• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

Lens for Nikon D3100

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.
Pierre3400

Pierre3400

annnnnnd it's gone
​
Joined
May 15, 2010
Location
Euroland, Denmark
Hello guys,

Right, well i finally drop the dough and bought a DSLR camera. Nikon D3100, slighly used, but looks like new, not a scratch on it.

Came with 18-55 lense, but my friends has the same camera and recommended i get a Tamron 18-200.

I found one one "used" called up the guy, he use to sell them, and has a few left, so its brand new, and decent price.

Any tips for me? He also has a 28-300 same price. I can only afford one, but what should i be looking at buying?
 
Last edited:
The stock lens is good considering the price. I suggest getting others to supplement it.

For long range, I had the Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6, which is an excellent lens for the price. I think I paid just over $300 for it.

What are you wanting to take photos of?
 
Play with it for a bit to get a feel for what you want/need. Flash would be a good idea if you will take pictures indoors, macro lenses/tubes if you are doing very close-up shots, filters depending on what you are doing, etc.

Be sure to check out our main photography thread, as well!
 
I have been playing around with the camera now. My question for now is, what is "ISO sensitivity" Starts at 100 and goes up?
 
I have the Nikon 18-200 and like it a lot too.

Add my vote for a short lens. You should try one of you have a friend who will loan you one. For things like car shows, it can be great for getting close enough to your subject to isolate it from everything around it. Step back to frame something with a longer lens and you'll have the crowd walking between you and what you want to shoot. There are other situations such as landscapes and sunsets where it can be useful (though you can also capture a wider scene using panorama tools.) I have a 12-24 and use that quite a bit.
 
I was out today at a car meet, my 18-200 is a manual Tamron, works really great, only two or three pictures where crap. My biggest enemy was shadows really.
 
If you're going to photograph cars a lot then I highly suggest a circular polarizer :thup:
 
For PC, cars and holiday stuff, you might want to take a look at the Sigma 17-55mm F/2.8. Also when looking things up for search or reviews, stay away from a guy named Ken Rockwell. When I bought my Nikon D7100 I was reading his review of it. According to him I should be shooting at JPG basic, which wouldn't be doing this camera justice.
 
Heh...Ken Rockwell is very much maligned. He is one opinionated guy. For the beginner his camera reviews are actually easy reads, but he does have some very strange opinions (like using the basic jpeg setting, and the fact that he shoots almost everything with saturation cranked WAY up). If you start to read his reviews though, you'll notice a lot of copying/pasting; for instance, in the ergonomics section of lens reviews I can't tell you how many times I've seen '...are perfect, just shoot. I wish everything was this good'. If something is bad, he'll call it out, but read him with a grain of salt.
 
Agree with Hokie about beginners, he has some fast answers. I actually did a four day photo workshop with him in Yosemite, and I was not too surprised to find out he's kindofan ***.
 
When shopping for lenses, DxOMark is the first place I go. They're the ones who write the algorithms for lens correction (there are a couple others, but it appears that adobe is starting to use them for lightroom now), so they should know. It's a pretty technical site, and low "fluff". The great thing about their site is it's pretty easy to choose your camera (or a model very similar) and see how different lenses perform, and compare them. There are a few caveats, though. It takes a little bit of digging to understand how they arrive at their numbers, and it might not be how you would expect. For instance, most of their testing is done wide open and in low light. Their reasoning is because it's very important to photographers, which it is. However, that skews the results a bit. An f/1.4 lens is going to end up with a higher score than an f/4 lens most every time. As long as you take the time to understand how the testing is done, and compare similar lenses, it's a great resource.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

knoober
What is the best OS for televisions?
Replies
12
Views
560
knoober
knoober
Vishera
Looking for an office chair for heavyset people.
Replies
5
Views
275
Nebulous
Nebulous
Kenrou
How normal is it that a monitor can do a higher resolution than it's advertised?
Replies
17
Views
578
Kenrou
Kenrou
magellan
Replacement LCD for ancient DVR system?
Replies
12
Views
810
Celeron_Phreak
Celeron_Phreak
mackerel
X299 and 7980XE in 2024
2 3 4 5
Replies
93
Views
3K
freeagent
freeagent
Back