Looking for a lens for tight indoor spaces- d7000

[Bkg529]

Hello,

I generally shoot on location outdoors, however in the cold months without a studio, or for newborn sessions, I shoot inside people's homes. Since I don't have a full frame camera, and shoot with a nikon d7000 with the Nikkor 50mm 1.4g prime lens, I find I often can't back up enough to fit everything I would like in the frame. I am looking for the best quality lens at a reasonable price to assist me with my shooting in tight spaces, but that can also handle low light conditions. Any recommendations/advice is much appreciated.

 

[o hey tyler]

35/1.8G perhaps?

 

[Bkg529]

Thanks. I actually own this lens, but was advised against using it. Not sure why

 

[JDFlood]

Advised against using it? That is one of the craziest things I have heard. Definitely use it, great lens and on your camera would be equiv. to a "normal" lens. JD

 

[Bkg529]

Advised against using it? That is one of the craziest things I have heard. Definitely use it, great lens and on your camera would be equiv. to a "normal" lens. JD

"(and I highly recommend not using that 35 for portraits... the 50, and especially the 85 will give much more attractive images!)"

This kind of scared me out of using it again after I had posted for advice on the softness of my images coming from my d7000, and getting this as part of the advice.

 

[480sparky]

Advised against using it? That is one of the craziest things I have heard. Definitely use it, great lens and on your camera would be equiv. to a "normal" lens. JD

For field of view..... Yes. But it's still a 35mm lens and will produce the distortion of a 35mm lens.

 

[greybeard]

Shoot with the 35mm f/1.8 and judge for yourself. For what you will be using it for, it should be great.

 

[cgipson1]

Advised against using it? That is one of the craziest things I have heard. Definitely use it, great lens and on your camera would be equiv. to a "normal" lens. JD

"(and I highly recommend not using that 35 for portraits... the 50, and especially the 85 will give much more attractive images!)"

This kind of scared me out of using it again after I had posted for advice on the softness of my images coming from my d7000, and getting this as part of the advice.

I used to own the 35mm 1.8... I ended up giving it away (too much CA, and seemed soft on the edges! Plus If you are too close to the subject, a 35 (any WA) can cause perspective distortion... see this > Perspective Distortion Effects Planned or Accidental

 

[JDFlood]

This strikes me that someone is asking a fundamental photography question and is being answered by a graduate student that just finished his thesis on the potential shortcomings of the 35mm lens. Use the 35mm it is a very good lens it will get more in the picture. Shoot it wide open if you want a narrow focus. Obviously have the lens further than a foot from the person you are shooting or it could start looking distorted. JD

 

[cgipson1]

This strikes me that someone is asking a fundamental photography question and is being answered by a graduate student that just finished his thesis on the potential shortcomings of the 35mm lens. Use the 35mm it is a very good lens it will get more in the picture. Shoot it wide open if you want a narrow focus. Obviously have the lens further than a foot from the person you are shooting or it could start looking distorted. JD

Sure thing.. it is a $200 wonder lens.. whatever...

 

[thunderkyss]

I used to own the 35mm 1.8... I ended up giving it away (too much CA, and seemed soft on the edges!

Is softness usually a characteristic of the lens, or would it be an affect of an aperture range?

Like, wouldn't you expect it to be soft on the upper end, but sharper on the lower end?

 

[brian_f2.8]

have you tried the kit lens 18-55, at 18mm your at f3.5

someone was selling a fish eye f2.8, not sure if you want that fish eye look

you could always search 3rd party, i dont know much about those lens but it seems people on here use them

 

[JRG2501]

I know your problem just too well. I adore the Nikon 50mm f1.2 lens but with an APS-C or even a 4/3 body the crop factor kills it for a lot of standard applications.

Since we won't see an affordable full frame camera anytime soon I'd suggest you look for some APS-C optimized lenses. Nikon treats their DX series real bad. There just aren't any "good" fast lenses except for the 35mm lens mentioned earlier. Its a good lens but still doesn't provide you with a wider angle which really is what you want indoors for most of the time.

I'd look for some 3rd party manufacturers. You won't get the same optical quality with most of them but their product range is usually not as limited as the one Nikon offers. Here's an example. If you want some extra quality Zeiss ZF lenses are quite a good choice but they don't support auto focus and can be even more expensive than high end Nikon FX lenses.

Judy

 

[pixmedic]

maybe pick a tamron or sigma 17-50 f/2.8...they are reasonably priced used. you will get the 35mm plus wider, and all the way up to 50mm. should give you a nice focal range for any indoor application.

 

[Bkg529]

Thank you for all of your suggestions. For my session on Saturday I'm going to give the 35mm another shot. I'll bring my kit 18-55 and my 50 for back-up. The 18-55 just doesn't give me the aperture I would like, but I guess I could play around a bit in photoshop in rare instances. Was going to look into this lens (Tokina 11-16 2.8) but thought it might be too wide and would cause distortion :/

Tokina - 11-16mm f/2.8 AT-X116 Pro DX Digital Zoom Lens for Nikon DSLR Cameras - AT-X116PRO NAF-38572-KIT - Best Buy