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Good wedding lens (price counts too)

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Since you are invited to enjoy the wedding, please keep the weight of the lenses in mind. the first three are over 1.3 Kg (lens only) If you're not used to the weight, go with something lighter. The Sigma 50-150 is very nice. I normaly go to invited events with the Tamron 28-75 f2.8

Your prime objective at the party is to have fun.
Phil_L said:
Nikkor 80-200 f2.8 used or new.
Nikkor 70-200 f2.8 VR used.
Sigma 70-200 f2.8 new.
Sigma 50-150 f2.8 new

Primes?

Nikkor 135 f2
Nikkor 180 f2.8
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Phil_L
Click to expand...
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Life is like a box of choclates, gone before you know it.
 
Either: Sigma 18-50 f2.8 (379.00) or Tamron 17-50 f2.8 (425.00)
Along with: Sigma 50-150 f2.8 (585.00)

Prices from sigma4less.com, my favorite source for 3rd-part lenses.

Advantages of these lenses: useful wedding focal lengths, fast constant f2.8 apertures (good for focusing and available light photography), fairly compact and light weight, pretty solid optical performance, very good value for $$$.

Disadvantage: DX format means no good for full-frame, should that ever become an issue for you.

FWIW, I just ordered a 50-150 for my second shooter, and my personal #1 wedding lens by far is the 17-55 Nikkor (outside your budget, though).

--
http://www.pbase.com/gzillgi
http://www.pbase.com/gzillgi/wedding_portrait

 
I'm going to be doing my first wedding with my Nikon gear on Saturday and shall be using the Sigma 17-70 2.8-4.5, 50mm 1.8 and the Sigma 150 2.8 (for candids)

These mounted on a D50 and D80 combined with an SB-800

I'll let you know how the Sigma 17-70 handles the day, I'm hoping it does a good job, it seems to deliver quite nice colours

I used to have the Tamron 28-75 2.8 (on Pentax) but as much as I liked it, I just found a lack of wide angle incredibly frustrating, hence going for the Sigma
--
Frankie says 'RELAX'
 
cheddargav said:
I'm going to be doing my first wedding with my Nikon gear on
Saturday and shall be using the Sigma 17-70 2.8-4.5, 50mm 1.8 and
the Sigma 150 2.8 (for candids)
I'll let you know how the Sigma 17-70 handles the day, I'm hoping
it does a good job, it seems to deliver quite nice colours
Click to expand...
Surely you checked it out thoroughly, did test shoots under identical conditions, and know precisely how it will perform at the event. There's no excuse for gear surprises on the wedding day.
cheddargav said:
Frankie says 'RELAX'
Click to expand...
That doesn't apply to wedding photographers on their customers most important day ;-).

--
Warm regards, Uncle Frank
FCAS Founder, Hummingbird Hunter, Egret Stalker
Dilettante Appassionato
Galleries at http://www.pbase.com/unclefrank
 
Cleoent said:
Found one used for 300 bucks... seems like a pretty solid deal,
maybe combine it with a sigma 50-150 and call it a day?

Your guys' thoughts?

never really owned a sigma lens before, what can i expect?
Click to expand...
i meant 18-50, any thoughts on this lens for this purpose?
 
It's getting rave comments from the weddings shooters who have it, if I couldn't afford the Nikon 17-55 or didn't want the weight of the 17-55 that's the lens I woujld be looking at. Image quality is right up there with the Nikon 17-55 ( or very close) and the latter costs $1200 new vs under $500 for the Tamron. What you lose is the weight of the Nikon !!! Course too it has no AF-S but neither do most of the third party lenses.

I don't know anythnig about the Sigma you mention but then Sigma isn't on my most wanted list either, so I don't investigate many of their lenses.

David
Cleoent said:
Cleoent said:
Found one used for 300 bucks... seems like a pretty solid deal,
maybe combine it with a sigma 50-150 and call it a day?

Your guys' thoughts?

never really owned a sigma lens before, what can i expect?
Click to expand...
i meant 18-50, any thoughts on this lens for this purpose?
Click to expand...
 
funny you should mention this lens, i just picked it up!

I got it for 449 at my local ritz camera and can't wait to play around with it in the coming days. Sisters wedding is may 5th, so i have a little under a month to learn it.

Thanks for all the great advice! I was going to pick up a 1k pro lens from nikon, but instead i think i'll pick up two pro lens from 3rd party makers considering i'm not a pro, nor do i do this for money.
 
I shoot portraits mostly, but I shot my first wedding March 31st. It is an experience--to say the least.

I would suggest you finding used lenses to fit your budget.

My suggestion is:

Primary Lens = Nikon 17-55 (I used it 95% of the time). It was super sharp, and I didn't feel the need to change lens at all!

Formals with B&G: Nikon 85 f1.4

These are the only two lens I used, and I didn't miss one shot!

