new lens advice

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thekwango

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John
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hi all,

well i've been playing with my new d3100 and it's kit lens for about 3 weeks now, and i'm having great fun with it.

anyways i was looking for a bit more advice.....

i'm getting married in france in august and heading off round the southwest coast for about 2 1/2 weeks. anyone give me a bit of advice on any other lenses i should be looking at, mainly for scenery and beach photos.

can't really give a budget as i haven't got a clue really about lenses and costs yet. but as i'm only a casual photographer, probably cheaper the better? i don't mind going down the second hand route either.

many thanks in advance folks
 
A real favorite lens is the AF-S 35mm f1.8G, super sharp and dead cheap at arround £160 new and £100 used.

Another good lens which won the test for kit lens alternative in last months NPhoto magazine was the Nikon AF-S 16-85mm f3.5-5.6. Another good alternative would be the Sigma 17-70mm f2.8-4 OS HSM.
 
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Welcome to the forum John.

Firstly, I can totally appreciate the situation you are in...... "you think you need a better lens, but don't really know why". Been there, done that. :lol:

I take it when you talk about the kit lens, you have the 18-55 VR?

People will come on here and throw the usual lenses at you, 35mm 1.8, 50mm 1.8, Tamron 17-50 2.8 etc etc, but I think you need to tell us what is wrong with the kit lens or what you are wanting to do that it doesn't.

You say scenery and beach photos..... is 18mm on the kit lens not wide enough for you?

Buying lenses and swapping & changing can be an expensive business and one that shouldn't be entered into lightly.

I should know, I did it myself last year...... :bonk:
 
hi all, thanks for all the replies, and sorry for my delay in getting my own reply up.

Phil Young said:
Hi.

Congrats on the wedding, you must be pretty excited now!

Anyhow...what lenses do you have?

I'd be completely fine and comfortable with a kit 18-55mm if i'm honest!
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excited....possibly....nervous.....definitely!!

at the minute i only have the kit lens that came with the camera

AndyWest said:
A real favorite lens is the AF-S 35mm f1.8G, super sharp and dead cheap at arround £160 new and £100 used.

Another good lens which won the test for kit lens alternative in last months NPhoto magazine was the Nikon AF-S 16-85mm f3.5-5.6. Another good alternative would be the Sigma 17-70mm f2.8-4 OS HSM.
Click to expand...

cheers for that, i'll have a look at those.

Zarch said:
Welcome to the forum John.

Firstly, I can totally appreciate the situation you are in...... "you think you need a better lens, but don't really know why". Been there, done that. :lol:

I take it when you talk about the kit lens, you have the 18-55 VR?

People will come on here and throw the usual lenses at you, 35mm 1.8, 50mm 1.8, Tamron 17-50 2.8 etc etc, but I think you need to tell us what is wrong with the kit lens or what you are wanting to do that it doesn't.

You say scenery and beach photos..... is 18mm on the kit lens not wide enough for you?

Buying lenses and swapping & changing can be an expensive business and one that shouldn't be entered into lightly.

I should know, I did it myself last year...... :bonk:
Click to expand...

to be perfectly honest you have summed it up perfectly....i think i need to get a better lens but i genuinely don't know why!!! i suppose i should get a bit more experience with the kit lens first (sorry yea it is the 18-55 VR) before thinking i need something else.

only reason i was thinking about another lens was that i've read a bit about 'prime' lenses giving better/sharper pics, so thought i should start looking for some of them.

truth be told i don't really want to end up with a half a dozen different lenses cause i know that most would end up not being used.

i think more practice is required until i can possibly come up with a 'weak spot' in my kit lens.

folks, i really really appreciate all the advice....many many thanks
 
Phil Young said:
The 18-55mm us a very sharp lens. I've used it on plenty of professional shoots!

I wouldn't rush out to but a new lens if I were you but have more practice with what you have ;)
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yea i think i'll maybe just play about with the kit lens a bit longer. i may have just been thinking of buying a new lens simply for the sake of it!!
 
+1 for the AF-S 35mm F1.8 lens. The bigger aperture will allow you to do some superb low light shots of dusk and night scenery of the places you visit. I use to have the same lens on a nikon D5100 and could produce some very nice photos with it as its very sharp across most of its aperture range.

If you want to get a good landscape shot with the kit lens, remember to step down the aperture to around 11 to 16 and try a test shot to gauge how well it suits your scenery.
 
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