site but for some reason it wasn't opening for me. Pootz this is a great site for all things Nikon.
 
Thanks guys. I've now ordered the correct lens.

Just have to save for an upgraded camera body for her now and I can pinch the D3000 off her for myself
 
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