Pat
--

“You know, the camera is not meant just to show misery. You can show things that you like about the universe, things that you hate about the universe. It's capable of doing both.” - Gordon Parks
 
i did pick up the tamron 17-50 yesterday, i think i'm gunna give it a whirl for the first wedding and we'll see what happens. Good thing is no one is expecting much from me so there will be no pressure to perform!
 
A little pressure sometimes makes you want to perform vs none can make you sit back and kind of forget the photography.

David
Cleoent said:
i did pick up the tamron 17-50 yesterday, i think i'm gunna give it
a whirl for the first wedding and we'll see what happens. Good
thing is no one is expecting much from me so there will be no
pressure to perform!
Click to expand...
 
Get good glass if you are doing weddings.

Nikon 17-55
Nikon 70-200 VR.

Buy used if you cannot afford new.

IMO.

--
'Let my heart be broken by the things that break the heart of God.'
===============
Nikon D200 - MB-D200 - SB800 - TC-20EII
Nikons(f/2.8 all) 17-55, 105VR Micro, 70-200 VR, 300
 
Hi...

Suggest these and to keep around or under the $1000.. As you will need at least 2 lenses...

Mid zoom...
Nikon 35-70 f/2.8
Tamron 17-50 f/2.8
Tamron 28-75 f/2.8

Longer Zoom
Sigma 50-150 f/2.8
Tokina 50-135 f/2.8

So to me the perfect combination would be
Tamron 17-50 f/2.8
Sigma 50-150 f/2.8

Just my suggestion...;o))
--

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C.Ya.....
Wally..........
Adelaide,AUSTRALIA



=camera gear in profile=

NIKON D50, D80, SB600 ~ NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8D AF ~ 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED AF-S DX ~ 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6GED-IF AF ~ 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5G AF-S ~ 28-70mm f/2.8D ED-IF AF-S ~ 80-200mm f2.8D-ED AF ~ TOKINA ATX 12-24mm f/4 AF Pro DX ~ KENKO 1.4x Pro300 DG TC
=If dogs don’t go to Heaven, I want to go where they go=

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
 
Uncle Frank said:
cheddargav said:
I'm going to be doing my first wedding with my Nikon gear on
Saturday and shall be using the Sigma 17-70 2.8-4.5, 50mm 1.8 and
the Sigma 150 2.8 (for candids)
I'll let you know how the Sigma 17-70 handles the day, I'm hoping
it does a good job, it seems to deliver quite nice colours
Click to expand...
Surely you checked it out thoroughly, did test shoots under
identical conditions, and know precisely how it will perform at the
event. There's no excuse for gear surprises on the wedding day.
Click to expand...
lol, yes, last week I arranged for the couple and there family to attend an identical replica of there day, and gave mother nature 50 quid to provide identical weather conditions ;)
Uncle Frank said:
Uncle Frank said:
Frankie says 'RELAX'
Click to expand...
That doesn't apply to wedding photographers on their customers most
important day ;-).
Click to expand...
Nothing a few whiskys can't sort out before hand!
Uncle Frank said:
--
Warm regards, Uncle Frank
FCAS Founder, Hummingbird Hunter, Egret Stalker
Dilettante Appassionato
Galleries at http://www.pbase.com/unclefrank
Click to expand...
--
Frankie says 'RELAX'
 
i think that's the exact combo i'm going to go with, a 17-50 tam, and the 50-150 sigma.

You guys have been sooooo helpful!
 
Ha, well I just thought I'd follow this up by saying that my Sigma 17-70 on the D80 performed pretty poorly in Aperture Priority, blowing highlights for fun - I even tried taking EV compensation down by 2 stops, and it still wouldn't play nicely!

Rather bizarrly, I put the camera in Program mode and it was fine!?! It was also fine on my D50...

On a more positive note my Nikon gear performed admirably, confirming my reason to choose Nikon over Canon, the skin tones.

Oh, and I don't think I could stress enough how little excuse there is for not having at least the 50mm 1.8 - what a bargain

I haven't had time to convert them all, so I thought I'd just quickly post one which showed off (what I think) are very nice colours delivered by the 17-70 + SB-800


cheddargav said:
I'm going to be doing my first wedding with my Nikon gear on
Saturday and shall be using the Sigma 17-70 2.8-4.5, 50mm 1.8 and
the Sigma 150 2.8 (for candids)

These mounted on a D50 and D80 combined with an SB-800

I'll let you know how the Sigma 17-70 handles the day, I'm hoping
it does a good job, it seems to deliver quite nice colours

I used to have the Tamron 28-75 2.8 (on Pentax) but as much as I
liked it, I just found a lack of wide angle incredibly frustrating,
hence going for the Sigma
--
Frankie says 'RELAX'
Click to expand...
--
Frankie says 'RELAX'
 
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