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Hey guys, I've got a D50 that has been collecting dust a little bit and I'd like to do something about it. I have three lenses - a Sigma 17-35 which was my favourite (but someone dropped it and now its hosed), a Nikkor 28-80 and a Nikkor 70-300. I bought them all from a friend for a cheap price, but the payoff is they're all pretty slow and a bit worn. I've also had pretty much no use for the 70-300 other than to go 'wow I can take pics of stuff really far away, but I haven't really got a use for that...' I read this blog over Christmas which seemed quite a decent breakdown of how to follow a few steps and get good photographs. However, I'm aware that my camera crops but he doesn't make a massive note about that, and lists the Canon/Nikkor 50mm lenses next to each other. Would I be better with something like this? (Nikon 35mm f/1.8 DX) instead? (it's mentioned in the comments section and has generally excellent reviews). I'm going on vacation next year to Mexico for a friends wedding, and he's asked if I can take photos of the ceremony with no expectations (but naturally I'd like to do a nice enough job, I'm better with video but I'm not lugging my PD150 with me too). Also I'd want to get nice photos of the trip too, without having to change lenses all the time. Having something I can rely on for the whole thing would be pretty great. A few other questions: While I save up for a prime, should I try keep my 28-80 at either 35/50 based on what you guys say and use that to practice with? I'm presuming it'll give me the same kind of focus/composition but just not as sharp etc Is there much difference between my D50 and the current $ equivalent camera other than the MP count? I can't say I've ever really needed shots to be bigger than 3000x2000 so just curiosity. I'm guessing with a low mm prime I might be cropping pics more? Not really an issue if I'm not printing and probably just putting on Facebook etc. Cheers!
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Apr 15, 2014 12:19
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 19:07 |
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Much appreciate the replies, looks like I'll aim for that 35mm then. Shame UK prices are so unflattering compared to the US, but I've spotted one for about $180 second hand which is a bit cheaper than Amazon at least (although I'm building up vouchers for the latter). I spotted the insane ISO levels of modern cameras, didn't realise that that was also something that went down the line. It makes my 1600 top end look a bit feeble! I've always been happy with the body though, and given that I don't have enough excuses to drag the camera out that often I'll probably stick with it for some time yet. Good idea with regards to the EXIF data, I should definitely look through it on my old vacation photos. I know I tend to take the 17-35mm out with my more (until it's death) and I'd often shoot at the 35mm end. I'm guessing being locked at a focal length will just mean having to change my distance on shooting, which is no issue. It's been so long since I've used the thing properly I'll essentially be learning from scratch, luckily I found my D70 shooting guide from years ago and from memory there was only a handful of things that didn't apply to my body. Thanks again!
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Apr 15, 2014 14:53
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I posted a few months ago and you guys seemed pretty up on me getting the 35 1.8 for my dusty D50. I ordered it yesterday (finally!) and it was awesome seeing the next few pages after my post being nothing but 35mm DX praise. Arrived already and enjoyed going out for a walk snapping various buildings in order to get a feel for it and learn which settings work best (mainly following the advice from here while mixing up the aperture a little to see what differences it makes. Got a fair bit of travelling to do over the next few months, really looking forward to taking a real camera out again and hopefully ending up with some nice snaps. Thanks again!
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Jul 30, 2014 16:30
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You guys steered me in a great direction before when I picked up my 35/1.8, so hoping there's a similar consensus this time around. I'm still shooting on my old D50, but it's definitely starting to show it's age and I'm thinking of upgrading the body next year. Have a few lenses, but the 35/1.8 DX is definitely my favourite as it's nice and fast. Obviously, ever single body out there will be a massive upgrade to mine, even if I buy the current level entry, but with so many current models as well as older models being available at one point (especially in the second hand market, which I'd probably purchase from) it's hard to know which would suit me best. I know I'm never going to get to pro levels, but I like to improve technique and get the most out of the things I buy. Because of this, I'm currently eyeing up the 5300 as it's the latest in that particular line, a decent jump up with regards to quality as well as being reasonable price second hand (I can buy either in the UK through MPB or the US through KEH, although if it's not a massive difference like in the case of the 5300 then I'll just buy from the UK due to convenience). Any pros/cons against buying this model versus something around a similar price point? I probably don't really need the kit lens as even though it's probably better than my similar ones, I've got a 28-35mm, a 55-80 and a 70-300 already (rough guesses as I don't have them next to me).
