The
next thing that a camera needs is a good lens (for those of you that do not
know, when you buy a SLR (digital or 35 mm) there usually is not a lens with
the camera body, this allows you to pick the lens that you want. SLR's allow
for interchangeable lenses, which means that the best lens for a given circumstance
can be used, but it also means that you can spend a lot more money on accessories.
I decided to start out with a basic 2-lens starter kit from Sigma. There is
a good close range Lens that covers the 28-80mm focal range (the larger the
number, the higher the magnification). Also in the kit was a 70-300 telephoto
zoom Lens This is good for hitting those target s a little further away. These
two lenses are decent for starting out, but they are slow to focus and the image
quality is not as good. All the pictures that I took with my Nikon from Jan
1,2004 - June 1,2004 were with one of these two lenses. That is when I added
a new lens to my bag.
Now
it is time to get into the more serious toys. I decided that I was really getting
interested into photography so I wanted top spend a little money and get some
better lenses. One of the first ones is the Nikon
50mm F/1.8 D . What this translates into is, this is a lens that has a fixed
focal range (50mm) which means that it can not zoom in or out. The F/1.8 means
that it can open the lens very wide to let a lot of light in, thus allowing
for fast photography. Now, someone who does not know might ask, why get a fixed
lens? Simply put, every piece of glass between the camera body and the subject
adds distortion. This lens is made up of only three pieces of glass, thus there
is not a lot of distortion. A lot of zoom lenses have at least 10 pieces of
glass or more. The end result is a lens that is fast and takes very good pictures
with little distortion. That is why I got this lens.
The
other lens that I got at this point was the Nikon
24-120mm f/3.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S VR Zoom. That is one long name, but basically
it is a good close range lens (24-120mm). The speed of the lens is not that
great, it is a slower Lens for this given focal range. The ED glass means that
Nikon put some really good glass in the lens to help reduce distortion. The
important part is the VR, which means that it is a Vibration Reduction. There
are motors in the lens that help keep the target of the picture steady even
when the person taking the picture can not hold the camera steady, which is
referred to as Camera Shake. Usually this means that a picture needs to be taken
at a high enough speed so that the camera shake is not noticeable. With the
VR, the lens reduces that shake, thus allowing for a longer exposure to be used
by the person taking the picture. This helps me a lot since I do not have a
really steady camera hand yet.
At
the same time as we got the N75, we got another lens for the cameras. We got
the Sigma
105mm Macro lens. This is good Macro lens for taking close up pictures,
at 1 foot, it can produce an 1 to 1 image, that means something that is 1 inch
in real life fills up 1 inch of the film (or digital sensor). We both can not
wait till we can start taking pictures of flowers, bugs, and other great small
things that are only captured well with a Macro Lens. One other note with this
lens, is that it is also a really good lens for things that need to be shot
farther away than a foot from the camera. I am excited about using this new
lens and hope to get some great pictures posted very soon.
After
a long time with no new lenses, I was finally able to get one. This time I choose
the Sigma
12-24. This is a nice lens by Sigma that offers a wide angle for Digital
camera bodies like the D100. The equivelent focal length would be about an 18mm
lens on a regular 35mm camera body. The first shots I took with it showed how
wide of an angle this was, I could sit on the couch and get the entire wall
across the romm from me, from top to bottom and left to right. I have not gotten
a chance to play around with this lens enough yet, but I am looking forward
to it. One of the main reasons that Cindy and I decided on this lens was the
great wide angle and how it can be used during our honeymoon to take great pictures
of the buildings and landscapes around us. Look forward to seeing some great
pictures form this lens to come.
