I will be taking a workshop with Ian Plant in November and wanted to know a little more about his work and techniques. I downloaded his e-books; Chasing the Light, Five Landscape Challenges, and 10 Easy Ways to Improve Your Landscape Compositions (if you have an interest in landscape photography I’d recommend all three of these). I noticed some of the photos, where he used a super wide-angle lens, really draw the viewer into the photo. So naturally, I’m thinking I need a super wide-angle lens.
I’ve got a Nikon D200 and I love this camera – and I’m pretty sure that it will meet my needs for a long time (I can hear you laughing out there). So an investment along the way in a few lenses seems worthwhile. So I head down to George’s Camera to do some shopping.
A quick aside here – I have found that all the sales people down at Georges are exceptional. They are photographers and just love to share information about everything to do with photography. Their pricing is good and I have found that when something costs a little more than online, I’ve felt it was worth the price for the time they took to talk me though something. They are always busy down there, but they never rush you and I’ve never had anyone try to up sell me on anything. They ask a lot of questions about what you are doing and what you expect, to be sure that you are buying what you really want, and need.
I had a list of a few other things I wanted from Georges. I picked up a remote shutter release, a two stop neutral density filter, and a step down ring so that I can buy one set of filters to fit both my lenses. I also picked up a fanny pack that was designed to hold lenses and camera equipment. There is nothing like the right tool for the job and the Think Tank Speed Freak Beltpack is exactly what I want (and don’t you just love that name?). I’m not that crazy about wearing a backpack and I didn’t want a huge fanny pack. This one will hold my zoom lens vertically for easy access (and there is still room for some other stuff).
Then we get talking about the wide-angle lenses. I’ve got an 18-70mm lens and a 70-200mm lens. I have to confess right up front I hate math. It makes my head hurt that I’m going to have to relearn, and understand, a bunch of new numbers – zoom or fixed lens sizes, the f-stop of the lens in connection to the mm you’re shooting, the speed of the lens, etc.
But Patrick is patient and I didn’t forget everything from my last lens buying experience – I feel like I’m keeping up. Because the lenses are expensive he points out that I might not want to invest in a new lens if I’m going to upgrade my camera to a full frame model soon. My camera uses the DX lenses. The full frame uses the FX lenses. I can use the FX lenses on my camera, so that seems like a good solution. That is, until I realize I won’t get the benefits of the extra wide part of the frame because of the size difference between the two camera’s sensors.
Obviously I need to make some notes and go home to do some research. Patrick gave me a catalog with a few lenses marked off so I could think about what I wanted. The DX lenses I’m looking at are the AF-S DX Nikkor 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED and the AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 12-24 f/4G IF-ED. These lenses are $900 and $1230 respectively. Way more than I was expecting, or wanting, to pay for a new lens!
Patrick also suggested that I check out a few third party lenses; the Tamron 10-24mm, the Sigma 10-20, and the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 and 12-24. I looked on Amazon because that is where I always look first for reviews and pricing. The reviews are pretty detailed and everyone seemed pretty happy with all three of these lenses compared to the Nikon lenses. The Tokina models stood out for the sharpness of the images and the quality of the lens itself. Some were critical of Nikon using so much plastic on a lens they were charging almost $1,000 for.
The next place I look is on the digital photography review website: www.dpreview.com. I like this site because the reviews are a little more technical. Once I’ve gotten up to speed on what I think I want, this is a good place to be sure.
Another aside – for those of you that really want a more detailed description of cropped and full frame, and what it means to the lenses you’re using, I found Ken Rockwell’s page, The Full Frame Advantage, offered some great detailed information.
I’m an amateur photographer, and often the level of detail that the reviewers go into on this site, is more than I need to know. But I like that someone is that picky about the details. And I find I always learn something when I take the time to read through those reviews.
Today, I’m convinced I want a Tokina lens based on my research. I don’t know which one, but I’ve narrowed down the brand that I want to test at the store. And these lenses are around $500. That’s more like what I was expecting to spend for a photography treat for myself!
Dear Reader: I’m interested in how you do things, please share!
What new lenses have you gotten and how did you make a final decision?