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Oct 31, 2014 16:55
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I love it when feedback is all the same, I'll look at saving a bit more and get a 7100 then. I did recall looking at a generated comparison between the 2 and thinking it looked better still but wasn't sure if it's age was a hindrance. Doesn't appear to be, thanks all. E: oh it must've been the 7000 I compared it to. 7100 is about a year old yeah? EL BROMANCE fucked around with this message at 19:56 on Oct 31, 2014 |
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Oct 31, 2014 19:54
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Fraction posted:Has anyone used MPB Photographic before? I'm seriously considering upgrading camera bodies (currently on nikon 3100, thinking of going to the 7000). MPB bodies even in mint condition are like half the price of anywhere else so it's very tempting! Yeah I used them within the UK and they were very good. I noticed when they have multiples of items, the one they have as the 'choice' pick doesn't always seem to be the best one so don't go for the first one in the list. I'm not sure why that is, but sometimes they'll be missing a box or a lens cap in comparison to another one at the same price and condition point (or even have ones in a slightly better condition at a little bit more money down the list). I only bought a 35mm/1.8 from them but was happy with the service, the cost and the condition of the item. Next day delivery too which is always good, think it was about £4 or £5 for my lens to be shipped which wasn't bad at all. They tend to be my 'go to' place for UK prices now.
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Dec 5, 2014 11:57
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I've always been under the impression that if you're already invested in a camera system, then changing to another probably isn't worthwhile. Unless you hate the way you operate your 7D?
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Feb 25, 2015 01:41
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McCoy Pauley posted:Neat. I wonder how much that will push down D7100 prices. I don't think we're alone in that boat. Unless you were someone who didn't want a 7100 due to the frame buffer problems, there doesn't seem to be a *huge* amount on first inspection to grab a 7200 at full price rather than a heavily discounted or second hand 7100, or am I missing something?
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Mar 2, 2015 14:39
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Yeah I'm totally going to be relying on someone into sports photography who sees that new frame buffer fix and knows they need the new one. If I can get a s/h 7100 when I'm in the US, then that's going to be some serious savings compared to me buying over here.
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Mar 2, 2015 19:34
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Has the price of the 7100 second hand moved on KEH yet or is it going to take a bit of time? I'm on vacation in a few weeks and I'm so tempted to upgrade, but the pricing is still out of reach at $700~ second hand. Making me consider the 7000 again... argh drat you Nikon and your slight upgradings! e: also just to check - are the battery chargers they use now the same as when I bought my D50? And if not, do they at least have the 'figure of 8' connector still? I'm likely to be buying from the US but I live in the UK and don't like using universal plugs on things if I can avoid it. EL BROMANCE fucked around with this message at 14:01 on Mar 24, 2015 |
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Mar 24, 2015 13:47
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VelociBacon posted:The charger for my d7k is different from my d200 charger. I expect the d50 one is different too. Does it have this connector for the power cable? That's the most important thing to me.  TouchyMcFeely posted:Things don't seem to have moved yet. Like you said, KEH is still in the $700 range and so is the used section of Amazon. It's a similar path to the 7000->7100, does anyone remember the kind of speed/pricing difference that happened then? What's KEHs delivery speeds like? I'm kind of used to being on my tiny island where you can 1-day (or even same-day some stuff) pretty much anything. I don't know where KEH is based and their proximity from Florida, where I'd have it shipped. Happy to wait until last minute if it makes a difference!
