| Joined: | Thu Apr 19th, 2012 |
| Location: | United Kingdom |
| Posts: | 4428 |
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Hello everyone, new person here (if the post count (if visible) didn't make it obvious. :D
I am looking to get another lens (mainly for night shooting - astrophotography (stars), maybe some moon shots (yes, I know it would need a completely different F stop range). Might also be nice for some daytime landscape photos (but my two lenses (mentioned below) do a good job with that).
I have a feeling that I might have to get two or three lenses for that (thank god I have a good bag).
Not sure if I'd want a zoom or fixed lens - fixed I would say probably somewhere lower range (25-80mm, or would something higher like 180-200mm be better (fixed zoom)? If it's not fixed in then in the same range, maybe even higher (over 300mm).
Right now I have my two kit lenses that came with my Nikon D5500 -
AF-S 18-55mm, f:3.5-5.6 GII
AF-S 55-300mm, f:4.5-5.6 GED
Autofocus is a must (yeah, that will add to the price) and vibration reduction (VR) is a plus, but I do a lot of tripod shooting w/ a wired remote.
o52 or o58 mm diameter would be great so I don't need to buy new filters (but again, not required, the ones I'd need are pretty cheap).
I'm looking for something around the $300 range but if there is something great under $600 I can maybe search around for a used lens.
Hi welcome to the forum.
With the two lense you have I would suggest you have a good focal length range for general use and you don't need to change or supplement them UNLESS/UNTIL you discover a shortcoming.
A short coming may be extreme wide angle...in which case the 10-20 Robert mentioned is a good addition. Although, two steps backwards increases your angle of view by about 5mm! So if you have space to move back... you may not NEED anything in the range 13-17mm.
Other shortcomings may be the perceived quality of these consumer zooms and their limited maximum apertures. The only answer here is to go upmarket. Go for fast primes...but you pay in $$ and deadweight for wide apertures and large glass. So you need to be very certain the choice is right for your need ....before you end up with an expensive ornament.
Which leads me to Astro photography....something I know NOTHING ABOUT! Ive taken some shots of the moon on 300mm but never ventured farther into the sky. There was one guy on the forum sometime back that specialised in this but he hasn't posted for a while.
No disrespect to my other forum colleagues*, as I know some dabble, but I would have thought asking a which lens question on an Astro web forum would be more fruitful.
*Footnote: Apologies guys if your knowledge on this subject is greater than I am aware.
EDIT.... I see Robert has answered this question on your other thread. Well done Mr Plowden.
My only recent moonshot....
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Attachment: Photo 28-09-2015 03 56 06.jpg (Downloaded 21 times)
Last edited on Tue Dec 27th, 2016 05:50 by Eric
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Eric