Looking for some help....please!!

ales

ales

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Name
Alessandro
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UPDATED - SCROLL DOWN TO MY LASTEST POST, PLEASE!




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Hello everyone!

Here's the introduce-myself part :-) Already posted in the welcome forum.

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Howdy!

My name's Ales. I'm an 18 year old teen who lives in Barcelona, Spain. My passion for photography started 2 years ago, when I visited the Alhambra, in Granada. I suddenly felt fascinated 'bout how the camera could capture every moment, every detail. Then I felt I had to take more and more pictures - everything was so colorful and full of beauty. With time, I started to carry my compact camera with me at any time... I think I started to enjoy it a lot since I had a whole new point of view to discover and enjoy. The camera was my toy and, yupp! I've tried to do my best with it! Last year I decided to start a bit more seriously with the photography thing, so I started to look at some techniques and artists - my favorite one is Steichen at the time, the previous work he did before - so I decided to repair my mom's old Nikon F3, which I always desired to use but my mother would never let me do it - you know, she was smart enough -. I fell in love with her. I started enjoying photography at his "pure" state... I was feeling I started to learn some stuff, and it was so cool to put the film in it, and learning how to set the objectives and everything... I inheritated the camera and my mom's objectives.

Now, for my 18th bday, my friends gave me as a present a Nikon D300, which I don't know how to use properly but I hope I'll manage to sign up for a photography course or something in order to use it throgh.


I was referred to this forum from my friend maggotin. I'm hear for learning as much as possible and having a good time!

thank you!


kind regards,


ales
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Well, this is my flickr - so you can see some of my pictures - and here's my camera bag;

  • Nikon D300
  • Nikon F3
  • Nikorr 50mm 1:2
  • Nikorr 35mm 1:2.8
  • Nikorr-Q·C Auto 135mm 1:3.5
  • Kenko 2X NA Teleplus MC4

As I said before, I'm still learning how to fly so I'm not really sure of using my equip properly... hence, I was looking for some advice in how should I use them and so on - I mean, a deeper look, I'm aware about the distances and so on, but still.

Anyways... I wanted to ask you something. My friend maggotin is in Boston for the month, so I asked him for a Lens there, since they're way cheaper there than here in Spain ;-). Whatever...I'm a bit confused and I don't want to make the wrong decision, so maggotin suggested me to come here and ask you all your humble oppinion, in order to help me in making the right choice :P

So, those are the Lenses I've been looking at...but first, I'll give you some information I think it's going to be useful while guideing me!

- Budget is $600 maximum.
- I do a lot of street photography, portraiture and "landscapes". Sincerely, I dunno how to describe what I do, so I think it's better for you to take a look at my flickr page...

Here are the candidates. I'm looking for a life-lasting, high-quality and versatile lenses that would be able to bring me the opportunity to cope with what I want to photography.

1.- 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR AF-S DX Nikkor Lens
[Link] - $590

2.- 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor Autofocus Lens
[Link] - $330

3.- 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G ED-IF AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor Autofocus Lens
[Link] - $330



And hey! If you know something else and you think would fit me, don't doubt it and post it here !



Thank you so much for your patience and know-how. I'll be awaiting for you replies!



Kind regards,

ales
 
Hi Ales, and welcome to TP.

The frst thing that struck me was that all of the three lenses you mentioned are "DX", which means they won't work properly on your F3. (The image circle they produce isn't big enough to fill a full 35mm frame.) Does that matter to you? If so, it's time for a new shopping list.

But I'm afraid I don't have any specific experience of these lenses to be able to help you further. Hopefully someone who does will be along soon...
 
No experience of 1 and 2 but 3 is a nice lens for the money and well like.

Oh and Welcome.:)
 
StewartR said:
Hi Ales, and welcome to TP.

The frst thing that struck me was that all of the three lenses you mentioned are "DX", which means they won't work properly on your F3. (The image circle they produce isn't big enough to fill a full 35mm frame.) Does that matter to you? If so, it's time for a new shopping list.

But I'm afraid I don't have any specific experience of these lenses to be able to help you further. Hopefully someone who does will be along soon...
Click to expand...

Doesn't really matter - I think I'm switching to digital from now on!


The thing is that I have very little idea 'bout lenses...So, any of you, could you reccomend something else? Please :shrug:

And, one question... is it noticeable when the VR is on? I mean, can you feel the difference...?


Sorry for my bad english, I feel kinda retard :/


Thank you so much for your help and interest!


ales
 
Sorry for my bad english, I feel kinda retard
Click to expand...

