Which budget lense for nikon d50?
 

Hello,

Im looking for advice on a cheap, good lense for the nikob d50.

Ive got the standard 18-55mm but want a lense with better zoom

I want to capture life on the river thames and the people that work on the boats. Id like to achieve natural shots taken from the shore or londons bridges.

To do this i need a lense to be able to zoom into passing boats and people onboard.

Thanks in advance

Its probably a good idea to give some idea of your actual budget £££ here.

Recognise that some of the cheap long range zooms are not particularly great performers optically. So an idea of your expectations in terms of image quality will also have relevance.

Don

As i've never bought a lense before, im not too sure on the costs involved. I would like to get a reasonable lense for a good price. Any recommendations would be great.

OK Ben, put it this way...... What's the biggest cost you're prepared to spend on this purchase? How much can you really afford? It's all a bit of an open ended question until we've pinned this down. A lens can cost anything from £50 to £1,000, or more. You say you want a good cheap lens. These properties tend to be mutually exclusive, so until we've got the budget sorted, it's very difficult to help.

Duncan

Hi there Ben, If you have a spare £4,000 you can get a 200-400 f4 Nikkor, or for around £200 you can get the 70-300 f4.5VR, or for under £1500 you can get a Nikon 70-200f2.8 VR or a sigma 50-500, If you want a 600mm Nikkor f4 prime then £7000, is needed. I am suggesting these lenses because if you wish to take pictures from London Bridges these are the sort of focal lengths I think you will need.

As im not really a serious photographer, paying hundreds or thousands of pounds is too much for me to consider.

I guess i would be looking at up to £150? It may seem cheap but i dont want to spend a fortune.

Hopefully theres some bargains out there. Ebay etc.

Ben, for that kind of money, I think you would be better off buying 2nd hand. See whatthere is on ebay. There should be plenty of budget 75-300 zooms for the kind of money you are looking at. If you can find one with EDO glass then it's worth paying a bit extra for that feature.

You may be able to get an older lens with very good quality glass/design but doesn't have AF or some metering modes; these would go very cheap compared to a more up to date lens. I don't know how important the latest features are to you.

Hi Ben, for that kind of money you should be able to get hold of a used 70-300 vr on eBay or you could look at a 55-200 £170 or the non vr 70-300 which comes in about £70-80. On the last you need a "tight" example - they had a lot of lens creep on some of them, but optically they were very good.

You already have many good advice here and yes you need to match your "Expectations" with "Budget" knowing your sacrifices and then the gain you will achieve.

If you are looking for one lens with all capabilities at the budget or just around it, but with some given space for image quality loss and narrower F stop, your best choice is one of those ultra wide zoom lenses made by Sigma, Tameron or likewise. These are AF. Amazing optical range including good reach at upper end of 200 or 300mm but remember image tends to get soft at extreme end especially with wide open lens. Click on the links below to see more info.

Sigma 28-300

Tamron 28 - 300 mm

Sigma 28-200 Better diaphragm, lesser zoom.

Though you may get Tamron for cheaper, I suggest Sigma for better IQ (Image Quality).
Both company have different versions in this range with different prices so if you see a significant price difference check or manufacturing date etc.

You may go very cheap and go for same or close to this range optical but in Manual focus. You can save a lot of money but you need to be good to focus manually (Not a difficult task especially considering you are far from your subjects at the bank of Theme and then your subjects are slow moving ones.

But if you really need an extra ordinary reach, with excellent IQ and then most importantly a rather deceivingly small lens that people around you would not suspect your optical reach, I suggest this one:

LINK
You will love it except has no zoom. You can always sell it back on ebay for almost what you paid unless you go too bad in biding initially.

Or if higher zooming power and AF is a must check these:

LINK This one has a Vivitar Series -1 cousin that is the best choice for IQ, if the rang looks right for you. I didn't see on on UK market of ebay but you will see one if you look for it.

Tamron has a 200-400mm that also goes cheap, if you find a copy on ebay etc.

Then again another recommend zooms from me is an older version of sigma 70-200 that is not the newer EX version but the father of that lens. This has excellent IQ, on top of very wide diaphragm i.e. F/2.8 and I have a copy of this used on my D50 with no problem (Unlike the Canon version that has compatibility problem due to older chips). You need to search for this as it is not always available but I am sure you will find it if search enough.

All my suggestions are below, at or only marginally above your proposed budget.
Remember the relation between what you pay and what you get and hopefully you will do fine with your choice. Also remember as long as the lens work, world is not reached to its end and you can easily put it back on ebay. Even if you kill it, you can still get some money back on ebay or likewise by putting it up as "Untested", "As is", "For part only" etc. So go for what ever pleases you and be sure you are not going to get married to the lens at most it is going to be your girlfriend. If it doesn't fit your gadget or expectation, always there is an easy way to dump it.

I guess the first question I might want to ask is what is your budget? Once I know that, I might be able to recommend a lens that would suit your purpose.

Ben :)