Yet Another Lense help thread


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gazamc

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Dec 27, 2003
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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 :embrass: :dunno: .

Any help will be hugely appricated. :thumbsup:
 

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 said:
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.
 

thank you! Very helpful post there, although still having minor difficulty understanding aperture :dunno: :D 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! :thumbsup:
 

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.
 

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