Lens?? Nikon

At the end of the summer I will be able to buy myself a dream lens. ($2K or More) and I am at a loss as to which way to go. I could save some and buy a 200-500 5.6 as I love doing outdoor nature photography. Or I could go all out for a 70-200 2.8 with a teleconverter.. I feel that I would use the 70-200 a lot more for my Church Missions photography BUT.... I own a 70-300 4.5-5.6 so.. What to do, What to do.

By the lens for what you want to do more of, get better pictures of, or get pictures you are more likely to print.

An extra 1.5-2 stops is a lot, but if you have enough light to get by with the 70-300 in Church, then......meh. OTOH if you print those photos for folks and feel like you'd to a much better job with the f2.8, it might be more fulfilling to go that route.

My dream lens (that I have) is definitely not my most used lens. In fact, probably my most used single lens if the first non-kit lens I got, the EF24-105 f4 IS. It's an optically mediocre (for a $500+ lens), but a decent jack of all trades. Doesn't mean it is my favorite lens to use, or that if I could only have one lens I would keep that one.

Hope this helps.

This is only my humble opinion but I do not like the 70-200 F2.8 I carried one for many years as a photojournalist working for newspapers. It's just too heavy to be fun lens to carry around at all times.

If you already have the 70-300 just bump up your iso when you need too, if you want that out of focus background, honestly I believe a lot more can be accomplished by just reframing your subject in relation to the background (farther away or less distracting elements) If you truly need a faster lens then find a fast fixed focal length such as a 85 or 135 and then save

I personally would opt for saving the money and going with the big lens it is going to be much more fun to use for wildlife

Maybe the 150-600 from Tamron? Or the 70-200 from Tamron with VC? Just remember that any of the 70-200 from Nikon is a heavy lens and somewhat large too. The 200-500 is a wild life lens. Now, there is the 28-300 from Nikon with maybe good for traveling. You don't say which body you have? D7200 is nice. In my opinion, your 70-300 is good enough unless you need longer for birds and wild life beasts. And is lighter and smaller.

I have three Nikon's A D3300, D7000, D610 and right now I carry all three bodies, 5 lens, a sb-700 flash, and a bunch of batteries

ThomasDidymus wrote in post #18020078
I have three Nikon's A D3300, D7000, D610 and right now I carry all three bodies, 5 lens, a sb-700 flash, and a bunch of batteries

I mean, you know, if this is a dream lens, hell yeah, get the 70-200 vr II. Or 80-400 vr II. Or the Sigma 150-600 OS Sport version. All of them would cost you over $1500+. Nikon hasn't updated their 70-300 vr with a newer version. If you don't shoot a lot of birds or wild life beats, all of these 500 or 600 lenses would be of little use to you. So, a 70-200 vr II would be more suitable indoor and outdoor. Since you already have a 70-300, put that on your D7000 and that should be long enough for most wild life. Birds could be too short...

Or you can get a Tamron 70-200vc for about $1300, could be cheaper for the international version. And get a Tamron 150-600vc for about $900.

TooManyShots wrote in post #18020088
Or you can get a Tamron 70-200vc for about $1300, could be cheaper for the international version. And get a Tamron 150-600vc for about $900.

I would really avoid the Tamron now that the Sigma 150-600 C is pretty much the same price if you value effective optical image stabilisation while panning. The Sigma has a propper mode 2 panning function. The Tamron's VC doesn't, infact at shutter speeds below about 1/1000s causes very bad feedback runing any chance of a good shot. Although there has been a firmware update to address this it only turns the VC system off automatically when it detects panning. What it doesn't do is actually make the VC work while panning.

I was very disapointed with the Tamron when I rented one to test it because of the VC system. I now have the Sigma C and could not be happier with it. IMO the IQ of the Sigma is better than both the Tamron and the original Canon 100-400, and the recent Sigma firmware update made a good lens even better in the AF department.

When the was several hundered pound difference in the price of the two lenses the Tamron did have that one advantage. Now that they are the same price the Tamron doesn't really have any advantages over the Sigma.

Alan

BigAl007 wrote in post #18020851
I would really avoid the Tamron now that the Sigma 150-600 C is pretty much the same price if you value effective optical image stabilisation while panning. The Sigma has a propper mode 2 panning function. The Tamron's VC doesn't, infact at shutter speeds below about 1/1000s causes very bad feedback runing any chance of a good shot. Although there has been a firmware update to address this it only turns the VC system off automatically when it detects panning. What it doesn't do is actually make the VC work while panning.

I was very disapointed with the Tamron when I rented one to test it because of the VC system. I now have the Sigma C and could not be happier with it. IMO the IQ of the Sigma is better than both the Tamron and the original Canon 100-400, and the recent Sigma firmware update made a good lens even better in the AF department.

When the was several hundered pound difference in the price of the two lenses the Tamron did have that one advantage. Now that they are the same price the Tamron doesn't really have any advantages over the Sigma.

Alan

I agree...the VC is mah... Some says the VC can auto detect if you are panning or not. In my experiences, it depends.... Not just panning but if you move around and to track your subjects, the VC appears to be struggling to follow your movements.

TooManyShots wrote in post #18020992
I agree...the VC is mah... Some says the VC can auto detect if you are panning or not. In my experiences, it depends.... Not just panning but if you move around and to track your subjects, the VC appears to be struggling to follow your movements.

I checked up on the Tamron UK site regarding the firmware update for the VC "issue". This suggests that the update simply switches off the VC while panning/moving the lens with the VC switched on. Saying that they do seem to be deliberately vague with the comments. On the shorter focal length zooms the 70-200 f/2.8 VC and I think the 70-300 VC, the system not only auto detects deliberate large scale movements that would be consistent with panning, it then switches to a "Mode 2" style of function. In the rather long phone conversation I had with a Tamron rep about the problem after I had rented the lens and lost a lot of images thanks to the feedback problem, as I was shooting at 1/160 over the full range of focal lengths at an airshow, and got bad results even at mid ranges of the zoom, around 300mm where I often shoot an unstabilised lens. The explanation that I got for having no panning mode was that at the magnification involved in shooting at 600mm Tamron was unable to get the auto switching system used on the other lenses to work while panning. This I was told was a hardware issue, and unlikely to be fixed without a completely new VC system.

Having used the Tamron as well as the Canon 100-400 ver 1, I have to say that IMO the Sigma 150-600 C is the all round best of those three lenses, especially since the latest firmware update. I have had my Sigma since last October. I admit I do really need as much focal length as possible, and could really do with 900mm, since I still often have to crop my 50D by 1.5× to get a good composition. With the 100-400 I still only felt OK cropping by the same proportion so was still coming up very short. If I had a f/8 AF capable body there is the option of the 1.4× Extender, but you can also do that trick with the Sigma, and they have now got a new converter that is supposed to be matched specifically to the two 150-600's and the 120-300 f/2.8.

Alan