Best lens combo set up?

Bboysmax wrote:

CyberDEL wrote:

First you have to decide what is more important for you, to cover the zoom range or to get better quality for your images. If you want just to cover the zoom range you shouldn't buy the 30mm, just get the 12-24 and pair it with the kit 18-55. In the same way you shouldn't buy the 60mm macro lens because 60mm is very near to 55mm, You can also get a cheap extension tube set to get you closer to the subject. If all that makes you happy, go for it.

The truth is that if you want to get better images you should get good lenses. The 30mm is a fantastic lens, very sharp and I thing is a must have lens and is always on my NX500. I don't have the 12-24mm but I read that is a good lens and is in my thoughts to buy it. If Samsung has a 12mm prime lens everything would be different, but it hasn't. So I am between Samsung 12-24 and Samyang 12mm. For landscapes MF is not a problem but in the street is a big problem. Samsung 60mm macro is anther fantastic prime NX lens and is 1:1, so it gives you good enlargement.

My opinion, go for the primes...

Dimitri D

My Flickr Photostream

See thats what i was thinking, I like primes much more than zooms as i prefer to have to think about my shot and compose it in the best way possible instead of just zooming. I wasn't actually aware of the Samyang 12mm so i'll give that a look! Im guessing manual focus only right?

I liked the 60mm just because it's a great focal length on a crop for portraits and it has OIS. The macro would be fun every now and again but it's not really my thing to be honest. Maybe im better off with the 45mm?

For wide i was consideing the 16mm as its fairly cheap, but im not sure if its wide enough.

So my set could be the Samyang 12mm/Samsung 16mm, 20mm/30mm & 45mm. That wouldnt be too bad.

Any thoughts on the 20mm? Seems cheap right now, same with the 16mm.

Another big plus of the NX pancakes is that they are super compact, the NX300+30mm combo was one of my favorite of all time, I used to had it always on me on a big neoprene lens bag (and then into my bag, or jacket).

There is the excellent 10mm fish eye pancake as well, which is one of my favorite NX lenses.

I had the same thoughts about the 60mm macro, I finally went for the 45mm, which currently is my favorite NX lens (I have a lot of favorites in this system, but the 10 and 45 are the best!) and cheap Macro adapters which are doing an incredible job (I always do Manual Focus Macro anyway). The 60 is excellent though, and very good for portraits, maybe more suitable for an NX1 (size/weight wise) camera, and maybe, the 60 (90mm equiv.) is too long for some uses (inside photography, tight places e.t.c).

The cheap NX zooms (12-24, 18-55/16-50, 50-200) are covering everything from 12-200, are cheap and very good (sample variation is an issue of course, but the 12-24 and 50-200 seem to be consistently good).

Most of the times I use the primes though.

The Samyang is very good, but MF, the 16mm is good, the 20 not so much (and not that fast either).

The mm differences are bigger than you thought, because there is an APS-C crop factor of 1.54. That means the 12-24, the widest is 18.48mm (full frame equivalent) and the 16mm is 24.64mm, that is a huge difference in wide photography, so you have to take into consideration the crop factor and other things as well.

Also, the 18-55 is so cheap right now, that I would invest in primes, and keep the zoom for whatever reason, or video!

I thought the 12 would be easy to use for street. Being such a wide angle it should be easy to keep everything in focus. Just click and crop if needed.

I do not actually own the lens so feel please correct me if I'm way off.

Honestly I like my 20 better than my 30. The issues with the 30s autofocus has it going into the shame on you corner. Used it for an indoor birthday party. The results were not pretty. I love how it just pretends to lock onto the subject. Then it does that focus in and out thing causing me to miss the whole moment and defeats the whole purpose of auto focus.  I addition I find the view limited when I'm not given space to move around. The 20 produced much better results in similar conditions.  I finished the night using full manual when I really just wanted to point,  click and enjoy the party. Needless to say that's the last indoor party that lens will see with me.

Under the right conditions the 30 gives me better quality than the 20. The keywords being right conditions.

I'm on mobile so I can not edit my post. I just wanted to add that the right conditions applies to the 20 as well.  There are objects that depending on the lighting it will not even try to focus on. Just flat out tells me no every single time. No other lens that I own has this problem.

This is why an interchangeable lens camera was a good investment for me. It is also why I'm so happy to have one that I can afford because as you can I use a lot of different lenses for different subjects. However, if I were just buying 3 I'd go with the 30, 16-50pz and 50-200. Going all primes,  10, 30 and maybe the 45. The 60, and 85 are both very heavy and expenses lenses. The 10 would have worked fine at that party. It's pretty easy to defish.

Sorry for all the spam. That went on far to long.