Building a lens line-up?

[danjon]

Backstory: When I initially got into photography, I went with Nikon D3300 and 18-70mm kit standard zoom. Then I sold my 18-70mm as I wasn't happy with sharpness and low light performance and got a 40mm f2.8 macro (to serve as a general purpose prime and also a semi-useful macro). Traded my D3300 for a D7100 and suddenly found a Tokina 11-20mm f2.8 at a bargain price so I had to buy it.

So now I'm in this awkward position where I have highly specialized lenses and an advanced body but I also have a lot of gaps. I found a really nice Tokina 100mm f2.8 which I'm considering getting (one reason is that it'll fit my Tokina 11-20 style-wise and I like their clutch mechanism) instead of the Nikon 40mm but is that really a good choice when I still don't have a good standard zoom or even a telephoto? Nikon 40mm can still pass as a general use lens but Tokina 100mm can't (150mm ff equivalent) even though it would excel at portraits, maybe sports and macro photography.

I'm far from being an advanced user so having an ultrawide and a short telephoto macro lens without having a standard zoom or a regular telephoto is kinda a waste of opportunities.

To be fair I didn't find a good standard zoom which would work well, best one is the Nikon 16-80mm but it's very expensive ($500+). Second one would be Sigma 17-50mm but I feel like I already have that range when I combine my Tokina 11-20mm with a 40mm and crop a bit. I'm missing a lens in 35-200mm range (if I decide to sell 40mm, otherwise the lower boundary raises to 50mm), I'm new to telephoto so I wouldn't go above 200mm for starters.

 

[yardcoyote]

Speaking as someone who does not have a complete, sensible, or logical lens lineup and never has, I think you need exactly the lenses that enable you to take the kind of photographs you want to take. No more and no less. Understand your photographic interests and goals, and that will tell you what steps you need to take.

 

[rsn]

Speaking as someone who does not have a complete, sensible, or logical lens lineup and never has, I think you need exactly the lenses that enable you to take the kind of photographs you want to take. No more and no less. Understand your photographic interests and goals, and that will tell you what steps you need to take.

Many of us believe this, most of us have never done this. In theory, you go out and shoot a lot, then realize a certain lens will work better out there and purchase it. This is how the world should be. The reality is you discover a lens, think you will use it a lot, get the lens and use it sparingly. Most used equipment out there is amateur gear that really wasn't heavily used at all.

So the one piece of advice I have actually taken myself is - buy used. I have fifteen lenses, of which ten are actively used.

 

[Craig Gillette]

I've seen the advice to choose a lens or lenses based on the photo objectives you have. Which could work but presumes one has specific interests or needs or enough experience to figure that out.

As a newer photographer, exploring, it might be hard to whittle down interests or to go from "I think I want a long lens, say up to 200mm." (or wide, etc.) to finding "I want to take photos of "subject" and need a xxx to do that." There's plenty of inspiration here to point one in all kinds of directions.

But I think the answer is not jump to lenses thinking you want them and that others use them, but, find that you do have a specific objective in mind and that your current kit just doesn't do "that."

 

[yardcoyote]

Definitely buy used-- most of my gear is secondhand, especially my lenses

And I did not mean to suggest that uncovering your photographic tastes and interests is an easy process or a straight path. I went down my share of blind alleys and ended up with lenses that were completely wrong for me. (One of the great things about buying used, especially from brick and mortar shops, is that you can often trade things in for partial credit on something else.)

But you can definitely end up in a place where you make a lot fewer mistakes, and especially where you are a lot less easily influenced by conventional wisdom and what other people tell you. I know that no matter how authoritatively somebody tells me that every good photographer has wide angle lenses, or general purpose zooms, or flash units, I don't need them to do what I do , so I can just go about.my business.

 

[Phaser]

Maybe what you need is a superzoom, but not one that has very high zoom ratio. Something like the:

Tamron 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 Di II VC

or

Sigma 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 DC Macro OS HSM | C

 

[Martin_99]

I think, that make no sense to build some "standard" lens line-up. Just buy what you frequently miss on your shooting.

Eg. I started with Sony apsc with 16-50 kit lens.

- missed better lens for interior family portraits - bought Sony 28f2

- didn't like 16-50 - bought Sony 18-135

- missed long zoom for zoo and nature - bought 70-350, etc

I never had wider lens below 18mm and not really care about that.