Yet Another Lense help thread

[gazamc]

Hello. For christmas i recieved my first Film SLR camera (a Nikon F55) it came with a simple 28-100mm nikkor 'G' zoom. Im interested in buying a lense that can kind of compliment the lense i already have allowing me to pretty much try my hand at everything (landscape, people, architecture ect.) so far ive been reccomended a 28mm Wideangle or a 50mm standard lense.

Now i would like your opinions, i dont have alot to spend (around £100-£200) and i have very little idea what the 'apeture' and random numbers mean .

Any help will be hugely appricated.

[Ah Pao]

50mm is a good choice as your next investment, as most primes have larger apertures, meaning small 'f' numbers. The Nikkor range should have a 50mm f1.8 version which is affordable and good in quality that you can consider.

The large aperture allows more light to go in and thus good for low-light situations without flash. 50mm lens have around the same view of vision of human eyes, so everything looks "normal" and without distortion. Good for portraits and general photography.

[gazamc]

thanks so much, exactly the kind of reply i was after.

I have narrowed it down to these,

http://www.cameraworld.co.uk/displayProduct1.asp

Does a 0.4 change in aperture justify a £100 jump in price?

[mervlam]

Originally Posted by gazamc thanks so much, exactly the kind of reply i was after. I have narrowed it down to these, http://www.cameraworld.co.uk/displayProduct1.asp Does a 0.4 change in aperture justify a £100 jump in price?

that's the reason behind understanding aperture, f numbers and f-stops.

the aperture refer to the size of the hole the diaphargm of the lens makes.

f numbers refers to a specfic size of the hole mentioned above. f numbers usually runs as follows:
(in full f-stops) f/1.0, 1.4, 2.0, 2.8, 4.0, 5.6, 8.0, 11, 16, 22, 32
they are roughly multiples of the square root of 2 (because we are dealing with area here.)
you will realise that there are other f numbers in between. that's because most AF cameras give you the abilty to choose apertures in half stops, hence f-numbers can run as follows:
(in half f-stops) f/1.0, 1.2, 1.4, 1.8, 2.0, 2.5, 2.8, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 5.6, 6.7, 8.0, 9.6, 11, 13, 16, 19, 22, 27, 32

to summarize, one f-stop down means you lessen the amount of light reaching the film plane by half. vice versa, one f-stop up means you double the amount of light.

as for your question, "a 0.4 change in aperture", let's look at a typical example. a 50mm f/1.4 lens and a 50mm f/1.8 lens. that's a difference of half a stop. but don't overlook the quality of the optics and the build of the lenses.

[gazamc]

thank you! Very helpful post there, although still having minor difficulty understanding aperture but im sure i will pick it up as i go along.

Reading through more posts, i have found that the cheaper f1.8 provides better optical quality, and at half the price thats fine by me!

Again thanks for the help, nice to have found a helpful community that can help me, new and interested, in picking correct equiptment!

[nihraguk]

dpreview.com has a glossary that has been very helpful for learning about aperture, shutter speed etc -- it's also helping me find my way around as a newcomer to photography.