V L
I have a Nikon D40 DSLR, If I want to make great pictures to small objects what I need to know for choosing the right lenses, because there are several lenses on sale over the internet, some of them are cheap and some very expensive, what is the basic guide? is the optics quality? thanks for your help
Answer
Basic guideline is to stick with the original manufacturers lenses. So in the case of your Nikon, that means Nikon-Nikkor lenses. Nikon once regarded it's primary line of lenses are professional lenses and only gave special designations to their "cheaper" consumer grade lenses. That is no longer a hard and fast rule. Still you will not exceed Nikon optical quality with Tokina, Sigma or any other non-OEM brand of lens.
As for choosing the right lens, that's largely determined by how you'll use the lens and your budget. For small objects shot close up, you are generally talking about macro photography with lenses that allow very short minimum focus distances of only a few inches in most cases. Nikon gives their macro lenses a "micro" designation. At present, Nikon only offers four lenses with such a designation and the cheapest of them at $450 is their 60mm f/2.8D AF Micro Nikkor lens. This actually is a very good macro lens for your D40. The bad news is this lens will not autofocus on a D40 because D40s do not have a built-in autofocus motor like older and higher-end Nikon bodies such as the discontinued D70/70s or current D90. Thats not really a problem since most macro photography involves manual focus anyway.
The only Nikon lens meant for macro photography that will autofocus on a D40 at this time is the Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR lens. This is also a very good lens but, you may find the 105mm focal length to be a bit too tight and depth of field will be practically non-existent. You can often use other lenses for macro photography but some lenses have fairly long minimum focusing distances that can make macro photography difficult at best.
Basic guideline is to stick with the original manufacturers lenses. So in the case of your Nikon, that means Nikon-Nikkor lenses. Nikon once regarded it's primary line of lenses are professional lenses and only gave special designations to their "cheaper" consumer grade lenses. That is no longer a hard and fast rule. Still you will not exceed Nikon optical quality with Tokina, Sigma or any other non-OEM brand of lens.
As for choosing the right lens, that's largely determined by how you'll use the lens and your budget. For small objects shot close up, you are generally talking about macro photography with lenses that allow very short minimum focus distances of only a few inches in most cases. Nikon gives their macro lenses a "micro" designation. At present, Nikon only offers four lenses with such a designation and the cheapest of them at $450 is their 60mm f/2.8D AF Micro Nikkor lens. This actually is a very good macro lens for your D40. The bad news is this lens will not autofocus on a D40 because D40s do not have a built-in autofocus motor like older and higher-end Nikon bodies such as the discontinued D70/70s or current D90. Thats not really a problem since most macro photography involves manual focus anyway.
The only Nikon lens meant for macro photography that will autofocus on a D40 at this time is the Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR lens. This is also a very good lens but, you may find the 105mm focal length to be a bit too tight and depth of field will be practically non-existent. You can often use other lenses for macro photography but some lenses have fairly long minimum focusing distances that can make macro photography difficult at best.
What kind of DSLR camera is suitable for a beginner photographer?
Eric
Should I go for a new camera or a used one?
Also, what can't a beginner's DSLR camera do? (Eg compared to a camera for an experience pro photographer)?
Thanks!
Answer
DSLR's on the market offer about the same fetures across the board. the difference between a $400 canon 1000d, anon 500D and let's say a 7d is very fine tuned.
The 1000d is the beginner camera from canon. it will allow you to swap out the lenses, utilize manual aperture value, time value, and program modes. also it has a limited selection of automatice modes.
Other more important features such as shutter control, color schemes, and iso options are more limited on this camera.
And example of the iso ratings. the canon 1000d goes up to 1600 I belive, and from what I've seen ISO800 and 1600 on this camera are really unusable. the 500D has the ability to go up to 12,800 and is mostly usable to 6,400 due to it's integraded iso reduction ability, something the lower end models don't have. what does this mean to you? well night shots or low light indoor photography will be more detailed, shprer and have less noise than the cheaper model.
Another thing to look at is the megapixel resolution. The 1000d and most other nikon beginner models, have about 10MP for their picture quality. while the 500d has a 15.1mp sensor. and the 7d has an 18mp counter. this shouldn't come as a suprise, the more you pay, the better your picture quality becomes.