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Mar 24, 2015 15:23
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Thanks for the shipping advice. With regards to MPB - I've used them before and found them excellent, so I'd definitely use them again. I'm trying to work out what the final price for the 7100 on KEH is, but it's being a bit tricky and wanting card details and the like which I'm a bit hesitant to give unless I was going ahead with the purchase now. Before taxes it's $754 including shipping, MPB final including shipping is $880 which is a fair difference atm (the exchange rate right now is TERRIBLE mind so it's hard to do a real value comparison - and my girlfriend said she'd buy it for me as a present and she's US so it would make sense to have it delivered to her). But yeah, it's not obvious which to go for really... getting the package delivered to the US or UK doesn't really make much difference to me right now. Maybe one of the sites will move faster than the other and that'll make a decision easier. MPB show you the shutter count which I like, shame KEH don't do that. Sometimes there's a camera at the same price/condition point but with many thousands of shutter clicks difference.
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Mar 24, 2015 17:11
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Not a huge amount then, thanks for the clarification - the US tax system and it's multiple levels consistently confuses me. My girlfriend likes it when she's here because the prices in the shops are what she has to pay when she gets to the till. I think we should appreciate it more (except the fact those prices have 20% tax already on them, that part - not so fun!). I've put an enquiry in with MPB if they'd accept a US card and a UK address as that'd make it the easiest. I'd pay the difference to my gf and everyone's a winner I think!
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Mar 24, 2015 17:29
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MPB are British, so there'd be no sales tax or anything like to worry about. However, I spoke to them and they're not set up to take non-EU cards and ship to a UK address. I could still do it through them, but means clearing my CC (which I plan to anyway in the next week) and then find an easy way for my gf to send the funds (but given we're on vacation next month means she could just pay for everything up to that value I guess). Complicated... hence I've put all the prices / details into a spreadsheet so I don't go mad!
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Mar 24, 2015 19:28
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Welp, that escalated quickly... I get to join the 'Least Competent with Latest Equipment' crew at least...
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Mar 25, 2015 17:36
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Kenshin posted:
Haha I really hope they sort that out as yeah, I shoot RAW+JPEG. I'll just catalog my JPEGs and backup my RAWs until Lightroom gets the update. evil_bunnY posted:They've changed but your power cable will work Thanks for confirmation, however see 2 posts above 
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Mar 25, 2015 18:03
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Legdiian posted:Am I the only person that loves and uses Auto ISO 99% of the time? Now I have a camera that has a good ISO range, yes - I love Auto ISO. And Easy ISO (because I'm happy in M mode where it doesn't change how my dials work and I constantly get an ISO reading in my eye sight). The only thing I don't like about Auto ISO, and there are workarounds but I think I'll just turn it off in these circumstances, is if you use a flash. It'll meter way higher ISO than you're expecting. Like, it'll top me out at 6400 which isn't ideal when you know you'll be flooding the scene with light.
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Apr 4, 2015 00:47
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Are there many compelling reasons not to use it? It's easily overridden and all it's doing is balancing the triangle based on the 2 points you're providing to give you a calculated 'correct' exposure. The amount of times on my old camera I thought I was having a good shoot, just to find I was pointlessly creating noisy images because the last time I set the ISO it was in bad lighting.
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Apr 4, 2015 16:58
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Mega Comrade posted:Using auto iso seems like madness to me but I'm coming from the D80 which has unusable noise levels above iso 800. Same reason I didn't used to use it - D50 and same ISO level really. Went to 1600 if I really, really had to but the noise was too much for most shots. Didn't seem much point having an Auto between 100-800. Now I can go up to 3200 or 6400 without worrying too much... 404notfound posted:It kind of annoys me that the D7000 can't turn auto ISO on or off without going into the menus. There's already a dedicated ISO button and the secondary dial doesn't do anything when it's pressed down. Seems like a missed opportunity. Probably something they could fix in firmware, but hey the 7100/7200 fixed this so it's something to put on a spec list I guess.
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Apr 4, 2015 21:06
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I think this is going to be one of those 'yes, just do it' answers, but just to be sure - I should totally get that Tamron 70-300mm (new) over the Nikkor 85mm 1.8G or D (second hand), which is about the same price.. yeah? I already have a 70-300, but it's the most basic Nikkor plastic AF non-VR model ever. I like shooting primes, but ugh it's hard to justify spending the same amount just to gain 2 stops, which I'd kind of gain back in the VR sense anyway. This is an easy one, yeah? I hope so.
