Novice seeking advice. All help appreciated...

[H4RDY]

Hi all,

I am new to photography and have a Yashica 230-AF,
with 35-70mm and 80-200mm yashica AF lenses, which i am experimenting
with in order to gain experience before buying a dSLR.

I wanted to ask whether a 400mm "telephoto" lens
would add a lot to my arsenal, what sort of photography
such a lens is most suited to and what distances it can cover.

Would it be worth splashing out up to £100 ?

The exact lense in question is a Sigma 400mm f5.6 AF lens.

Any help would be appreciated.

Much thanks

[Saphire]

Hello H4rdy, welcome to the forum.

What type of photography are you interested in, birds, landscapes, macro. etc.. This would give some indication on what lenses are suitable for the given subjects.
I am sorry but I am not much help with the Yashika you will be using so hopefully someone will come along soon who can give you some advise.

[greypoint]

The only downside I can see is that I believe - racking my memory - that Yashica have their own lens mount. If I've remembered correctly then, with the pace that digital is replacing film, if you want to sell it again in the future they might not be much of a market for it. Otherwise, make sure it's the APO version.

[H4RDY]

I know this doesnt sound fantastic but, i havent yet found
an area of photography that i want to dedicate myself to.

I will most often be taking pictures of architecture, landscapes,
any wildlife, and in urban environments. so in short what i am asking
for is a set of lenses which will cater for the widest ranges of interests.

With respects to selling in future, i didnt pay a great deal for the camera,
i got the whole set (in seperate lots) for just over £40 from ebay
and thats with 2 lenses and a flash.
I dont expect to sell it off in future, but you never know.

Thanks for all the advice so far.

[kennymc]

A 400 mm lens would help in wild life photography but you may need a fast film and/or a tripod because these big lenses are quite slow...

[yelvertoft]

H4rdy,

I would advise that you experiment with what you've got before spending any more on lenses. The two lenses you have cover the range 35-200 (albeit with a negligible gap in the middle). This is probably quite enough to get you going for the moment. Get out there, take pictures, use what you have and develop your style. As Saphire has said, it all depends on what sort of photography you want to do. Until you have gone out there and tried, you won't really know if you will need a 400mm lens. If, after a month or so's use, you find you can't get close enough to your subjects with the 200mm, then by all means, get something longer. If you are doing a lot of urban photography, you may well find that 35mm isn't wide enough to grab all you want to in the frame, in which case you may find yourself looking for something wider.

Whatever you do, as greypoint has pointed out, whatever you buy, will have negligible sell-on value once you make the switch to dSLR, so I would advise against spending too much before you have developed your own style and interests.

Regards,

Duncan

[Don Hoey]

H4rdy,

Got to agree with Duncan and Greypoint here. You have not splashed out that much so I would suggest saving for a move to digital. As you are new to photography digital offers no cost per pic taken once you have a basic camera/lens as no processing costs are involved. You would therefore find yourself taking loads more pics as a result. Dead shots are just deleted. Don't know what it costs for a film to be processed nowadays.
I am not sure if any current digital SLR's are compatible with Yashica lens mount.

In the digital world there are lots of people trading up to the latest bees knees kit, so lots of well priced used digital out there to save up for, that are still capable of great pics. The £100 saved would put you well on the way.

Don

[sassan]

H4RDY; Welcome to WPF.

I am completely agree with Don, Duncan and Greypoint.
If novice, you would actually like to do the reverse, i.e. get experience with DSLR and once becoming expert in technique then switch to EXPENSIVE film cameras. Frankly I would not think anyone does that switch once you get used to convenience and speed in having final image result with DSLR as opposed to film ones.

But to answer your question. For bird photography, 400-500mm range is a must. With unique contex/yashica mount and interest in digital cameras these days, you should be able to pick up some decent ones with decent price as a used lens. Check ebay, MF or likewise.
I suggest Quantarary lens 600-1200mm zoom, that uses a T mount which via appropriate adapter fits into any camera, probably you would be able to use it on your future DSLR. I got one of these now being used on my canon DSLRs for about $130. Glass on this is decent and price even better. There is another version of similar lens that comes as 500 with a 2x extender that I saw one on ebay in 25 sec search for yashica.

L I N K .

I am not sure of glass quality on this but should be what you are paying for.
No mater what please do not spend much because film is really too cumbersome, expensive and you will switch soon for sure. I look at film cameras only as collection items that I hold very dear especially the Nikon line or for real work only as nightmare.

On the bright side, if I am correct and pretty much I think I am right that this Yashica was the first AF SLR that introduced a manual function for "Prefocused zone shoot" that on manual you pre select a zone (By manual focusing), leave camera on and on a tripod and once a subject enters that zone, it takes a picture. Good for bird shooting if you know where but not when to expect that unexpected visitor or a surveillance function that is good for example checking who uses your office, specific room etc. I am yet to see this feature on any other camera, Of course you can always hook up an electronic trigger attached to some remote shutter release but this one is the least hassle version.

If by any chance you changed your mind and have inclination to go for DSLR, then please put up a new forum so that we may be of help or just search existing forums an you may find enough suggestions.

[H4RDY]

Thank you very very much people.

I have indeed decided to experiment with my current equipment, but am not going to invest any more money into film.

Whence i get me a dSLR i may come back and query you further.

At the moment however, it looks like im gonna get an EOS 400D body only + an 18-125 sigma for the time being (would you recommend that i got a kit then sold the kit lens or look for a body only), not to mention the tamron 90 f:2.8 MF i got off ebay for a mere £90 which i will adapt to fit the 400d.

Thanks again

[robski]

H4RDY

A review on the Sigma 18-125

http://www.photozone.de/8Reviews/len...3556/index.htm

What would concern me is the AF problem. I would test the lens before buying. The distortion and Vignetting are to be expected with a zoom of this range and price. Unless you really want a one lens solution for travelling, zooms of this type are best avoided. Too many design compromises.

The main advantage of the 400D kits lens it that it is a cheap wide angle lens(£50). For Postcard size prints the quaility is OK but does not stand up to any critical pixel peeping. If you were to resell it your be lucky to get £30 for it. So not bad for a stop gap lens until you can afford something better.

If you have the funds I would be inclined to go for something more expensive in the sigma EX range with a smaller zoom range.

see if you can find any reviews on the 24-70 F2.8 EX DG Marco for example.