lens help

[mlm8]

Hello i am totally new and would very much appreciate some opinions.I just purchased a Nikon D3000 and 15-55mm lens,I am not happy with the pictures,my daughter plays sports and I am looking at a 55-200mm lens and was wondering how much closer the images would appear with this len and if ill be able to see much of a difference.Thanks so much for any advice and opinions!

 

[MissCream]

What are you not happy with? What is wrong with the pictures?

 

[timethief]

Welcome to the forum.
if you want to take close up pictures of your daughter while she is playing sports the 55-200mm will suit you much better than the 15-55mm.

 

[KmH]

Hello i am totally new and would very much appreciate some opinions.I just purchased a Nikon D3000 and 15-55mm lens,I am not happy with the pictures,my daughter plays sports and I am looking at a 55-200mm lens and was wondering how much closer the images would appear with this len and if ill be able to see much of a difference.Thanks so much for any advice and opinions!

It has everything to do with the kind of sports you are wanting to make photos of.

If you are talking about indoor court sports, you don't have a camera body that is really up to the task regardless what lens you use. The main problem is the ISO performance of the D3000, because it has a CCD type image sensor.

If you are talking about daytime field sports the 55-200 mm will barely have enough reach. You will still have to crop most of the photos you take to get decent subject scale.

I use a Sigma 150-500 mm zoom lens, and a second camera with a shorter lens to shoot soccer.

The photo gear needed to shoot sports well, is some of the best performing (and thus most expensive) camera gear you can buy. It is not uncommon for a pro sports shooter to have $70,000 to $100,000 worth of camera gear.

Your posts would be easier to read if you were to make the effort of putting spaces after punctuation.

 

[MissCream]

If your pictures are blurry then its not going to change anything because the lens speed is the same... If your just not happy with them being close enough then the lens will bring your subject closer obviously. In order to take an okay picture your going to need a faster lens and thats where you get into spending a lot of money!

 

[mlm8]

Well, the pictures dont look close enough with the 15-55mm lens,so a I was wondering how much closer the pictures will come out with a 55-200mm lens,is it a big differece,I dont know anything about these lenses,I know that the 55-200mm lens will get closer pictures but I have no idea on how much closer and if ill realy be able to see a big difference in the pictures.Sorry if this sounds like a stupid question,but i know nothing about the way these lenses work.

 

[MissCream]

I find that the pictures are significantly closer although if your sitting really far away your better off going with the 70-300mm which is around the same price.

 

[timethief]

Like KmH said the sport you will shoot is one of the factors.
Its best if you go down and test the lens on your camera. then you can decide better since you know the distance you need that will make you happy.

 

[mlm8]

Hello i am totally new and would very much appreciate some opinions.I just purchased a Nikon D3000 and 15-55mm lens,I am not happy with the pictures,my daughter plays sports and I am looking at a 55-200mm lens and was wondering how much closer the images would appear with this len and if ill be able to see much of a difference.Thanks so much for any advice and opinions!

It has everything to do with the kind of sports you are wanting to make photos of.

If you are talking about indoor court sports, you don't have a camera body that is really up to the task regardless what lens you use. The main problem is the ISO performance of the D3000, because it has a CCD type image sensor.

If you are talking about daytime field sports the 55-200 mm will barely have enough reach. You will still have to crop most of the photos you take to get decent subject scale.

I use a Sigma 150-500 mm zoom lens, and a second camera with a shorter lens to shoot soccer.

The photo gear needed to shoot sports well, is some of the best performing (and thus most expensive) camera gear you can buy. It is not uncommon for a pro sports shooter to have $70,000 to $100,000 worth of camera gear.

Your posts would be easier to read if you were to make the effort of putting spaces after punctuation.

My daughter is in middle school,Im not tryind to become a pro sports shooter,i dont know what ISO or CCD means I am simple a mother trying to get the best pictures of her daughter with what I can afford , and sorry for not spacing,but thanks for helping a newby out, I guess I came to the wrong forum!