The included kit lens for the 1000d opposed to the 500d as opposed to the 7d are all representitive of the build quality of the camera. the 1000d and 500d both have a basic 18-55mm lens, but the 500d's lens has a better feal to it than the 1000d. the zoom ring is slightly smoother and the auto focus is considerably faster.
The 7d has a very nice 28-135mm zoom lens. it has some features found on more expensive lenses, like a non moving lens focusing ring, and zoom ring. the zoom is even more fine tuned than the other kit lenses and more of the lense is made of metal as opposed to the plastic found on the other kit lenses.
Now comes the issue of video. both the 500d and 7d have hd video recording. the 7d records 1080p at 30fps while the 500d does it in 20fps. the 1000d does not have any video recording at all.
And finally there's build construction. you would expect a $400 camera not to be as well built as an $800 or $1600 camera and you'd be right. the 1000d is cheap and plasticy. the 500d is about the same weight but has a little more solid feal. the 7d is considerably heavier and is ruberized nearly all around it. plus more expensive cameras like the 7d are weather sealed meaning mositure will not permiate the camera if it's raining. you don't find that on the cheaper models.
There are many many more differences between all the dslr types, but it all comes down to how much you are willing to pay for your camera. I would suggest not buying a cheap intro dslr from either canon or nikon, instead look at the more expensive cameras like the 500d or 50d from canon or the d5000 from nikon, whichever one can meat your price point, that would be the one that can work for you now, and the one you can grow with later.
Hope this helps
DSLR's on the market offer about the same fetures across the board. the difference between a $400 canon 1000d, anon 500D and let's say a 7d is very fine tuned.
The 1000d is the beginner camera from canon. it will allow you to swap out the lenses, utilize manual aperture value, time value, and program modes. also it has a limited selection of automatice modes.
Other more important features such as shutter control, color schemes, and iso options are more limited on this camera.
And example of the iso ratings. the canon 1000d goes up to 1600 I belive, and from what I've seen ISO800 and 1600 on this camera are really unusable. the 500D has the ability to go up to 12,800 and is mostly usable to 6,400 due to it's integraded iso reduction ability, something the lower end models don't have. what does this mean to you? well night shots or low light indoor photography will be more detailed, shprer and have less noise than the cheaper model.
Another thing to look at is the megapixel resolution. The 1000d and most other nikon beginner models, have about 10MP for their picture quality. while the 500d has a 15.1mp sensor. and the 7d has an 18mp counter. this shouldn't come as a suprise, the more you pay, the better your picture quality becomes.
The included kit lens for the 1000d opposed to the 500d as opposed to the 7d are all representitive of the build quality of the camera. the 1000d and 500d both have a basic 18-55mm lens, but the 500d's lens has a better feal to it than the 1000d. the zoom ring is slightly smoother and the auto focus is considerably faster.
The 7d has a very nice 28-135mm zoom lens. it has some features found on more expensive lenses, like a non moving lens focusing ring, and zoom ring. the zoom is even more fine tuned than the other kit lenses and more of the lense is made of metal as opposed to the plastic found on the other kit lenses.
Now comes the issue of video. both the 500d and 7d have hd video recording. the 7d records 1080p at 30fps while the 500d does it in 20fps. the 1000d does not have any video recording at all.
And finally there's build construction. you would expect a $400 camera not to be as well built as an $800 or $1600 camera and you'd be right. the 1000d is cheap and plasticy. the 500d is about the same weight but has a little more solid feal. the 7d is considerably heavier and is ruberized nearly all around it. plus more expensive cameras like the 7d are weather sealed meaning mositure will not permiate the camera if it's raining. you don't find that on the cheaper models.
There are many many more differences between all the dslr types, but it all comes down to how much you are willing to pay for your camera. I would suggest not buying a cheap intro dslr from either canon or nikon, instead look at the more expensive cameras like the 500d or 50d from canon or the d5000 from nikon, whichever one can meat your price point, that would be the one that can work for you now, and the one you can grow with later.
Hope this helps
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