best lowlight lense

[HeY iTs ScOTtY]

just looking for advice on what is a good lense for shooting in lowlight. i want to take band pictures without using a flash so i can capture the stagelighting. i was thinking of a 14-24mm f/2.8. im not looking to spend a lot so it doesnt matter if its manual focus.

 

[JustAnEngineer]

Is the $200 AF-S DX 35mm f/1.8G the right focal length for your needs?

 

[HeY iTs ScOTtY]

that might work. id kinda like a wide lense with a small zoom though. just so i can get some stage shots. im scared that a prime lense might limit me a little to much.

 

[itznfb]

i was thinking of a 14-24mm f/2.8. im not looking to spend a lot so it doesnt matter if its manual focus.

um... these two sentances don't go together

 

[kundalini]

um... these two sentances don't go together

Nikkor 35mm f/2
Nikkor 50mm f/1.4
Sigma 30mm f/1.4
Sigma 50mm f/1.4

or Nikkor 20mm / 24mm / 28mm

 

[HeY iTs ScOTtY]

1800 isnt cheap to you lol

 

[HeY iTs ScOTtY]

might just have to go with the 35 prime and deal with it.

AF-S Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G DX Lens

 

[Big]

1800 isnt cheap to you lol

Isn't it true though? I see people on here that have nothing but L series lenses from Canon. Those lenses are thousands of $$ and they have like 6-7 of them!

 

[HeY iTs ScOTtY]

being poor sure does suck when your into expensive hobbies.

 

[Restomage]

being poor sure does suck when your into expensive hobbies.

I'll second that lol.

 

[snaggle]

being poor sure does suck when your into expensive hobbies.

Tell me about I have 4 hobbies Photography, fish keeping, Music (both playing and Producing/engeniering), and Hot rods/mudding.

You might also want to look for a fast 100mm lense since you cant always get on stage.

If you are working close with the band tell them to ask for the red or blue to be pulled from the PAR cans and that will help lighten up the stage for you.

 

[AlexColeman]

Tokina 11-16 wide-Nikon 85 1.8- 105 F2- Nikon 50 1.4

 

[spiralcity]

Whats your actual budget?

You can get some great MF lenses for a good price that would fit the bill.

MF 50mm 1.4 Nikkor non-ai / Easy to find and relatively cheap.

MF 85mm 1.4 ais / a bit pricey and harder to find but a great lens

MF 105mm 1.8 ais / may be a bit pricey, but a great lens

Theres a bunch of great Nikon glass, but price is another story...

 

[JerryPH]

There is a ton of good low light glass out there... unfortunately, not all of it is cheap or affordable. The whole thing gets even better if you use a camera that is clean at higher ISO on top of fast glass for getting good shots at low light.

Try a Nikkor 85mm F/1.4 and a D700, very good combination for those shots around the late night campfire (though it is not cheap):

ISO 3200, F/1.4 and it still took 1/10th of a second to get this shot, hand held and basically SOOC (only PPing done was conversion from RAW to JPG).

This is one of those areas where you really need to sit down and decide how good of a result you want under how extreme a situation becuase it can get very expensive very fast if your needs are high. This was pretty demanding, considering he was about 6 feet away from the campfire.

A fast lens may give you 1-2 stops more over a slower lens, but a camera that has low noise at higher ISO may give you 3-4 stops. It is when you put them together that things get very interesting.

​

 

[NateS]

I highly doubt that f2.8 is going to be fast enough. I wouldn't want to shoot a band with less than f1.8 personally. F2.8 is barely even wide enough for me in my living room at night with ISO1600.