 

[timethief]

You are in the right forum. you got very good answers in here. just maybe some of them were too technical.
if you are shooting in day light the 55-200mm will probably satisfy you. but still i would recommend that you give it a try at your local store. or check out some sample pictures online.
good luck.

 

[sobolik]

Use this simulation tool. Lens Reviews

 

[KmH]

My daughter is in middle school,Im not tryind to become a pro sports shooter,i dont know what ISO or CCD means I am simple a mother trying to get the best pictures of her daughter with what I can afford

That's great. Now you know you have some gaps in your knowledge that will effect how good your photos will be. I highly recommend reading your camera users manual, several times. It discusses ISO and other camer features you might fine useful.
No one expects you to invest pro $$$'s in camera gear. The point was that sports shooting gear, even for a mom shooting middle school sports, is not the cheap stuff if you want decent photos.

You'll find info about ISO (and exposure) here in this easy to read tutorial: Camera Exposure: Aperture, ISO & Shutter Speed

and CCD image sensors don't perform as well as CMOS image sensors, which is why few DSLR cameras still use CCD's like the D3000 has.


If you leave camera settings decisions up to the camera, by using auto mode (the camera really isn't nearly as smart as you are), then you don't need to know about ISO and CCD.

ISO determines how sensitive to light your camera is. The higher the ISO setting the more sensitive to light it is, which is very beneficial when shooting indoor court sports, because though it looks nice and bright to your eye, it's a dark dungeon to the camera you have. That's where the image sensor type, CCD comes into play.

You still haven't mentioned if you are shooting indoor court sports or daytime/nightime field sports.

 

[mlm8]

My daughter is in middle school,Im not tryind to become a pro sports shooter,i dont know what ISO or CCD means I am simple a mother trying to get the best pictures of her daughter with what I can afford

That's great. Now you know you have some gaps in your knowledge that will effect how good your photos will be. I highly recommend reading your camera users manual, several times. It discusses ISO and other camer features you might fine useful.
No one expects you to invest pro $$$'s in camera gear. The point was that sports shooting gear, even for a mom shooting middle school sports, is not the cheap stuff if you want decent photos.

You'll find info about ISO (and exposure) here in this easy to read tutorial: Camera Exposure: Aperture, ISO & Shutter Speed

and CCD image sensors don't perform as well as CMOS image sensors, which is why few DSLR cameras still use CCD's like the D3000 has.


If you leave camera settings decisions up to the camera, by using auto mode (the camera really isn't nearly as smart as you are), then you don't need to know about ISO and CCD.

ISO determines how sensitive to light your camera is. The higher the ISO setting the more sensitive to light it is, which is very beneficial when shooting indoor court sports, because though it looks nice and bright to your eye, it's a dark dungeon to the camera you have. That's where the image sensor type, CCD comes into play.

You still haven't mentioned if you are shooting indoor court sports or daytime/nightime field sports.

Yes,but I just got it and wanted to get pictures of her last game,she playes outside, she playes field hockey and softball, the pictures are clear,its the distance,I would like to get pictures that look closer,even the one with her running look good,Im just tring to get an idea on how much closer the 55-200mm will zoom in,if there will be a noticable difference than the 15-55mm.After taking the pictures with the 15-55mm I thought, if I was half the distance away they would have been pretty great! Now this is in field hockey,I dont think i would have a problem with the 15-55 in softball.

 

[timethief]

with the 55-200mm the distance will look more than half the distance closer.
if thats your concern then thats the anwer.

 

[mlm8]

with the 55-200mm the distance will look more than half the distance closer.
if thats your concern then thats the anwer.

So you mean it will look even closer than half the distance of what the 15-55 would take,sorry I just wanted to make sure Im understanding you correctly,I was able to find one picture taken of a building that was about a mile away at 55mm and at 200mm and it really looked closer than I thought it would look.The 55 looked like a mile and the 200 looked like a block away. Thanks timethief!