Hi guys, I've been getting some good use out of my Nikon D3000 and I've become involved with a local football club taking some photos for them and the team seem to be pretty happy with the shots I've been taking however given that I'm just a hobbyist amateur with no real photography background, looking into the world of lenses is quite a big step and more so when you consider the prices for lenses, so with all that being said, I'm wondering if anyone could possibly give me some info/pointers on where and at what I should be looking.
A little more background, I'm watching the football while on the touchline so I'm fairly close to the action however I've quickly found the limitations of my current standard lens, the AF-S Nikkor 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6G lens. While the action is close by, the photos are very good and do look great but anything further into the distance I'm only able to take wide shots and the DoF potential is very limited.
Now looking at new lenses on amazon, I'm eyeing https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003ZSHNCC/ ... B00RUBK53Y but I'm not sure if it's compatible but the lens itself looks like it'd be very versatile which would give me a good range of uses.
Now the main thing for me is, as I'm just a hobbyist, I can't really buy many lenses just for one subject each so the versatility will be ideal and of course I can't throw money at a lens either so I'd have to get the best value possible.
I'd really appreciate any advice and help you guys could provide (also I wasn't sure if this is the right subforum so sorry if it isn't).
Thanks
RMD: Lenses
Re: RMD: Lenses
The benefit of Nikon is you can use all their lenses so can always try some old classics on ebay quite reasonably, or even score in charity shops.
That 55-300 is pretty good. It's auto focus isn't the fastest - I tried a few when I had the d3000 and ended up with the Nikon 70-300 VR ED which is absolutely cracking but probably another £100.
You issue with sports is you'll lose the close-up action. As you have the 18-55, unless you are at 55 all the time you'll end up wanting to swap lenses quickly which gets to be a chore pretty soon and you definitely don't want to be in the game of sensor cleaning, which is what happens. I'd honestly recommend 2 bodies. If you're happy with yours you can get another d3000 body only on ebay for about £40 and get the 55-300. You're covered then.
What ever, don't get a tamron zoom. They are horrible. Sigma are pretty solid. Just make sure you get a Vibration Reduction / Image Stabilization variety. A monopod is very handy too.
It's a slippery slope, and by even considering a new lens you are doomed. I've at least settled on mine.
d5100 and a d7100 bodies. Lenses are a Sigma 10-20, Nikon 18-105, Nikon 70-300 and a Nikon prime 35mm 1:8 - I can at least pretend to be pro with that lot.
Oh, and bags. Can't remember what the formula for camera bags is. I think it's 2 bags per body and 2 per additional lens. Whatever, you won't have room in the wardrobe for clothes anymore.
That 55-300 is pretty good. It's auto focus isn't the fastest - I tried a few when I had the d3000 and ended up with the Nikon 70-300 VR ED which is absolutely cracking but probably another £100.
You issue with sports is you'll lose the close-up action. As you have the 18-55, unless you are at 55 all the time you'll end up wanting to swap lenses quickly which gets to be a chore pretty soon and you definitely don't want to be in the game of sensor cleaning, which is what happens. I'd honestly recommend 2 bodies. If you're happy with yours you can get another d3000 body only on ebay for about £40 and get the 55-300. You're covered then.
What ever, don't get a tamron zoom. They are horrible. Sigma are pretty solid. Just make sure you get a Vibration Reduction / Image Stabilization variety. A monopod is very handy too.
It's a slippery slope, and by even considering a new lens you are doomed. I've at least settled on mine.
d5100 and a d7100 bodies. Lenses are a Sigma 10-20, Nikon 18-105, Nikon 70-300 and a Nikon prime 35mm 1:8 - I can at least pretend to be pro with that lot.
Oh, and bags. Can't remember what the formula for camera bags is. I think it's 2 bags per body and 2 per additional lens. Whatever, you won't have room in the wardrobe for clothes anymore.
