Which lens??

S

sparky_steve

Suspended / Banned
Messages
34
Name
steve
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi all, I have recently bought a dslr ( to be honest I bought it Saturday) with this being my first . I am after a Lens for close work. This will be my main Lens for my fishing trips for capturing my own picture with my captures before releasing them. Which type of Lens would you recommend. I am asking you guys as I blew my budget of £500 Saturday and would like to stay out of a shop for a while and see if I can pick one up of eBay or from anybody here. My camera is a nikon d3100 . Thanks for those that read and comment to my question .
 
Hi Steve,

Firstly, it's lens not lens.

What's your budget? The best value for closish work on a crop is a used Tamron 17-50 non VC. Should pick one up for about 200. If you want cheaper you'll probably be disappointed with the image quality.
 
hmmm poss 35mm nikon f1.8 - approx 170 new.. .s/h should be around 100 ish?

Pictures are almost like what you see...

The23rdMan has some excellent pictures, so the lens he has recommended should be great.


Did you you get a lens with the body? Which did you get?
 
Firstly sorry for my typing error of lens , as I am not with the camera at the moment it was the standard nikon lens that comes with the camera. I do know it's the vr nikon kit I purchased. Thanks for the advice on the lens. This should tie me over untill I can find a course to learn more about my new found passion.
 
My advice would be to stick with the kit lens, see how that restricts you and go from there.
 
As has already been said the Tamron SP 17-50mm is a cracking lens and fairly good for close-up work and can be had for around £200 second hand.

One other lens worth considering in the same area is the Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 Macro. It can be had for similar money second hand if you shop around on Ebay and other second hand places and focuses down to a distance of 20cm.

Hope this helps

Dazz
 
You will probably have got the 18-55 VR lens with your camera. It's a good lens. You can take great pictures with it and learn a lot at the same time. Don't buy anything else until you have tried it.

You can get as close as about 11 inches to your subject which means that, with a bit of practice, you will be able to take very good photos of whatever fish you catch.

Suggest that when you have taken some photos on your next fishing trip, post some up in the Talk Basics section and ask for advice and comments - people will be only too please to help.
 
Last edited:
Steve,

I'm assuming the pictures you're after are the 'big fish, angler knelt down ' type?

If thats the case your kit lens should be fine. What you will need though are a way of holding the camera (a tripod or you can get an adapter that screws into a bankstick and the thread at the bottom of your camera body) and a way of triggering the camera, you could use the timer but it's a rush to get posed properly. You can get wired triggers or use the cheap radio triggers (Cactus or Yongnuo) from e-bay.

Is it specimen stuff you do, and will you want to be getting pictures at night? If you do you probably want to look at off camera flash in the future too. On camera flash and wet fish is a recipe for terrible pictures.
 
Iphotouk said:
As has already been said the Tamron SP 17-50mm is a cracking lens and fairly good for close-up work and can be had for around £200 second hand.

One other lens worth considering in the same area is the Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 Macro. It can be had for similar money second hand if you shop around on Ebay and other second hand places and focuses down to a distance of 20cm.

Hope this helps

Dazz
Click to expand...

The sigma doesn't compare to the Tammy. Very soft wide open.
 
Steve, I do angling photography for a living so may be able to help :)

To start with, see how you get on with your existing lens, the one that came with the D3100. That focal range is fine for catch shots, be it holding shots of stuff like skimmers and tench, or the knelt-down poses you need when holding specimen fish. It's a new camera so you can play around with higher ISOs to make up for the fact the lens doesn't have a really fast maximum aperture. See how you get on....

If you do decide to move up to something faster (aperture-wise) and with better optics, the suggested Tamron is a good choice; I used one for a few years before I moved over to the Nikon 17-55mm and TBH, it was brilliant. To kep the price down, go for the DiII version. It's the one without VC and is older and cheaper - plus there are plenty going used generally. It's arguably better in the optics dept. than the newer VC version...

Primes are great - lots of specimen/carp boys use 35mm and 50mm primes - but if that's going to be your only lens, it's a big choice to make because you need the room to shoot, not always possible at many fisheries, plus if you think you'll be shooting at f/1.8 all the time while holding a big fish, think again - DoF just won't be enough to give you a safety net if you're not set up 100 per cent correct. Probably the only times I'm shooting at f/1.8 is to get atmospheric shots with lots of background blur. Even f/2.8 is an aperture I generally only use in low light circumstances or where I want to overlay text.

There are loads of other zooms too that people go for, but I think a 17-50/55 (or what you already have) is the best option for versatility :)

Off-camera flash is a good idea, as suggested, but then you're going into the realms of doing a photoshoot and if you're just out for a day's fishing, it's more gear to carry (and I know we already carry the kitchen sink!!!!)....

Hope this helps - anything else feel free to ask :)
 
specialman said:
Steve, I do angling photography for a living so may be able to help :)

To start with, see how you get on with your existing lens, the one that came with the D3100. That focal range is fine for catch shots, be it holding shots of stuff like skimmers and tench, or the knelt-down poses you need when holding specimen fish. It's a new camera so you can play around with higher ISOs to make up for the fact the lens doesn't have a really fast maximum aperture. See how you get on....

