Filters, Lenses Nikon D5000/F100 and Books

[Smiles]

What are your 3-5 most used lenses? What do you like about them? What do you never leave home without and why? What should every photographer have in their bag?

I'm still really new to this, trying to get most bang for my buck....

I have a D5000 and F100... (the F100 is 'new' in the last week and I haven't had a lot of time to play with that).

Currently have:
18-55 that comes standard with the D5000. It's collecting dust on the shelf since I got the...
18-200/3.5-5.6 G ED-IF AF-S VR DX Nikor I picked up refurbished
And most recently acquired the
50/1.8 G AF-S... picked because it'd be bright on the D5000 and FX instead of DX would be fully compatible on the F100 too.

Just using basic filters to protect each lens.

I'm thinking I should ditch the 18-55 since I never use it anyway and it's no better than the 18-200 I use all the time....

Haven't messed with the 18-200 on film, but I understand it should still work, I'm just going to lose the out edge of the photo... like 1/4-1/3 of it or so. Is that accurate? Anyone tried this?

Also... was thinking about toying with colored and/or graduated filters on the 50mm. (Filters in 72mm are a little pricey to play with.) Suggestions? What's a must-have if I'm going to have fun filters to play with?

I'm a total newb in most ways, never taken a class or anything... I do a lot of sport horse photography... show jumping, hunters, polo, eventing, dressage, some western speed events and rodeo. I also do a good amount of traveling and portrait-type of friends and family along the way. (Everyone says... "OOoh you have a good camera, take a picture of this/that/him/her/us/them!" and I try.)

Since I am a total newb is there a good book or two someone could suggest? I've gotten an ok handle on zoom, focus, aperture, iso, and white balance (on the D5000) from playing with things and doing as I'm told by pro friends.

So.... what do I need? What should I want? What's worth the large $$ and what's ok to be an off-brand and/or cheaper?

[texxter]

Smiles, welcome to the forum. I am also a Nikon user.

My most used lenses are 70-200mm, 85mm, and 24-70mm. I also use the 35mm quite a bit when I travel, but lately I haven been traveling with the Fuji x100 and no the Nikons.

I had the 18-200mm and it was a good general purpose zoom, but it's not very fast. I sold it and bought a 35-70mm f/2.8 as a portrait lens for my D300 and I loved it. No longer using DX, only FX now.

The 50mm f/18. is a good little lens and its f/1.8 aperture will allow you to do things with depth of field you cannot do with other lenses. Should be fun!

To be honest, if you're new to photography, the 18-200mm and the 50mm may be all you need to learn with - you can do really good work with them, so save your money for a tripod, flash, software. You don't need colored filters, you can do with that in postprocessing.

"Understanding exposure" is a good book and often recommended. There are some good videos on YouTube you can learn from.

Good luck!

[Smiles]

I'm surprised that the 18-200 isn't very fast. For sport photography I was getting 5-6 photos over a single jump if I wanted to.... I would think the limiting factor on speed is probably my camera's 4 frames per second and 7 RAW buffering?

[Snarfy]

"Fast" refers to the aperture width allowing for faster shutter speeds; Paco was inferring that the f/3.5-5.6 of your 18-200mm is a relatively slow aperture. Super zooms tend to all have slow apertures.

Go grab some Ansel Adams books, buy a few color filters, load that F100 with some B&W film, put the 50mm 1.8 on it, and go explore the world through a lens. Consider taking a class, they're are a lot of fun and the creative exercises are good for the mind and eye.

[jeeper]

My 3 most used lenses are a 50mm, 85mm, and 70-200mm (Canon). #1 is a toss up between the 50 & 85... For the shooting I do, those lengths just seem right, and the primes are fast making them useful for low light, or if you want to isolate a subject with the background completely blurred.

Must have filters are (IMO) a CPL (circular polarizer), and maybe a couple ND filters (neutral density).
You really only need the colored filters if you're shooting film.

[TxTowman]

I have the d5000 also.

I got the 35mm 1.8 and it is awesome!

I also have the 18-55 and a 55-200 both are just fine for outdoors.

The 18-200 is fine outdoors also.

For indoors and dark horses in an open sided arena you will probably have trouble getting sharpness with that lens(18-200).

[GoldenOrb]

Ive got a 18-200 with my D300 (and pack) which I think bumps up the fps to 9 or 11??? correct me if Im wrong. Also have a 35mm and 10.2 fisheye.
Broad daylight its fine for the 18-200 but yes its slow but I know that and my main focus is Landscapes... looking at a f2 etc will cost about 6-7 grand here, not sure US price. I do use it to shoot the kids, but I know its limitations.

Filters are the same. Hoya do some good filters. I also own a Singh Ray Blue gold filter, just for something different. Im guessing my next purchase will be Lee filters (Landscapes again) which Down under cost about 300 for the holder and another 300 for a filter... but from shots that I have seen taken.. worth every cent

[ivyrbotson]

35mm 1.8 and it is awesome!

[Melany]

Originally Posted by texxter

"Understanding exposure" is a good book and often recommended.

Awesome book!


My favorite/most used lens is a Sigma 17-70mm f2.8. It stays on my camera 95% of the time. I like being closer to my subject and a wider lens.
I also have the Nikon 105mm Macro VR -- probably the second most used lens. In addition to macros, it's a pretty sweet landscape lens when I need "reach" I can't get with the Sigma.


I also have the Sigma 70-300mm that I used to use a LOT, until the auto focus wore out. That lens only lasted about a year, and I hear now that it doesn't stand up well. It still works as a manual focus lens, but I don't use it much anymore.

Sigma is for the most part, a nice lens but cost about 1/2 the price of Nikon lenses.

[drgibson]

The things that never leave my bag are the D700, 24-70mm f/2.8, 80-200mm f/2.8, SB900 flash, a Gorilla Pod, extra batteries & cards. I rotate other lenses in and out with that setup depending what/where I'm going to be shooting.
I also have a D90 with the 18-200mm VRII lens that pretty much never comes off the camera, and a SB 800 that stays with it as well.

[DougC]

500 AF-S f4, 300 AF-S f 2.8 and 20-35 AF-D f2.8. All top of the line pro level lenses that are fast and sharp and never fail as long as I do my part. My wife has a D5000 and I'm constantly amazed at the IQ of this camera.