Not sure about my lens

[Braineack]

Superzooms are ANYTHING but a swiss army knife. Superzooms are highly specialized tools that offer a lot of focal range variance, but very little else. No image quality, no brightness, and no autofocusing performance either.

What's more of a highly specialize tool:

a 105mm 2.8 Macro lens.
or
a 18-270mm Macro lens?

or better yet:

creative commons

or

creative commons

 

[Pratoman]

Dave, good suggestion on the plastic bag. I think though, i will take the case with me, at least when i am off the boat. Its a good, compact case, just enough to hold the camera, the lens and some cables along with an extra battery.

 

[Pratoman]

@astroNikon - thanks good explanation. I do have a basic understanding of what ISO, Shutterspeed and Aperture are, and what they do. Where i get lost is in getting them to work together, i.e. figuring out the right combinaiton. But I'm sure as i read stuff like your explanation, and books that i've bought, and with a lot of practice, it will come to me. I'm determined to not get frustrated, and still with this.

Re the convenience, well said. For now, thats what its about for me, at least on this trip, as long as i can get good shots.

 

[Pratoman]

Brain, obviously, the 105mm is the more specialized tool. (And the Swiss Army Knife). But its also about what i need right now, at this early stage of my learning curve, which is probably not specialization.

 

[Braineack]

yeah so the 18-270 is perfect for you right now--a very versatile lens that can perform a lot of functions (like a swiss army knife--unless you want to cut your toenails with that dagger).

Why not post some actual example of where the lens does not perform well for us to look at?

 

[BananaRepublic]

Superzooms are ANYTHING but a swiss army knife. Superzooms are highly specialized tools that offer a lot of focal range variance, but very little else. No image quality, no brightness, and no autofocusing performance either.

The most tolerable of this species seems to be the Nikon 18-300mm f3.5-6.3. The Tamron 18-270mm however is probably the worst piece of glas you can get. Dont expect much image quality for it. Or anything else. Its just focal length variance, not much else.

The swiss army knife of lenses is a good selection of lenses. Like, say:
- Tokina 11-16mm f2.8, or Sigma 8-16mm f4.5-5.6
- Sigma 17-50mm f2.8 OS, or Nikon AF-S 16-85mm f3.5-5.6 VR DX, or Nikon AF-S 18-105mm f3.5-5.6 VR DX
- Nikon AF-S 35mm f1.8 DX
- Tamron 90mm f2.8 VC macro, or Nikon AF-S 85mm f3.5 VR DX micro
- Nikon AF-S 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 VR [Yes thats an FX lens]

Thats a lens for every occasion - Wide Angle Zoom, Normal Zoom, A bright prime for lowlight and general IQ, a macro, and a high performance telephoto zoom with an autofocus thats strong enough for sports.

Negative waves with every post

 

[Bryston3bsst]

yeah so the 18-270 is perfect for you right now.

Why not post some actual example of where the lens does not perform well for us to look at?

I would be very interested to see this as well.

 

[Pratoman]

I will try to figure out how to upload later today.

 

[Pratoman]

OK, i posted three pictures. One post for each. I couldn't figure out how to upload the photos, so i just copied and pasted from Smugmug

This picture seems washed out.

Camera NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D3200
ISO 100
Focal Length 38mm (57mm in 35mm)
Aperture f/4.5
Exposure Time 0.0025s (1/400)
Name DSC_0267.JPG
Size 4512 x 3000
Date Taken 2015-07-10 10:24:33
Date Modified 2015-07-10 10:24:33

 

[Pratoman]

Not crisp...


NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D3200
ISO 800
Focal Length 270mm (405mm in 35mm)
Aperture f/6.3
Exposure Time 0.0006s (1/1600)
Name DSC_0269.JPG
Size 4512 x 3000
Date Taken 2015-07-10 10:25:05
Date Modified 2015-07-10 10:25:05

File Size 3.73 MB
JPEG Quality normal
Flash flash did not fire
Metering pattern
Exposure Program aperture priority
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Exposure Mode auto
Light Source unknown
White Balance auto
Digital Zoom 1.0x
Contrast 0
Saturation 0
Sharpness 0
Subject Distance Range unknown
Sensing Method one-chip color sensor

 

[Pratoman]

Can i get some CC on this one?....
Camera NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D3200
ISO 1600
Focal Length 270mm (405mm in 35mm)
Aperture f/10
Exposure Time 0.004s (1/250)
Name DSC_0281.JPG
Size 4512 x 3000
Date Taken 2015-07-10 10:29:34
Date Modified 2015-07-10 10:29:34

File Size 3.62 MB
JPEG Quality normal
Flash flash did not fire
Metering pattern
Exposure Program aperture priority
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Exposure Mode auto
Light Source unknown
White Balance auto
Digital Zoom 1.0x
Contrast 0
Saturation 0
Sharpness 0
Subject Distance Range unknown
Sensing Method one-chip color sensor
Color Space sRGB

 

[floatingby]

So then whats the answer? If I'm in a helicopter, or sailing thru the Inside Passage, or walking around Vancouver BC, do I have 2 lenses and constantly switch back and forth? This is what i am trying to figure out. I could probably return the lens its a month old and i still have the box. But I'm afraid to be switching lenses all the time that i will miss good shots.
As a newbie, I'm curious how do you guys handle that?

I backpacked around the world with a dslr, 3 1/2 months on the road, 18 countries. No way I was going to take a bag full of expensive, heavy and cumbersome lens, so I took a Nikkor 18-200mm zoom with me. Couldn't be happier with the result, when I got result that I was not happy with it was my own fault, not the equipment.
I don't know that Tamron, it is possible it's not all that, but I can vouch for that Nikkor 18-200.

 

[Bryston3bsst]

I kind of expected that I wouldn't see a problem with the lens.

First one seems 'washed out' to you? It appears to me to be a nicely done photo of a park. Colors are natural and clean. If you are looking for the over the top, garish colors some people prefer then you can do that in post or you can make the colors much hotter in your camera, which is done in the menu.

Second one isn't sharp because you moved when the shutter was open. What you're seeing is motion blur. Shooting at a 1600th should have been plenty to eliminate it but then an ISO that high will begin to effect sharpness. And shooting at that long a focal length places a huge demand on you to be extremely steady. You should get better with practice and to reduce this you can look at shooting at higher shutter speeds if conditions allow. Otherwise use a tripod. There are a number of ways to reduce this; the way you hold the camera and control of your breathing make a big difference. This was a problem for me too until I learned how to get around it.

Last one looks like a little motion blur but to a lesser degree.

There is nothing wrong with your lens. You need some more practice and you need to learn more about the relationship of shutter speed, ISO and aperture so you'll be able to shoot at higher shutter speeds to reduce your motion.

 

[Pratoman]

Thanks.

@Bryston, appreciate your cc. Funny, the 1st one looks better on my IPad on this forum, than it did on my LAPTOP ON SMUGMUG.

I get what you are saying. I think the more I look at what I've done so far, the more comfortable I am with the lens, at least for now. Re the relationship between aperture, shutter speed and ISO, as I said earlier, I get what each of them are and do, and more or less get how one reacts with another. I think though, as you said, I need more practice to better understand and execute on this.

I also haven't done any post processing yet, which I need to learn. I have the software that came with the camera from Nikon, but I think I should get Lightroom
Thanks for all the feedback. This forum is terrific

 

[Bryston3bsst]

Something that helps me with motion is to think about how your movement is amplified over distance. Your first picture for example.....if you were to move even 1mm at the end of your lens that 1mm is amplified into probably 20 feet at those two buildings. Think of a sniper shooting at a target 1000 yards away. A tiny movement equals a miss.

Photographers are dealing with kind of the same situation. A tiny movement equals a miss.