Recommendations for budget glass?

[M. Gilden]

True- my needs are that I will occasionally need to do low-light on location shots, but the rest of the time would probably be in a studio.
So, I was looking for the lowest F-stop value possible, but in order to do that and still be relatively inexpensive, I have to stick with prime lenses. Problem with primes is that I also don't want to be stuck limiting myself to one zoom for framing.

Mark, that's a good point about the 35-50. Maybe I should swap that 35 out for a bit wider. The 50mm is expensive apparently because its a 1.4, all the cheaper ones I found were 1.8.

 

[nosys70]

if you accept primes, the choice is bigger and the price lower. and working in studio does not need ultrafast lenses, even starting at f3.5 should be ok, but anyway with prime it is easy to find lenses under f2.8
in that range there are tons of lens and for cheap , so you can probably set your selection criteria to something different.
like using old zeiss with adapters, giving you nice ergonomic in focusing.

 

[M. Gilden]

if you accept primes, the choice is bigger and the price lower. and working in studio does not need ultrafast lenses, even starting at f3.5 should be ok, but anyway with prime it is easy to find lenses under f2.8
in that range there are tons of lens and for cheap , so you can probably set your selection criteria to something different.
like using old zeiss with adapters, giving you nice ergonomic in focusing.

The first thing I said is that I will also need to shoot in low light now and then on location, and NOT in my studio. This was part of my decision to delve into the world of DSLR instead of continuing with my DVX-style setup currently. It would be pointless, IMO, to be stuck with slow glass in this situation. But it would also be a shame to have no ability to zoom and frame when I AM in my studio. Therefore, the selection of primes. And heck, a long range zoom because it was pretty cheap, and I want to cover my bases.