Lens for my incomming D5300

ote1 · 10 Jan 2015 at 16:07

Hello,

I'm going to invest in a DSLR for myself in the next couple of weeks and have the offer of a lens from the family as a belated Christmas gift. At the moment I'm set on the Nikon D5300 - I can see myself using the WiFi quite extensively to view and back up things on my LG G3. Up 'til now I've borrowed its predecessor, the D60, and really enjoyed it. The D5300 comes with the standard 18-55mm VR kit lens but my parents have kindly offered to get me another lens as a belated Christmas gift.

Despite having used the D60 quite a lot I'm still a little bit of a 'point and shoot not knowing what you're doing' kind of 'photographer'. However, I've taken quite a keen interest in walking around Snowdonia (luckily live in the middle of it) and as such want to learn how to manipulate a camera properly and get some really good shots of the area. Thus, I'd like a lens that will be able to help me capture the local area to the best of my ability. Common sense tells me to get the camera and kit lens and learn what I really want from that first but I don't want to be cheeky and hold on to the offer.

I'm thinking a prime lens would be best. I'd be taking photographs at all kinds of times. For example I'm hoping to go up Snowdon for sunrise in the next year or two and with my current job I'm out of the house before sunrise and there are often beautiful scenes around the lakes etc. here at dawn. I drive all over Snowdonia (doing dom care) and like to keep a camera handy to stop the car and get a good picture. As I have the camera on the move, often in a bag, I'd like it to be compact, also. I took the D60 around China last March for a few weeks and the standard 18-55mm made it quite large in the bag.

One other small question: I see the D5500 has just been announced at CES. I don't see the 'new' features warranting the extra cost of the newer model, will the D5500 likely push prices further down soon? I'm looking at just over £500 for the body and kit lens.

TLDR - Spec me a lens that's fairly compact, used primarily for landscape and up to about £250 for a Nikon D5300. At present I'm interested in the Nikon 50mm F1.4G AF-S - it is very well received. I'm not sure if a shorter focal length would be best, however. There's Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G for about half the price (£130).

Edit: I'm not committed to any lens set or Nikon in particular so let me know if I'm going off on the wrong track. I've enjoyed using the Nikon but I'd be happy to use another make in order to get the best value for money.

D.P. · 10 Jan 2015 at 21:42

50mm is about the most useless focal length for landscapes and furthermore won't give you anything your kit lens doesn't do for landscape work.

I would look longer or wider. Wider is the popular choice, some kind of 10-20mm lens. But they are extremely hard to use and are more specialist. Som I would actually look for something longer, a 55-200mm )or 300mm) of some kind. The long focal length is great not only for landscapes but architecture, wildlife, portraits, street.

ote1 · 10 Jan 2015 at 21:59

D.P. said:
50mm is about the most useless focal length for landscapes and furthermore won't give you anything your kit lens doesn't do for landscape work.

I would look longer or wider. Wider is the popular choice, some kind of 10-20mm lens. But they are extremely hard to use and are more specialist. Som I would actually look for something longer, a 55-200mm )or 300mm) of some kind. The long focal length is great not only for landscapes but architecture, wildlife, portraits, street.

Cheers for the reply DP. I have been reading a lot since posting this earlier and you're right. It's only today I've really made the decision to go ahead so hadn't really read enough earlier. I'll opt for just the kit lens for the time being, I'm sure my parents will be more than happy to pay for the price of a kit lens (some £60 or so with the body) rather than any other. It'd be wasteful to spend it for the sake of it.

colinuk · 11 Jan 2015 at 11:01

You could go for a none prime like a - Nikon 17-55mm F2.8G\AF-S DX IF-ED lens. I picked one up 2nd hand for 450 euros from the local camera shop. Wide enough for some good landscapes and able to be used for walking around shots. As such - the Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4 DC OS HSM for Nikon is a good lens and I think affordable.

If it has to be a prime then you need wider than 50mm for landscapes - even with photo stitching. maybe a Nikon AF NIKKOR 28mm f/2.8D Lens would be the way to go?

Just ideas.

squerble · 11 Jan 2015 at 14:00

Don't forget that the older "D" lenses won't auto-focus on your camera, and that you've got the 1.5x crop factor to deal with, so 50mm is 'effectively' 75mm on your body, 35mm becomes 52mm etc.

The 35mm isn't too tight and you'll get some nice results - it's usually the prime most people get on the Nikon DX bodies as it is effectively a "nifty fifty". Also bear in mind that the 18-55mm kit lens you'll get is actually collapsible, so it'll be much more compact in your bag. I've seen some great landscape pictures taken with the newer kit lens, because with landscapes you're more likely to be at a higher aperture anyway, so the f/3.5-5.6 isn't much of an issue.

D.P. · 11 Jan 2015 at 16:46

colinuk said:
You could go for a none prime like a - Nikon 17-55mm F2.8G\AF-S DX IF-ED lens. I picked one up 2nd hand for 450 euros from the local camera shop. Wide enough for some good landscapes and able to be used for walking around shots. As such - the Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4 DC OS HSM for Nikon is a good lens and I think affordable.

If it has to be a prime then you need wider than 50mm for landscapes - even with photo stitching. maybe a Nikon AF NIKKOR 28mm f/2.8D Lens would be the way to go?

Just ideas.

As squeeze says, the 24mm AF -D won't autofocus and is kind of pointless when you have a kit lens.

Steve M · 12 Jan 2015 at 12:38

I've got the D5200 (same camera minus the wifi) and my 35mm f/1.8G is never off it.

It's a cracking lens.