Looking to get my first prime lens

mikk · Nov 18, 2011

I have a D70 with the kit lens 18-55, and a quantaray 70-300. I got this so my girlfriend can take pictures of me and my friends playing disc golf. We bolth realy like the 70-300, its a bit slow and works best in manual mode. Neither of us like the 18-55. Sometimes we have to take pictures with a distance of 8 feet to 20 feet from the subject. Most of the time there is alot of surrounding tree shadow and fast movements, so we get blurry pictures. I was thinking selling the 18-55 and getting a prime lens, say 24mm f/2.8. I have never used a primary lens and I'm realy not shure if a 24mm is stil going to be too much for a wide angle short distance action shot.
Basicly the motion/action is that of a baseball pitcher, pictures will be taken from 8 feet to 20 feet max distance to subject. All pictures are taken outside and are subject to dense tree coverage (sometimes), so light is kind of an issue. My thought is to get a fast, less than f/3.5 prime lens.

MTVision · Nov 18, 2011

mikk said:
I have a D70 with the kit lens 18-55, and a quantaray 70-300. I got this so my girlfriend can take pictures of me and my friends playing disc golf. We bolth realy like the 70-300, its a bit slow and works best in manual mode. Neither of us like the 18-55. Sometimes we have to take pictures with a distance of 8 feet to 20 feet from the subject. Most of the time there is alot of surrounding tree shadow and fast movements, so we get blurry pictures. I was thinking selling the 18-55 and getting a prime lens, say 24mm f/2.8. I have never used a primary lens and I'm realy not shure if a 24mm is stil going to be too much for a wide angle short distance action shot.
Basicly the motion/action is that of a baseball pitcher, pictures will be taken from 8 feet to 20 feet max distance to subject. All pictures are taken outside and are subject to dense tree coverage (sometimes), so light is kind of an issue. My thought is to get a fast, less than f/3.5 prime lens.

I'm not really sure what prime lens would work for you situation but with the 18-55 it's not the lens that is causing the blurry pictures. It's more likely to be the settings used. The 18-55 lens is a good lens to figure out what focal length you want to buy. Walk around with it for a couple days on 24 and see if it will be too wide. Try it out on 35 and 50. You can get a 35mm f/1.8 or a 50mm f/1.8 for around 200.00 and it's faster and better in low light.

onerugrat · Nov 18, 2011

I know the new nikon af-s 50mm 1.8 is more like a 75mm on the crop sensor, that's a fast lens and may be good around that distance?

djacobox372 · Nov 19, 2011

Since youre using an older camera, im guessing youre on a budget. With that in mind id suggest a 50mm f1.8 af-d, you can buy them used for around $100. Awesome lens.

If u have a bit more $$ you might want to consider a tamron 28-75mm f2.8 af, not quite as fast as the prime but still a very fast lens and with a perfect zoom range for you d70.

tevo · Nov 19, 2011

>buy 50mm f/1.8
>profit

mikk · Nov 19, 2011

Money's not an issue. I just dont like spending it on the wrong thing. I'm getting back into photography after I got my dads Minolta 35mm camera and am starting to remember what he was teaching me. He was a Navy SeaBee and did alot of photography while in Vietnam. So from what I remember is that a prime lens with a lower F-stop number gives a crisper picture with a better DOF correct? So I was thinking of getting a good prime lens, say Nikkor 28mm f/1.8 for the closer action pictures. There is alot of shading where we shoot and I figured with a "faster" lens we could get better results.
Right now I'm waiting until after christmas to get a D7000 body. I know that getting good glass is the next step, unfortunately my dads lessons were 30 years ago so I forgot most of the good stuf. mabe. I vaguely remember how to do macro slo-motion, stop photography? and then there is double exposure. Most of what I learned was on a Minolta srT200. Thats why I got the D70, atleast this way I'm not burning through 35mm film right?

tevo · Nov 19, 2011

mikk said:
Money's not an issue. I just dont like spending it on the wrong thing. I'm getting back into photography after I got my dads Minolta 35mm camera and am starting to remember what he was teaching me. He was a Navy SeaBee and did alot of photography while in Vietnam. So from what I remember is that a prime lens with a lower F-stop number gives a crisper picture with a better DOF correct? So I was thinking of getting a good prime lens, say Nikkor 28mm f/1.8 for the closer action pictures. There is alot of shading where we shoot and I figured with a "faster" lens we could get better results.
Right now I'm waiting until after christmas to get a D7000 body. I know that getting good glass is the next step, unfortunately my dads lessons were 30 years ago so I forgot most of the good stuf. mabe. I vaguely remember how to do macro slo-motion, stop photography? and then there is double exposure. Most of what I learned was on a Minolta srT200. Thats why I got the D70, atleast this way I'm not burning through 35mm film right?

