To Nikon or Not to

maggyparker

I am new to this field can anyone and I am a modeling photographer. tell that substituting Nikon Lenses (Yuck Costly~!) with Sigma or Tamron will work good. Or I am going to loose quality. I have a set old Nikon 200mm and 50 to 70 mm lens. Secondly in my opinion prime lenses deliver much better quality but Yuck~again they are costlier……….

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Harryb

maggyparker wrote:

I am new to this field can anyone and I am a modeling photographer. tell that substituting Nikon Lenses (Yuck Costly~!) with Sigma or Tamron will work good. Or I am going to loose quality. I have a set old Nikon 200mm and 50 to 70 mm lens. Secondly in my opinion prime lenses deliver much better quality but Yuck~again they are costlier……….

If you are looking at it solely from a quality viewpoint then Nikon lenses win most comparisons. Npw if you are looking at it from a "bang for the buck" viewpoint then that changes the picture. Sigma. Tokina and Tamron lenses will get you excellent results. The biggest difference will be in build, focusing speed (in some cases), and handling. Nikon lenses also will hold their value better.

I prefer Nikon lenses but when money was more of an issue for me I got good results with third party lenses.

claudermilk

Nikkon has a long-standing well-earned reputation for being among the best optics available. Yes, they cost more than the others, but in photography it is pretty much you get what you pay for. Some Sigmas, Tamrons, and Tokinas can hold up to the OEM lenses, but not all.

Primes more expensive than zooms? Which ones? In general primes are less expensive for the quality since they are far less complex to design and manufacture. In both Nikon & Canon, the 50mm primes are among the best optics you can get & can be less than $100 (e.g., Canon 50/1.8 is $70 & one of the sharpest lenses in their lineup).

Seefutlung

Check out photozone.de (or equal). Klaus at photozone performs lab tests for resolving power (MTF Charts) on top selling lenses. On general, his tests show that the pro-line from Nikkor, Canon, Sigma, Tamron and Tokina all test out pretty equal. And, again generally speaking, the difference in resolving power between a pro-level Nikkor, Canon, Sigma, Tokina or Tamron lens, really isn't sigificant to the human eye.

Again, generally speaking, your OEM lenses are much more robust in engineering and will focus a tad faster. But unless you shoot like a news photog (everyday, in environments which are not camera friendly), and/or shoot a lot of fast action photography (like sports), then you'll probably never see a difference in Image Quality between a pro-level third party lens and a pro-level OEM lens.

Gary

ballentphoto

maggyparker wrote:

I am new to this field can anyone and I am a modeling photographer. tell that substituting Nikon Lenses (Yuck Costly~!) with Sigma or Tamron will work good. Or I am going to loose quality. I have a set old Nikon 200mm and 50 to 70 mm lens. Secondly in my opinion prime lenses deliver much better quality but Yuck~again they are costlier……….

Each optics manufacturer will produce a diffent look also, so depending on what you like in the final product will also drive the brand that you end up with. All that I use are Nikon Pro lenses because I like the final output. I also use Nikon Capture NX becuase I like the final output that it gives me. Nikon's cost more because of the way that they manufacture the lenses. The glass takes months to cool down before they start the grinding. Nikon's control CA better than a lot of third party lenses, the contrast is great and the colors are top notch IMO. But again it all depends on the final results, if you like what you end up with what ever combination you are using then that is what you should use.

Mitchell

Maggy,

Your "prime is more costly than zoom" comment is an unfair generalization. Be careful when you are looking at lenses to compare apples with apples. The key thing to look at is the "speed" of the lens. Wider aperture lenses will help you shoot in lower light situations, but unfortunately cost more money.

Take a look at some lenses I own.

85mm, f1.4 $1000
85mm, f1.8 $ 290
28-70mm, f2.8 $1300
18-70mm, f4.5 $250

I hope this all makes some sense!