Just bought my first lens!!
Discussion
Having bought my first dSLR (Nikon D7000) recently, I'm just beginning to get into something vaguelly approaching "proper" photography.
Anyway, the one thing I've found a few times is I'd like more zoom. Only occasionally, but it'd be nice.
Funds being a little limited at the mo, I've just bought this, just to have a play with.
It's a Tamron AF70-300mm F/4-5.6Di
It seemed a cheap way of haing a play with a different lens (£100 from Jessops).
Just wondered what people's thoughts were in terms of quality and useage?
Should I stick with the Nikon kit lens that came with the camera unless I need the additional zoom?The chap in the shop said that the Nikon lens was better, but not by much.
Are there other things this sort of lens is useful for beyond just getting more distance?
Anyway, the one thing I've found a few times is I'd like more zoom. Only occasionally, but it'd be nice.
Funds being a little limited at the mo, I've just bought this, just to have a play with.
It's a Tamron AF70-300mm F/4-5.6Di
It seemed a cheap way of haing a play with a different lens (£100 from Jessops).
Just wondered what people's thoughts were in terms of quality and useage?
Should I stick with the Nikon kit lens that came with the camera unless I need the additional zoom?The chap in the shop said that the Nikon lens was better, but not by much.
Are there other things this sort of lens is useful for beyond just getting more distance?
Good work. I'm sure you'll have some fun with that.
As for other stuff regarding lenses... how long have you got?
It's almost always - how much you spend, quality you get. A bit like Hi Fi, it's exponential. £200 will buy a decent stereo. £2000 will buy a good one. £20,000 will buy top quality... but it's only for those that can hear properly.
As for other stuff regarding lenses... how long have you got?
It's almost always - how much you spend, quality you get. A bit like Hi Fi, it's exponential. £200 will buy a decent stereo. £2000 will buy a good one. £20,000 will buy top quality... but it's only for those that can hear properly.
That was my thinking really, law of diminishing returns and all that.
I plan to use the Nikon lens most of the time, but have this for the odd occasion when I need more reach. For example I was at a track day last weekend and have a lot of photos that are 80% track 20% car. It'd have been nice to have got in closer so this lens will do things like that.
It's also interesting to see the difference between lenses that focus at the front rather than at the back (as my Nikon lens does). Amazing the speed difference. The chap in the shop mentioned this but until you experience it yourself it's hard to comprehend.
Any hints or tips regarding settings whilst using it? The instructions that came with it recommend using a higher ISO to speed things up and reduce blur which makes sense I guess.
I plan to use the Nikon lens most of the time, but have this for the odd occasion when I need more reach. For example I was at a track day last weekend and have a lot of photos that are 80% track 20% car. It'd have been nice to have got in closer so this lens will do things like that.
It's also interesting to see the difference between lenses that focus at the front rather than at the back (as my Nikon lens does). Amazing the speed difference. The chap in the shop mentioned this but until you experience it yourself it's hard to comprehend.
Any hints or tips regarding settings whilst using it? The instructions that came with it recommend using a higher ISO to speed things up and reduce blur which makes sense I guess.
Ari said:
Any hints or tips regarding settings whilst using it? The instructions that came with it recommend using a higher ISO to speed things up and reduce blur which makes sense I guess.
It really depends what you want in your photo 
One problem you will encounter with a longer lens is camera shake - you simply can't hold the camera steady enough at all times.
So to combat that you can use a quick shutter speed to avoid the shake in your images - one rule of thumb says 1/focal length, so for your lens at it's full 300mm I would try to use something around 1/300th to 1/500th.
(That's because your lens is 300mm and your camera has a 1.5x ' crop factor', so 300 x 1.5
=480. So something around 1/500th would be best, buts it is just a general guide
)This is the reason to use a high iso as suggested - it means the camera is 'more sensitive' to light and therefore you can use a quicker shutter speed.
....However
Taking your example of a trackday, if you use a shutter speed of 1/500th then unless the cars are going really fast then they will have a 'frozen' look as the shutter speed is so high. Like this:
You can see the wheels don't seem to be turning that much, this is due to the high shutter speed.
If you want more movement and motion in your images the answer is to slow the shutter speed down (say 1/125th or even slower) and ' pan' with the passing car, like this:
So depending on how you want your images to look depends on what settings to use. Panning takes more skill and you need to keep your camera pointing at the car in a smooth fashion, it can take a bit of practice to get it right on really slow shutter speeds like 1/50th.
Hope this helps
Ari said:
One thing I still don't get is, assuming I go for a 1/50 shutter speed, how do I know what ISO and what aperture to use?
For each shot you need to determine what the most important parameter is. It may be shutter speed as in this case, or it may be aperture, either for depth of field control or simply because you need to shovel in as much light in as possible. ISO should generally be set as low as possible concomitant with getting a working shutter speed/aperture combination. Try not to think of ISO as part of the exposure equation unless you have to, eg if on maximum aperture you can't get a fast enough shutter speed to mitigate camera-shake and a tripod is not appropriate. All current DSLRs have good noise performance so for starters you could try keeping it at 400, which will help compensate for the fact your lenses aren't very fast.Ari said:
Ok, I follow that but, having decided (say) that I want a fast shutter speed, how do I set my aperture?
Your camera will have a 'shutter priority' mode whereby you can set your required shutter speed and it will adjust your aperture (and maybe iso? I'm not familiar with your camera) based on its metering. It's basically helping to juggle those other settings based on the shutter speed you select. Best check your manual for full details on this
Ari said:
Ah, yes, I can do that ok. It's the full manual bit that I don't get where you have to juggle both.
When you look though the viewfinder you will see a meter reading - normally an arrow pointing to a scale - with the arrow in the middle of the scale the camera believes the scene to be 'properly exposed'.In manual mode you can quickly adjust all of the settings while keeping an eye on this meter reading - you are in full control but can always see how the camera thinks the overall brightness of the photo will appear.
Many people suggest sticking with manual as it forces users to learn and evaluate the three elements that make up the exposure all of the time.
I'd say give it a try for practise - you'll want to know when a fast shutter speed and a wide aperture is better than a slower shutter and smaller aperture (and vice versa) and how iso helps along the way
Dogsey said:
Ari said:
Ok, I follow that but, having decided (say) that I want a fast shutter speed, how do I set my aperture?
Put the camera into shutter priority and let it sort out the aperture for you.
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