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May 7, 2015 14:27
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That's fair, the problem is I don't specialise in anything in particular otherwise I think it wouldn't even be a question. I like to take photos socially, and found I liked using my 70-300 as a candid portrait lens at a recent wedding, as getting natural shots of people just conversing was a lot of fun. I used a decent range of the lens for that, but I had plenty of light to play with so aperture/minimum shutter wasn't too much of a problem. I found on a recent trip I used a fair range of my lenses - my 35mm prime for general purpose and landscape, my 17-35mm* when we were on a catamaran and I had no distance to play with as well as some other landscape stuff, and the 70-300 for the wedding shots as above. I also had time to squeeze the 50mm into play for a small period, I think the only lens I didn't use was my 28-80 but it was ready and mounted for a walk I didn't end up going on. I'm trying to get out of using the aperture as open as I can for now, as I don't think I'm at the skill level to get the best results with such low depth of field. Half the time I'm using a wide aperture due to lack of light and trying to keep shutter/ISO levels bearable. I'm sure GAS means I want both lenses, and I would find uses for them both, but I think the zoom is going to be more useful for me right now. Next trip I'm on (when I sadly won't have any new lenses), I'm going to try go to a baseball game or something as my gfs brother in law is a referee for various sports, so a long range would be fun on that. e: I've not got any VR lenses at the moment, but am super keen to try one as I think my jittery, caffeine fueled nature is stopping me from using my lenses at the usual minimum recommended shutter speed. Either that or I have a back focussing problem, which I'll do the tests for but I'm not convinced it's the camera. It's usually me in these things. EL BROMANCE fucked around with this message at 15:17 on May 7, 2015 |
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May 7, 2015 15:13
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Gstu posted:
Generally a bad sign of their prices are so different to b&h, who are generally the benchmark. I'm suspicious that they refer to themselves as Closeout while the domain is Closeouts, and the only review site I found said established 2015 while they claim 29 years. The reviews (only 4) smelt like they could've been bought. Also, is it worth selling your 50? The going rate here isn't high, and I think I'll keep mine (or pass down) to use in situations where I don't want to take my new body out. My sensor definitely needs a proper clean and the pop up flash is a bit sticky which doesn't help, but even without those issues it's not as if I could buy much with the proceeds. Always good to have a backup.
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May 18, 2015 01:51
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There are guides out there, and I tried to clean it myself carefully use a clean brush and doing it the best I could just to see, but I think mines got 9 years of buildup on it that probably needs a service. At least it's less noticeable on wider apertures and I heal/clone the marks out with lightroom.
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May 18, 2015 17:05
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If I want to test the AF fine tune on my d7200, the live view autofocus should be the gold standard to compare against yeah? Ie because it uses a different AF system, changing the amount won't affect it?
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May 27, 2015 21:30
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The original Nikon 18-55 VR kit lens is pretty well liked yeah? I don't think my cheapy Sigma 17-35 is going to last much longer as it's always been a bit iffy and there's something rattling around in it, and someone local has this lens up for about half the Amazon new price for here. My shaky hands like the idea of having VR even at a lower focal length, and nice to have a little more zoom lens. A decent enough pickup?
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Jun 5, 2015 01:10
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I think I'll grab it. I checked my 17-35 and it's f2.8 so it's a liiiiittle bit faster but the VR should nullify that anyway. I'll throw him an email now. It seems to be my 'thing' where I try and buy up every low cost, but good value lens going.
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Jun 5, 2015 13:32
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Already have the 35/1.8 and the 50/1.8, will end up getting the higher up ones too and replace my 70-300 with something less low-end in the future. Need to take the 35mm back out as I've not been that happy with the shots I've gotten from it on my new body. Hopefully a -10 shift on the AF tuning has helped after spending some time with a focus target. At least I get the uses out of my lenses, I took 5 on a trip a month ago and the only one I didn't use was my 28-80 and I would've probably used that if I'd gone out one more day.
