Posted
in
Digital Photography
on
23. February 2007
by Elenathewise
Hello,
I wonder if anyone can help me out here. I am looking at telephoto Nikon prime lenses. I have bought 18-200 VR which turned out quite frankly a piece of crap because it is simply not sharp! My cheapest 50 mm lens gives much better sharpness. So ok, maybe it wasn't right to expect sharpness from such a zoom. Now I just want to get - well, say, 200mm prime. Looked at the prices... Nikon 200mm f2 VR is over 4000 dollars... ouch!!!... at the same time Nikon 180mm f2.8 D (no VR) is below a 1000. It's an example, many of the lenses with same focal length have the same very wide price range. Now the questions is: do I have to pay - in this case - 3000 dollars more? What are these extra 3000 dollars buying me? How much better my picture would be compared to the one taken with the lens 3000 dollars cheaper? I hope there are people here who had a hands-on experience with this.... Of course I'd rather buy the cheaper one if it gives me the sharpness I want and no chromatic aberration, but I'd rather not waste money on the cheap one if it's not good enough.... Help anyone?
RE: Prime lenses prices and info - please help
Hi,
I don't have hands-on experience with these lenses, but since nobody else have offered their advice yet, I thought I'd chip in. I agree with your point that you can't really expect anything more than 'acceptable' at the very best from any lens that has 18-200 f3.5-5.6 written on it, in terms of sharpness, distortion and chromatic aberrations.
If you're certain that it's a prime lense rather than a zoom you need, I'm sure the Nikkor 180mm f2.8 will perform excellently.The 200mm f2 can only be described as an absolute monster of a lens, and judging from your portfolio, I really can't imagine that you would need one. You get a bit more speed, and VR to boost of course, so for action sports or wildlife photography I'm sure it's fantastic. You would also get plenty of extra weight to carry around too though, the 200mm f2 weighs in at a massive 2.9 kg, that's almost 6.5lb and almost 4 times as much as the 180mm f2.8. In terms of sharpness, I haven't looked at any reviews, but I'm fairly certain that the difference in sharpness between those two lenses, at least from f4 upwards, would be rather insignificant when used on a D200.
A zoom lens would give a lot more flexibility of course, 180 or 200mm is pretty long for portraits and the like, both the Nikkor 80-200mm f2.8 and the Sigma APO 70-200mm f2.8 would be excellent zoom-lens options, at only a slightly higher price than the 180mm.
Posted: 27. Feb 2007 by gudmund
RE: Prime lenses prices and info - please help
The Nikkor 180mm f2.8 (along with lots and lots of other lenses) is reviewed on Fred Miranda's website, always an excellent place to look for user reviews and feedback if you're planning on buying a new lens:
www.fredmiranda.com
www.photozone.de is pretty good too, and often posts sample pictures taken with the lenses in question.
Posted: 27. Feb 2007 by gudmund
RE: Prime lenses prices and info - please help
Thanks a lot guys for thorough replies! It does help a lot. Useful links, too! No I don't do much of wildlife or sports photography and yes carrying 3 kilos of a lens doesn't sound like much fun (yes I am metric despite living in Canada which is supposed to be metric but in reality they still use pounds which is a pain for me:))
As of today I am a proud owner of a Nikkor 70-200 f2.8 VR... haven't had a chance to test it yet but judging by reviews it is a nice "piece of glass" as they say... :) I have high hopes for it. A bit big to my taste but then i do need to build some arm strength:)
Thanks again! This was very helpful.
Posted: 28. Feb 2007 by Elenathewise
RE: Prime lenses prices and info - please help
oops sorry didn't realize it was the same person replying - well all the thanks go just to you then, gudmund ...:)
Posted: 28. Feb 2007 by Elenathewise
RE: Prime lenses prices and info - please help
good choice...very good choice...
can't see an 'envy' emoticon, well, here's a green one at least: :sick:
Posted: 1. Mar 2007 by gudmund
RE: Prime lenses prices and info - please help
I don't usually stray much from the lenses I already have, and so my experience is limited. But THE best I've ever had was the 50mm I had on my (face turning red) Seagul SLR, conversely, the worst was the soligor zoom I had for it. It seems to me, you can't get the quality with a zoom that you can with a fixed.
Posted: 2. Mar 2007 by ablyth