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Re: RMD: Lenses
So I don't hijack the monthly competition, I did indeed buy the lens that I linked (55mm-300mm) in my initial post in this thread (bought it soon after I made this thread) and I have to say I've been really enjoying using it. It's given me such a great zoom range to work with and also given me more of a challenge ensuring I have the subject properly focused in the correct plane and I'm often surprised at finding that when I think I have focused correctly, I've ever so slightly focused infront or behind the subject (I will admit though, I do rely on auto-focus but it works well most of the time, the focus ring is very sensitive too but it's the end result that matters right?), there is so much range! But not only that, ensuring I've also framed the photo correctly I've found when zoomed in to a subject, it's easy to cut off a portion of the subject by not looking through the view finder correctly or not panning with the subject in time etc.
As a way to develop my photography, I've also been using my camera to take photos for a local football team , just as a hobby, and It's a lot of fun and I'm really getting a feel for it now and I'm also realising the limitations of my camera and so learning how to work around that for example, for a DSLR, it is an entry level camera that is showing it's age, with it's limited ISO range and small buffer, when I use above 800iso,a lot of noise is shown and also a fair number of dead/stuck pixels are showing up as well and during action shots, if I take photos in quick succession, I can only get upto about 4 before the camera stops responding and I have to wait for the buffer to free (I suspect the controller is slower than the memory card, I have a memory card with min write speed of 90MB/s) which forces me to time my shots and prevents me from "spray and pray".
I'll link the photos that have been uploaded to the club's facebook page:-
This first album is with the kit lens (18mm-55mm) The rest of the albums have been taken with the new lens (55mm-300mm)
Finally, just a small selection that I've put up on flickr (none of these photos in this album have been edited). I don't tend to go out on random trips with the camera but I am intending to change that as well as beginning to explore playing around with manual settings (I recently toyed around writing on a wall in a dark room with a laser pen just to figure out what settings are needed to capture that).
I will also say about this particular new lens, it's brilliant for me, one thing I've always found difficult with freehand photography is keeping the camera steady, my hands aren't the best at keeping still, often fighting with myself to not be so jittery and the vibration reduction on this lens is superb.
Even though my D3000 is entry level and showing its, it's still a great piece of kit and it can produce some amazing quality photos, sure it can be noisy with high iso or can slow down with fast photography but it's a great experience to learn with, even more so now that I have a lens that allows me to explore photography in a deeper capacity.
As a way to develop my photography, I've also been using my camera to take photos for a local football team , just as a hobby, and It's a lot of fun and I'm really getting a feel for it now and I'm also realising the limitations of my camera and so learning how to work around that for example, for a DSLR, it is an entry level camera that is showing it's age, with it's limited ISO range and small buffer, when I use above 800iso,a lot of noise is shown and also a fair number of dead/stuck pixels are showing up as well and during action shots, if I take photos in quick succession, I can only get upto about 4 before the camera stops responding and I have to wait for the buffer to free (I suspect the controller is slower than the memory card, I have a memory card with min write speed of 90MB/s) which forces me to time my shots and prevents me from "spray and pray".
I'll link the photos that have been uploaded to the club's facebook page:-
This first album is with the kit lens (18mm-55mm) The rest of the albums have been taken with the new lens (55mm-300mm)
- https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 8141c2f6ec
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 8cfc53bae7
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 1f4aad53f9
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 71587532f5
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... bab9c2dc2a
Finally, just a small selection that I've put up on flickr (none of these photos in this album have been edited). I don't tend to go out on random trips with the camera but I am intending to change that as well as beginning to explore playing around with manual settings (I recently toyed around writing on a wall in a dark room with a laser pen just to figure out what settings are needed to capture that).
I will also say about this particular new lens, it's brilliant for me, one thing I've always found difficult with freehand photography is keeping the camera steady, my hands aren't the best at keeping still, often fighting with myself to not be so jittery and the vibration reduction on this lens is superb.
Even though my D3000 is entry level and showing its, it's still a great piece of kit and it can produce some amazing quality photos, sure it can be noisy with high iso or can slow down with fast photography but it's a great experience to learn with, even more so now that I have a lens that allows me to explore photography in a deeper capacity.