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Jun 5, 2015 17:13
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Exactly, I'll use my camera bag as my carry on luggage and stuff it to the brim with stuff I think I'll want to use over a whole trip, then take one or two out with me on each particular thing I'm doing. I'm not someone who is particularly good at any one given type of photography, but I like snapping in lots of different circumstances. I do dig primes for the speed, sharpness and value you get from them but its not always convenient, and when I'm on a boat it's definitely a time a wide angle zoom is far easier to handle!
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Jun 5, 2015 17:37
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I think it does, and it is - the mobile app only let's you focus and take a shot too. I wondered why it was so limited, until I spotted a $600 wireless remote that Nikon make. Suddenly it made complete sense.
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Jun 8, 2015 00:19
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Musket posted:Also, any news about a d500 yet? Musket posted:That or wait for the D500. You're trying to make people grind their teeth into dust, aren't you.
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Jun 18, 2015 09:28
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I love mine, if that helps. My girlfriend convinced me to get it over the 7100 and even though I've only benefitted from its extra features on one shoot (and I use the wifi a fair bit), I'm glad I listened.
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Jun 18, 2015 12:37
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Yeah I want that Tamron 70-300 at some point to replace my cheapy Nikkor AFS one.
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Jun 28, 2015 18:54
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Usually I take a stack of lenses on vacation and find I use them all/most, but since buying the cheap 18-55 kit I find its all I take out most days. I feel dirty.
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Jul 8, 2015 00:25
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Can you get good deals at airports in the U.S.? I needed my 7200 before I went away, but I saw it about $300 cheaper than UK in Heathrow last week.
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Jul 8, 2015 19:06
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Yeah I wish it was the 85 and 105 they decided to put out first. The 35 and 50 are cheap enough as it is.
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Jul 10, 2015 21:27
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McCoy Pauley posted:It is known that they're going to make versions of the 85 and 105? Sorry presumption on my part, I've only seen the 35 and 50 listed.
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Jul 11, 2015 02:55
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KEH don't seem to have any listings for a second hand 600 at the moment, but looking at eBay completed it seems fair. But probably worth talking down $100 so they get an easy sale from someone whose not going to be a pain in the rear end afterwards. Whether you want to upgrade to FF from your 7000 depends on what you want. The 600 gives you cheaper wide angles due to no crop factor, and it's got better ISO levels due to the larger sensor. Do these things inhibit you at the moment or don't they matter? If you have the money to buy in FF without selling a DX body though, means you have that choice when you go out shooting, and it's never a bad thing to have a choice of good bodies, but if you don't find a need for that model it's definitely a harder decision.
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Jul 17, 2015 00:06
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I'm interested in that new 16-80mm DX, but the only two reviews I've spotted are Rockwell's which isn't particularly useful, and one in Czech which is only slightly more helpful. Any particularly good sites to keep an eye on who get fast but good feedback on new releases? Or just wait for feedback on DPreview? It's a lot of money, but it sounds like the ideal walk about (if only it was a fixed 2.8 but it's expensive enough without that).
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Jul 30, 2015 12:53
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That's exactly why I'm keen to read feedback, I want a comparison especially to that 17-55, as anything I buy in this range would be replacing my 17-55 kit that I recently picked up and dig. The extra reach on that 80mm is quite useful and the new lens is saying 4 stops of VR (and I feel like a caffeine riddled jittery shooter even at low focal ranges) which might be to my advantage... but yeah, I won't be pointlessly splurging out cash on a lens just because it's the latest thing out there so quality feedback is what I'm waiting for.
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Jul 30, 2015 13:28
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 19:07 |
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That's the boat I'm in. If the evidence isn't there to say why this lens is worth the extra money, I won't be buying it. I don't have the cash to throw away aimlessly, and I try to buy S/H whenever I can. It's definitely a lot of money given from what I can tell, it's the same quality of build as the rest of the DX line (i.e. fine but nothing special). I think this will end in no purchase, but it's definitely a lens that's intrigued me so it's worth looking into.
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Jul 30, 2015 15:09
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