zoom lens for video and stills?

M

mattsand

Veteran
hi,

i'm looking for a wide angle to normal zoom lens that's fast, and has great manual as well as automatic controls. i need an aperture ring for manual control on video, and a nice focus ring for manual focus, which i also use a lot in stills. since the d90 doesn't meter manual lenses though it needs to be an af one, since i need metering for stills. the tamron 17-55 f/2.8 seems like a nice lens but it doesn't have the aperture ring. has anyone used the tokina 20-35 f/2.8? it's huge but feels great. haven't shot any using it though. or any other suggestions? it has to be 2.8 throughout, i shoot a lot in low light and i don't like using a flash. oh, my budget is maybe $400 so forget about the nikkors.

/matt
 
you dont really need the meter to shoot stills - just take a shot and look at the histogram - it becomes intuitive pretty quickly

you budget is low so the tokina is bound to be as good/bad as anything else

what about a 50 1.8 and a 20 2.8 used manual prime nikkors or just the 20 to start with

do you actually want to be able to zoom ?


S
 
Some of the best Vivitar zooms were highly regarded. I have the Tamron which I bought for still photos and its great for that, but I don't like it for video- aside from the missing aperture ring, the focus ring could be better too.

Remember that very few wide-angle zooms are "parfocal"- that is to say that they will not maintain focus as you zoom... this is true of still photo lenses in general but there are a fair number of longer zooms (80-200s) that are parfocal or close enough that it doesn't matter most of the time.
 
mattsand said:
hi,

i'm looking for a wide angle to normal zoom lens that's fast, and has great manual as well as automatic controls. i need an aperture ring for manual control on video, and a nice focus ring for manual focus, which i also use a lot in stills.
Click to expand...

I know you are on a budget, but you just described the Nikon 17-35mm...

Sorry if it doesn't help, but there's a reason these things cost more than a thousand dollars... :huh:
 
So I'm now looking for zoom lenses. Looking @ getting

17-35mm F/2.8
17-55mm F/2.8
18-50mm F/2.8

Budget: $350-450

Can anyone recommend a descent 3rd party zoom. Sigma, Tamron ?

Ps, I normally rent lenses to shoot (Nikon/Canon Glass), but just need something for personal use.
 
It's the Tokina. Not a lot of lenses have what you describe. That is, wide to normal, AF, f/2.8, with a nice manual focus ring, and an aperture ring.

You might be able to get the Nikkor 20-35/2.8 at that price second hand. Both lenses are quite old however, and I have no idea how they'll perform on digital sensors.

I'm uncertain if the Sigma 20-40/2.8 fits your budget.

Oh, and hi everyone. Lurking around since the D90 was announced. Nice to be here!
 
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