If you do decide to move up to something faster (aperture-wise) and with better optics, the suggested Tamron is a good choice; I used one for a few years before I moved over to the Nikon 17-55mm and TBH, it was brilliant. To kep the price down, go for the DiII version. It's the one without VC and is older and cheaper - plus there are plenty going used generally. It's arguably better in the optics dept. than the newer VC version...

Primes are great - lots of specimen/carp boys use 35mm and 50mm primes - but if that's going to be your only lens, it's a big choice to make because you need the room to shoot, not always possible at many fisheries, plus if you think you'll be shooting at f/1.8 all the time while holding a big fish, think again - DoF just won't be enough to give you a safety net if you're not set up 100 per cent correct. Probably the only times I'm shooting at f/1.8 is to get atmospheric shots with lots of background blur. Even f/2.8 is an aperture I generally only use in low light circumstances or where I want to overlay text.

There are loads of other zooms too that people go for, but I think a 17-50/55 (or what you already have) is the best option for versatility :)

Off-camera flash is a good idea, as suggested, but then you're going into the realms of doing a photoshoot and if you're just out for a day's fishing, it's more gear to carry (and I know we already carry the kitchen sink!!!!)....

Hope this helps - anything else feel free to ask :)
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot. You have all given me direction with your comments.to specialman - what iso would you recommend as the new lake I am on this season holds a good head of 35lb + fish and If I am lucky to have one I want to picture to bring out the best of the moment.
Thanks all
 
sparky_steve said:
Thanks a lot. You have all given me direction with your comments.to specialman - what iso would you recommend as the new lake I am on this season holds a good head of 35lb + fish and If I am lucky to have one I want to picture to bring out the best of the moment.
Thanks all
Click to expand...

It's one of those 'how long is a piece of string?' subjects to be honest - 10 years doing it and I'm still learning :lol:....

When shooting without flash (in AV mode) I tend to give myself a bit of a safety net with regards to leeway with shutter speeds and aperture. If it's an ISO 100 day then I'll shoot on ISO 200 or 400 to give me a few extra stops of movement to either increase DoF or up the shutter speed to avoid shake. My D2x ain't the latest technology so it's high ISO capabilities aren't on a par to modern cameras but at 100-400 it's fine through Lightroom. At higher ISOs I don't have much room to play because the D2x doesn't have a high maximum ISO (3200 equivalent) so I aim to use flash to help me out a little.

Of course, with flash, I never go above 1/250th (the camera's sync speed) so I don't have to go into high-speed sync mode, which loses me a lot of power. When using triggers, anything above 1/250th is a no-no because of the manual sync problems. Also, on cloudy days you start looking at shutter speed faster than that with flash and you run the risk of cutting out the ambient altogether, which isn't always desirable.

One piece of advice; if it's an important shot, get someone you can trust to take the shot. The number of good fish that have ended up as crap photos, I loose count of. Self-takes are obviously more tricky, although not altogether impossible if you know how to set your camera's exposure beforehand, and get the positioning right. If you do give the camera to someone, pre-set the zoom to match a corresponding point on the floor (place a marker) so when they take the shot you know there is enough space and that there's less chance of important bits being cropped out of shot.

Another tip that applies to day-time shooting is choose the right area to shoot in; DON'T go for anywhere that has a mix of sunlight and shade - dappled sunlight can be a real pain that will fool the camera's metering. Without flash I tend to shoot with the angler in shade, because it's diffused light that lessens reflections and highlights. With flash it's more a case of filling in the shadows without creating too many harsh highlights on the fish.

I'll post up some piccies in a bit to show you the kind of thing I'm talking about :)
 
ecniv said:
hmmm poss 35mm nikon f1.8 - approx 170 new.. .s/h should be around 100 ish?
Click to expand...

:lol: :lol: hang on give me a second :lol: ok I'm done.

If and that's a big if you can find them new they are £180 and that's one going real cheap. Second hand you are lucky if you find one for £175. Don't be at all surprised if you have to pay £200 new or second hand

*checks the bay*
There are currently 18, count 'em 18 of the most recommended and must have Nikon lenses on ebay. 13 buy it now, 3 admitting that they are from hong kong, at least 3 saying they are in the uk when they most certainly are not.

So in summery.

Cheapest second hand you can buy that's in the UK right now is: £170
Cheapest new in the UK: £183
 
Last edited:
ecniv said:
jessops online web price... new 35mm f1.8 g dx nikon : 165 ukp...
Same price at warehouse express...
Click to expand...

Get them now then, because they could only have about 10 in stock. Nikon got hit hard by the disaster in Japan - There was a point where the D700 was going for £2200+ second hand (new price is about £1900) I'm hoping them coming back into stock heralds the fact that they have the production lines working again which would be nice given that the D800 is coming soon.
 
I have the 35mm f1.8 - it's a great lens but I would go for the 17-50 Tamron. I'm missing the flexibility of a zoom, and don't find the extra stop that useful as there's such a shallow DoF at f1.8. I also find myself wanting a distance scale which the 35 f1.8 doesn't have. Hope this helps.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top