Elenbah Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 Hi Everyone, I am very new to the DSLR class of cameras and have only just purchased my very first.... Because I'm slow to catch on to anything technical, I've purchased the Nikon 3200 so It can teach me. LOL..... My question for everyone is, If you only wanted to mainly use one lense to cover most things, which for me would be my dogs and dog shows, (so I would need to zoom in)... which Lense would you buy??.... At the moment I have an 18-55mm and a 55-300mm that came with the camera.... Both feel a bit alien as i have just stepped up from a Canon Powershot with a 20 x zoom lense.... Thanks, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrazyCresties Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 Congrats on your first DSLR :D I would say the 55-300mm will cover a good range to start with if you want to go out and about with just one lens. The long end (300) will enable you to zoom in well at shows, but you may find the 55 is a bit too long for closer shots, but if you can get back a bit from your subject you should be fine. Have fun and take lots of shots and play with the settings to see what difference they make, don't be too afraid about taking it out of 'auto' mode. Look forward to seeing some of your shots with it :) I'm not familiar with the Nikon lenses as I have a Canon, but I'm sure a Nikon user will be along soon as well - also it's lens not lense :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elenbah Posted March 30, 2013 Author Share Posted March 30, 2013 Congrats on your first DSLR :D I would say the 55-300mm will cover a good range to start with if you want to go out and about with just one lens. The long end (300) will enable you to zoom in well at shows, but you may find the 55 is a bit too long for closer shots, but if you can get back a bit from your subject you should be fine. Have fun and take lots of shots and play with the settings to see what difference they make, don't be too afraid about taking it out of 'auto' mode. Look forward to seeing some of your shots with it :) I'm not familiar with the Nikon lenses as I have a Canon, but I'm sure a Nikon user will be along soon as well - also it's lens not lense :) Thank you for that CrazyCresties.!.... When you say get back a bit, what sort of distance are we talking about?.... I have been playing around in my own backyard (which isn't big) with both lenses and a bit confused because I could zoom in on my dogs and see them close up with my Canon Powershot but even with the 300mm lens I don't seem to be able to get that close to them, I can take a photo and crop it and it comes up lovely, which I could never do (get the same definition)but I would of thought my 300mm lens would zoom in far closer then my 20 x zoom Powershot????.... Please excuse me if I'm sounding ridiculous.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elenbah Posted March 30, 2013 Author Share Posted March 30, 2013 I'm not familiar with the Nikon kit lenses but what I would suggest if you're just starting out is to learn your camera and learn what you can get out of the lenses you have. Between the two kit lenses you are covering an excellent range of focal lengths and you will gradually find that you start to lean towards each lens for different reasons and different focal lengths within each lens. I personally wouldn't consider buying additional lenses until you know whether the ones you have can meet your needs and have more of a feel for what you specifically want. I think if you're wanting to shoot dog shows and dogs running around you'll tend to use the 55-300mm lens most of the time and switch to the smaller lens when wanting to shoot in tighter spaces. :) Sounds like pretty good advice to me Snook.! I'm taking it to our specialty show tomorrow and was just going to put it in the Guide mode, i wonder if i should just take my old camera tomorrow ans save the Nikon untill I'm more acquainted with it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elenbah Posted March 30, 2013 Author Share Posted March 30, 2013 Yes.! I guess it's like trying to break a bad habit. :laugh: I'm thinking I should get the focal zoom from the 300mm but it obviously does not work that way..... Told you I was very new to this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrazyCresties Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 Does this help? http://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/13717/how-do-i-convert-lens-mm-to-optical-zoom-times Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elenbah Posted March 30, 2013 Author Share Posted March 30, 2013 Does this help? http://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/13717/how-do-i-convert-lens-mm-to-optical-zoom-times Ah, Thank you CrazyCresties.!...I have added that to my favorites, as I have a feeling I will be visiting it many times. Good to know also that I'm not the only stupid cookie on the block (and probably won't be the last) But I think that's exactly where the confusion comes from and why they sell promote them as 20x or 40x Zoom....I just went and had a look at the lens on my Powershot and it's a 5.0-100.omm. 1:2.8-5.7USM so nowhere near what I have now. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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