What kind of lenses should i get? ( On a budget)

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Hey all!

2 days ago i upgraded from a nikon D3100 to a nikon D7200 (Mainly because the D3100 didnt have a MIC input and i needed it for my study). I allready have a 18-55 kit lens and a 50mm F1.8g ( the 50mm i love to death). Now my question is: What kind of lenses should also get? I want to get a well rounded set of lenses because i want get into Concert/landscape/street photography etc. So my question is wich lenses would you recommend (on a budget)

Thanks in advance :)
 
What kind of budget??
Concert photography often requires fast/long lenses (never cheap) while landscapes generally want wider lenses.

For street work your existing lenses may be enough, or you may want something longer to capture expressions across the street. Your own experiences will probably indicate what suits your style of street. I'd prefer something wider than the 50 for closer shots, the kit zoom would cover those but a prime would be faster.

Do some shooting with your existing lenses & try to work out which focal lengths you want. For landscapes panoramic stitching can give a feel for what a wider view could produce (try Microsoft ICE it's free & works well even stitching handheld panoramas). If you often need to crop shots by more than 50% to get the FOV you're after then get a longer lens. There are some very cheap lenses in the 70-200 sort of range that might help you work out your preferred focal lengths - even a manual focus job might do this :)

Having found the focal lengths you like best it's worth spending a bit more & getting a lens with better sharpness/contrast/speed etc. though if you use as wide a range of focal lengths as I do that just might not be practical!:blush:
 
Sigma 17-50mm 2.8 and Sigma 70-200mm 2.8 OS
 
I would also say that the 70-200 2.8 is a good one to look forward too, but you might need to save your pennies. You might be able to get away with the more affordable 70-300 4.5-5.6 for concert situations, it just depends on all the other factors around you: how far away you are from the stage, what the stage lighting situation is like, etc.
 
Budget is a critical factor of course. Your best bet for the concerts would probably be something in the 70-200 mm 2.8 range. As Persistent Nomad mentions you might be able to get a 70-300 4.5/5.6 to work in a pinch but on a crop sensor body with most concerts the lighting is going to be pretty tough to work with, so a 2.8 would come in real handy.

You can get an old Sigma 70-200 mm 2.8 HSM I for right around $400 used, or for better performance the newer sigma OS version usually goes for around $700 or so used. I shoot the HSM I, it's not a bad lens, it can be a bit of a tradeoff at times though because it doesn't have image stabilization so you need to keep your shutter speeds up to get good, clear shots. In the interest of full disclosure I'll be upgrading mine to a Nikkor 70-200mm 2.8 VRII shortly, but one of those will run around $1500 used so I'm assuming that's probably more than what you want to spend.
 
Sigma 18-35 1.8 Art.

You didn't mention exactly what you had for a budget.
 
You currently own a short normal zoom and a portrait prime.



A "well rounded, general set of glass" would look, in my opinion, like this:

1. A telephoto zoom.
The AF-S 55-200mm f4.5-5.6G VR DX is a really cheap, but optically really good option. The 55-300mm is definitely NOT worth the extra buck. Much rather get a AF-S 70-300mm f4.5-5.6G IF-ED VR instead if you really have to get more expensive, because thats also a fast sports lens. Of course there is also the mighty 70-200mm f2.8 - I would recomment the Tamron VC version of that. Since you are not planning to do sports, you might even consider oldies but goodies like the AF 70-210 f4 or even the really old and cheap manual focus AI 80-200mm f4.5 "N" (there isnt actually an "N" in the name, but its the newer version with the rectangle backside), the probably first really high quality zoom from Nikon (but be warned its not only manual focus, but also a push-pull zoom). Mind I dont know how well your camera supports manual focus - on my D750 its quite a challenge actually, I'm trying since months and I'm still not sure if I will finally manage.

2. A wide angle zoom.
Now this will hurt, because there really is no budget option. I can with good conscience recomment the Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 (I think only available used now?) or even more expensive the Nikon AF-S 12-24mm f4 DX. But I do not know cheaper options than that unless you have a full frame camera, in which case theres a couple of relatively cheap but good wide angle prime lenses - the AI 20mm f3.5, or AF 20mm f2.8, AF 24mm f2.8

3. A bright normal or wide prime
Considering you already have a normal zoom and a portrait prime, you can probably skip over this.

Not much choice about this with Nikon DX - AF-S 35mm f1.8G DX. For its price its absolutely amazing, even if some people love bitching about its CAs. However as long as you stay inside the Nikon system, you wont even ever see those, since they'll be automatically compensated. Naturally for full frame there would be a lot of cheap but good options like the AF 35mm f2 [D], or quite a couple good manual lenses like the AI 50mm f2.

4. A macro prime
Again since you arent interested in this field, you can saftely skip this.

Either way my recommendation for that would be the Tokina 100mm f2.8 macro. Other people might prefer to suggest the Tamron 90mm f2.8 VC macro since it has image stabilization - but I think thats not very useful for a macro lens. You really need a tripod or a strong macro flash.



You might say about Ken Rockwell what you want but this is what he suggested for a newbie to get (wide zoom, telephoto zoom, normal or wide prime, macro lens - not this specific glas) and I still completely agree with this general suggestion.

Its really rare that you actually need a normal zoom. And a portrait lens is kind of specialized, too.

All in all I would recomment to you to get first a telephoto zoom like the ones I suggested; also plenty of choices there since you can easily use old glas there with no quality issue, you just miss out on new features such as a silent autofocus motor or in case of the AI lens even autofocus at all.

Then maybe later the wide angle zoom, for your landscapes.

Mind theres not many sources on these old lenses so cant guarantee anything about them as I dont have them myself; so far I only have an AI-S 300mm f/4.5 and absolutely love that bugger, since its brilliant, just like sources in the net said.
 

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