Lens Choices

If you want to capture images in more than one style or genre, you need to have the right gear. The first rule of photography is supposed to be that its not the gear, its the artist and their ability to create with a sense of composition, colour, light and timing. All true but the right gear also helps. So lens choice counts when you know what type of images you want to make. You need the optimal focal length and field of capture to suit the style you want. Focal Length and Angle of view of a lens are related, focal length is used to describe a lens. A 35mm f2.0 is a lens with a fixed focal length and a 70 - 200mm f2.8 is a zoom lens. The angle of view or field of view describes the amount of a scene that can be captured by a camera.

This diagram helps describe this. CLICK ON IMAGE FOR A LARGER VIEW

.......... Wide Angle - Normal / Portrait - Macro/Portrait - sport/Nature

Typically, but depending on preference and style a broad selection of lenses and their general use might be;

• 11-16mm f2.8 Zoom - ULTRA Wide - great for indoor, close up indoor architecture and landscapes.
• 35mm f2 - Normal Prime - portrait, indoor happy snaps and walk around versatile.
• 105mm f2.8 - Macro prime - close work for insects, product and detailed close up, also a fantastic portrait lens.
• 18-200mm f3.5-5.6 - versatile zoom for a wide range of uses but not so fast so low light can be an issue.
• 70-200mm f2.8 - super zoom - sports and action, great for picking people out at a distance, pro's event lens.

Hmm looks familiar :-)

Photography Genres I'm interested include:

Portrait

Fine Art

Architectural

Street

Nature

Landscape

Macro

Food

Night

Other genres are Travel, Wedding, Aerial, Black and White, Documentary, Fashion, Forensic, Glamour, Nude, Photojournalism, Still life, Stock, Underwater, Wildlife and more . . .

35mm f2D

I just got a new Nikkor 35mm f/2D lens for my Nikon D300 DSLR camera :-) You can get great bokeh with this lens that is perfect for environmental portraits, landscapes and photojournalism or walk around lens. It's compact, lightweight and very fast f/2 so great for hand held low light indoor situations. The 35mm f/2D AF it can focus very close to about 1/4 life size or closest focusing distance .25 metre and is a great feature of this lens.

For a DX sensor Nikon D90, D3000, D5000, etc its the equivalent of a 50mm prime lens on a Full Frame D3, D700 D3x etc. Its classed as a wide angle Nikkor because on a full frame camera the picture angle would be 62 Degrees but with the DX its 44 degrees. For comparison the standard normal prime for a full frame camera has a picture angle of 46 degrees. So on a DX this is a normal prime. For a great explanation and pictures to help go here.

I just got a new lens for my D300 :-)

The AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor ED 70-200mm f/2.8

This is the standard lens for news, sports and action and environment portrait shooters. It's light weight mechanically and optically precision built and the 70-200mm VR shines for fast action in low light. Its rated as one of Nikon's sharpest lenses ever and its sharp at every aperture. It is famous for its beautiful bokeh (that gorgeous out of focus background look) The 2.8 aperture makes this a 'fast' lens.

I also have:

Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G ED IF AF-S VR

Macro lens for insects, food and tiny stuff. Also one of the best portrait lenses you can get. Again beautiful bokeh.

AF-S Zoom-Nikkor ED 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF DX VR

Good optics and considering the low price and the long focal range, very good all rounder in performance.

Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 AT-X

The wide angle lens if you're on a budget and the the sharpest ultra wide lens for a DX Nikon camera. It's rated better than the more expensive Nikkor 12-24mm.

Great for landscapes, architecture and anything inside or close range and low light.

Why 2.8 ?

The maximum aperture of the lens can have a significant impact on the types of photos you can take.

Smaller Aperture number (2.8) = Wider Aperture (the hole) = More Light

Larger Aperture number (22) = Narrower Aperture (smaller hole) = Less Light

If you want to take photos indoors without a flash, on overcast days, for sport or anything you need to use fast shutter speeds to freeze motion you need a fast lens (2.8 or better)

You can also get a shallower Depth of Field (DOF) DOF is that amount of your shot that will be in focus. With a large aperture you get a large depth of field, that is most of your image will be in focus whether it’s close to your camera or far away. With a small aperture you get a small (or shallow) depth of field and only part of the image will be in focus and the rest will be fuzzy (bokeh) but this separates the subject from the background (as long as IT is in sharp focus) and give a 3D effect to images and smoothes out busy backgrounds. - see RedBubble Flickr