Proper lighting results are reliant on camera settings, not lens. A wide aperture allows more light to enter, but that just helps you determine settings on the camera.

mikk · Nov 19, 2011

@tevo, thanks I'm starting to remember more and more. So I could use my camera in AP mode and stil work with my 18-55, I think.
Here is a pic using the Quantaray 70-300, auto settings, manual focus. Distance from subject was about 150 feet.
Mik Klingelhaggen's Photos | Facebook

I would like to have the picture taken at a closer range but have a wider field of view.

Ballistics · Nov 19, 2011

tevo said:
Proper lighting results are reliant on camera settings, not lens. A wide aperture allows more light to enter, but that just helps you determine settings on the camera.

This is wrong. The lens has every bit to do with proper exposure. The aperture is apart of the exposure triangle.

tevo · Nov 19, 2011

mikk said:
@tevo, thanks I'm starting to remember more and more. So I could use my camera in AP mode and stil work with my 18-55, I think.
Here is a pic using the Quantaray 70-300, auto settings, manual focus. Distance from subject was about 150 feet.
Mik Klingelhaggen's Photos | Facebook

I would like to have the picture taken at a closer range but have a wider field of view.

Then you need a wide angle - prepare to spend lots of 0's. Investigate "exposure triangle", learn how to properly shoot your photos (eliminate that blur you are seeing), before you choose another lens.

mikk · Nov 19, 2011

So a prime lens with a low f-stop # alows more lumens and a better dof at faster shutter speeds in lower light situations right? My blurring issue is with an incorrect aperature/total lens focal point correct? If I'm past aperature to total lens focal point I will get blurring of a moving object due to insufficent light at AP/shutter speed?

Ballistics · Nov 19, 2011

mikk said:
So a prime lens with a low f-stop # alows more lumens and a better dof at faster shutter speeds in lower light situations right? My blurring issue is with an incorrect aperature/total lens focal point correct? If I'm past aperature to total lens focal point I will get blurring of a moving object due to insufficent light at AP/shutter speed?

Blurring comes from a slower than necessary shutter speed. If you have a prime lens with a large aperture (f/1.8) you are able to increase the shutter speed with out having to increase the ISO. So yes, a wider aperture allows more light in and enables a very shallow DOF.

Ballistics · Nov 19, 2011

Blurring also can come from a lack of light. Hence why you can get stop action photography @ 1/200 with a flash.

MTVision · Nov 19, 2011

A low f# gives a shallower DOF but say you buy the 2.8 - the shots aren't going to be that great at 2.8. Lenses don't perform their best when shot wide open like that. In low lighting, even with the lens opened wide to say 1.4, you still might not get a shutter speed that is fast enough for a handheld shot. Plus, the chances of you missing focus and having a blurry shot wide open are pretty high. You can boost your ISO to get your shutter speed a little faster but probably not fast enough for what you need. Flash does stop motion (if I'm not mistaken) so a speedlight would help. You can't shoot with a shutter speed higher than 1/200 with a flash but that doesn't really matter since flash stops motion.

So you want a lens that gets closer to the subject but with a wider view? I thought in your original post you said that there was a lot of surrounding shadows and trees and fast movements so you get blurry pictures.....If thats the case wouldn't you want a narrower field of view to eliminate all the excess junk?

The kit lens you have, 18-55 is a great lens. It's cheap but it gets the job done and if its not a low light shot then it should be perfect. My advice is still to try out the lens you have at different focal lengths to see what works for you. And to learn about the exposure triangle (or refresh) because a new lens won't make everything come out better. If you have blurry photos with the kit lens you'll more than likely have blurry photos with a new lens.

If you are shooting motion shoots then I would think shutter priority would work better or manual. On aperture priority the camera controls the shutter speed and if you're wrapped up in what you are doing you may not notice that your shutter speed has dropped to low to get a decent shot.

If money isn't an issue invest in a flash too. The sb-700 is awesome.