Your english is just great. You'd be waiting a long time for most of us to catch up enough to have this conversation in spanish. :D

Looking at the newer nikon cameras that are coming out with a full frame sized sensor, it might be worth looking at lenses that do go that big. These cameras might be far too expensive now but it's not that long till the D3 will be bargain bucket stuff. :)
 
I have the 16-85mm VR. It's an excellent lens; very sharp with lots of contrast and well saturated colours. It's compact and reasonably light. Build quality is good but not spectacular and the zoom lens is quite stiff. It suffers from some distortion and visible chromatic aberrations at 16mm, but both of these can be corrected in software; the D300 will even correct chromatic aberrations automatically if you shoot jpeg. Bokeh is neutral to soft at 85mm, harsh at middle focal lengths and fairly shocking close to 16mm. By all accounts it's rather better than the other two you name, but of course this is reflected in the price.

VR makes quite a big difference at longer focal lengths. Nikon quotes a 3-4 stop advantage and I would say that is correct or even slightly conservative at 85mm. At 16mm I would guess closer to one stop, and in between at other focal lengths.

Basicallly if you want a high quality standard zoom, can live without shallow depth of field and aren't put off by the price then this is the one to go for.

Another option is the Nikon 18-200mm VR. Image and build quality are reportedly not as good and it's slightly larger and heavier, but you get a lot more length.

If you want more control over depth of field, or if you want to take pictures of moving things in low light then you will want an f/2.8 zoom. If I were buying one then I would get the Tamron 17-50mm. Others prefer the Sigma 24-70mm, which would work on your film camera. I'm not keen on it because of its weight and size, and because it seems to have very unpleasand bokeh, which to me defeats the purpose of a fast lens. The Nikon f/2.8 zooms are very expensive and heavy.
 
dazzajl said:
Your english is just great. You'd be waiting a long time for most of us to catch up enough to have this conversation in spanish. :D

Looking at the newer nikon cameras that are coming out with a full frame sized sensor, it might be worth looking at lenses that do go that big. These cameras might be far too expensive now but it's not that long till the D3 will be bargain bucket stuff. :)
Click to expand...

Such as which ones? Excuse me if I'm being annoying or something, but my friend is going to B&H tomorrow so I need to know somehting :-P And hey, thanks for the green!

Jamougha said:
I have the 16-85mm VR. It's an excellent lens; very sharp with lots of contrast and well saturated colours. It's compact and reasonably light. Build quality is good but not spectacular and the zoom lens is quite stiff. It suffers from some distortion and visible chromatic aberrations at 16mm, but both of these can be corrected in software; the D300 will even correct chromatic aberrations automatically if you shoot jpeg. Bokeh is neutral to soft at 85mm, harsh at middle focal lengths and fairly shocking close to 16mm. By all accounts it's rather better than the other two you name, but of course this is reflected in the price.

VR makes quite a big difference at longer focal lengths. Nikon quotes a 3-4 stop advantage and I would say that is correct or even slightly conservative at 85mm. At 16mm I would guess closer to one stop, and in between at other focal lengths.

Basicallly if you want a high quality standard zoom, can live without shallow depth of field and aren't put off by the price then this is the one to go for.

Another option is the Nikon 18-200mm VR. Image and build quality are reportedly not as good and it's slightly larger and heavier, but you get a lot more length.

If you want more control over depth of field, or if you want to take pictures of moving things in low light then you will want an f/2.8 zoom. If I were buying one then I would get the Tamron 17-50mm. Others prefer the Sigma 24-70mm, which would work on your film camera. I'm not keen on it because of its weight and size, and because it seems to have very unpleasand bokeh, which to me defeats the purpose of a fast lens. The Nikon f/2.8 zooms are very expensive and heavy.
Click to expand...

Jamougha, thank you so much. Not only for the information given... I've really appreciate your post, it was so nice from you :) thanks, thanks a lot.



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I think I've a maturer idea of what I'm looking into.
The lenses that have arrived to the final round are the following,


  • 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED AF-S VR DX NIKKOR (a little bit out of budget, but maybe worthy?)

And

  • 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR AF-S DX NIKKOR



What do you think about them for someone who's looking not only for an extremely versatile lenses but also goes for a high quality ones? As I see, the F is the same in both objectives but I dunno which is the best one among those!!


Thank you so much :-) You've been so helpful!


Ales
 
Please delete this post
 
I don't think any of the lenses you've listed are going to match the image quality of your current lenses. They're not as good quality at the expense of zoom range and features like VR. As stated above they also wont work on your f3 without leaving a big vignette round the edges.

out of those though the 16-85mm is probably the best.
 
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