Daily Archives: April 11, 2012

 

This month’s issue of Outdoor Photographer, their Landscape Issue, has a good article about three lens packages, and it moved me to expound on their conclusion, which by the way are good suggestions!  I want to take the conversation alittle further.  Please remember that I work for Nikon and my knowledge of lenses is very much tied to Nikkor lenses, however most of my conclusion can be applied to other systems.  Since this is a article of suggestion let me set some ground rules;

 

1.   The lens is the most important part of the camera, it focuses the light on the sensor and the quality of the image, the sharpness is up to the lens!  Selecting lenses therefore is a very important issue in building a system.

 

2.  The focal lengths of lenses that you need are determined by the kind of work you do.  If you don’t shoot sports or wildlife or any other specialized  subjects that need very long glass you don’t need a lens longer than 300mm or 400mm at the longest.

 

3.  Most photographers find it useful to own a wide angle lens, a moderate focal length lens, and a moderate telephoto zoom.  Wide angle zooms come in many ranges most covering somewhere between 14mm and 35mm.  Moderate zooms run from about 24mm to around 70mm, 105mm or 120mm.  The most common telephoto zooms go from 70mm to either 200mm or 300mm.  A three lens package that includes most of these focal lengths will cover virtually any normal subject.

 

4.  Lenses for Close-up work vary from 50mm and 60mm to 85mm, 100mm, 105mm and 180-200mm.  They be selected based on the working distance desired, long focal length will yield more working distance.   In the case of Nikon, all Micro Nikkor lenses are spectacular in performance!

 

 

O.K. my suggestions are simple, I will take each Nikon camera or groups of cameras and suggest a three lens package and a Micro Nikkor to go along with each of them.  In each case I have extensive personal experience with the lenses listed, and can vouch for their performance.

 

Nikon D3100, D5100, D300s, D90, and D7000  (All DX Sensors)

1st Choice for Wide Angle Zoom    10-24 AFS  or 12-24 AFS

1st Choice for Mid Range Zoom   16-85 AFS VR or 24-120 AFS-VR f4

1st Choice for Telephoto Range Zoom   70-200 AFS VR II f 2.8   or  70-300 AFS Vr f4.5-5.6

Recommended Micro lenses   40mm f 2.8 DX  –  85mm f3.5 DX  –  200mm f 4

 

 

Nikon D700, D800, D3s, and D4   (All FX Sensors)

1st Choice for Wide Angle Zoom    14-24 AFS f2.8  or 16-35 AFS VR f4

1st Choice for Mid Range Zoom   24-70 AFS f 2.8  or 24-120 AFS-VR f4

1st Choice for Telephoto Range Zoom   70-200 AFS VR II f 2.8   or  70-300 AFS VR f4.5-5.6

Recommended Micro lenses   60mm f 2.8  –  105mm f2.8  –  200mm f 4

 

There are lots of other choices and many that can be highly recommended,  but,  in most cases,  they are more specialized lenses, like Nikon’s 24mm f 1.4, 35mm f1.4 and 85mm f1.4, these are a subject for a future article.

 

Hope that helps in your system planning!

 

the pilgrim