Three lens packages…..
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
This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 11th, 2012 at 4:13 pm
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Thanks Bill for this information. I am getting back into my photography after a fairly decent period of time so I am having to brush up on a lot of things. When I got out of it, digital was just starting to come in and film was the mainstream. That should let you know how long I have been out I guess. I ordered a Nikon D800 as soon as they went on pre order and got lucky in that mine happened to be in the very first shipment that shipped on March 21st. I picked mine up on March 26th and started shooting with it the very next day. Ever since the rumors about the camera first started and long before that, I have been thinking and contemplating which lenses I needed to do what i was going to do. I ended up deciding to go all out and do the Nikon “Trinity”, but then started looking at the financial situation and decided it would be best to go a different and less expensive route. The one thing I didn’t want to do was to compromise the quality of the lenses I bought. I knew they all had to be FX lenses and not DX. The first lens I bought was the 70-300mm VR f4.5-5.6. I decided to buy it first since it was the least expensive of the ones I was looking at. I could also use it for shooting my little nephew’s baseball games. It has served me very well. I couldn’t afford to go with the 70-200mm f2.8 to start with, plus the added 100mm of the 70-300mm would come in handy for his games and would be much lighter. I decided that the next lens I should buy is the 24-120 f4. I am currently renting that lens, but really haven’t had a chance to shoot with it much. I will have to save up the money to buy it, but I know it will be worth it. I would rather have had the 24-70mm f2.8, but I can’t afford that right now and I started to realize that rarely would I ever have a situation light wise that I should need a 2.8 lens. If I had a low light shoot I would be using a tripod anyway. My next lens decision was which wide angle to go with. I really wanted the 14-24mm f2.8, but with all the things I read about not being able to use a filter on it and how exposed the front element is, it has really made me look in other directions. I ended up deciding on the 16-35mm f4 instead. Again, I didn’t foresee myself needing a 2.8 lens for light because I would be using a tripod for low lighting . I am so glad that everything i have tossed around idea wise about which lenses to go with are back up by a professional like you. It really sets my mind at ease to know that someone of your stature in the photography world would recommend these same lenses as good alternatives to the “Trinity” lenses. I do have plans to buy some primes in the future, but I will investigate that further when the time comes. I do know that one of them will definitely be the 85mm f1.4, but whether it will be the Nikon or the Zeiss is still up in the air.
I know this has been long and I didn’t intend it to be this long, so I will close with this. Thank you so much for being there to give lower level photographers like myself the advise you do so freely. There aren’t many pro’s that do that and it is very appreciated when we do find it. Thank you for your honesty in your advise. That to is something that isn’t found much these days by other pro’s. Most of them give advise according to who is backing them in order to sell products for that company. I know you’re with Nikon and that most of the items you list are mostly Nikon, but I look past the names and see what you are saying in recommendation for your advise. Thank you again and I look forward to more of your articles for future advise.
It looks like you’ve made some wise and carefully thought out decisions, I think you’ve done well, and it was my pleasure to share!!!
I do have one question about this though that I thought about earlier while shooting some night time shots. Are there some times where it might would necessary to use a f2.8 lens over a f4 even when using a tripod or are able to have a very steady hold on the camera to almost eliminate camera shake? I did some night shots ealier of a big Ferris Wheels that is completely lit with colored LED lights that change colors on the ocean. I took them from almost the end of a pier over the ocean so that I could get an unobstructed view of the wheel. I used two different lens, the 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 VR IF ED and the 24-120 f4 VR IF ED to get different fields of view. I used higher ISO to allow me to use higher shutters so I wouldn’t have as long to hold the camera. I propped my feet up on the railing and used my old track days breathing control to help minimize my shaking and used my elbows on my knees with a tight tuck of my arms on my body to help me be more steady. The shots came out really well, but not like they would have been with a tripod I know. I did it this way because I’m not so sure that a tripod would have help me out much more than I was able to do because of the wind shaking the pier pretty good. I did use “mirror up” mode sometimes to help to and also used a table on the beach end to take some shots. Those did come out better because of the stability of the pier on that end by the ground. I am trying to learn my new D800 and every time I look in the book I learn something else about it that i didn’t know it would do or that I could use to help me out. Is it possible that having the 24-70mm or the 70-200m f2.8 woujld have helped me out in a situation like what I had tonight? I was using the lowest apertures my lenses were capable of but I also used f8 some to and tried to steady my camera as best i could. My shots so far with my D800 aren’t anything to be compared to your photography works, but I am learning and maybe I will be able to improve to where I can get shots like that. Thanks again.
Faster lenses like f 2.8 maximum aperture lenses will give you additional shutter speed which when hand holding will definitely help your sharpness. Wide aperture lenses are also easier to see through as they are brighter. The down side is cost, fast lenses are always more expensive. Each shooter must decide the costs in funds and weight and go with what works best for them!
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