what other lens should i get

R

robbailey

Active member
Well the wife is having a baby so I sold most of what I had to stock up on extra money just in case. I did keep the 5200 with the 35mm lens. What other lenses should I get since the wife says I can spend a little now that we have what we need saved up. Slowly gearing up to do a feature hopefully and not sure what else to get without breaking the bank. I can do a lot with the 35mm but would like at least one more lens.
 
What is your budget? I personally don't care for the 50mm, Don't get me wrong its a great lens but I just am not a fan of it on the d5200. I'd rather have more wide look of the 35mm and if I want something telephoto 50mm is never telephoto enough. However it is a cheap lens and if you get a new one with autofocus that will be a huge help with capturing pictures of the baby.

If you want something that is on the longer end there is the Nikon pre-ai 105mm F2.5. Its on the longer side and while some people arent a fan of it for being so long its another very cheap option (can be bought for under 100 dollars). Sadly no auto focus though.
 
Yes, check out anything branded by Samyang which includes Rokinon/Vivitar/Bower/Samyang. Just made the discovery of all these myself today. They have a 1.4 35mm, 2.8 14mm, a 2.0 16mm, the 85 1.4 Samuel mentioned. All of them have aperture rings, which is fantastic for video on the Nikons. Some of them are only full manual...for video that's fine, for photos it might be a hassle, but some of them have the focus confirm chip (will be mentioned in the description if they have it). Adorama has a few of the Bower cine lenses...which are just reworked declicked aperture versions of the lenses I wrote down but they are very reasonable in price.
 
(AFAIK, all of them are fully manual, not some; manual aperture, manual focus, no electronics whatsoever; well, some for the nikon mount have a focus confirmation chip, but that's about it)
 
But the camera can't set aperture, right? So it's just as what you get with an unchipped Samyang on a Canon, plus it beeps when stuff is in focus.
 
If you're thinking lenses for a feature, you really need to think about the look you want.

Wides are much tougher to come by than normal & tele primes. Research the latest Tokina & Sigma wide zooms -Sigma's got a new one people are loving, sharp wide open.

For longer glass, the 85 1.8 AF is nice, but the focus feel is loose and the ring is small - the all-manual series-E 100 2.8 is my fave for beautiful rendering. The old & legendary 35-70 2.8 AF is gorgeous but can be prone to flare, an all-metal tank with nice feel and great macro (I believe 1:1). If you can find one for under $400, it's a real jack-of-all-trades normal to long lens for APS-C.

Keep in mind screw-drive era AF glass won't have functional AF on the 5200, as far as I know.
 
Thanks for all the replies. The ideal budget will be around 500 give or take with less even better but I could safely stretch it to that amount. I generally like 50mm lens so I may pick one up since its inexpensive. I feel like I could get most of the shots I want with a 35 and a 50 or a 35 and an 85. The 35 is one of my favorites overall since it seems very versatile.
 
Samuel H said:
But the camera can't set aperture, right? So it's just as what you get with an unchipped Samyang on a Canon, plus it beeps when stuff is in focus.
Click to expand...

The "focus confirm chip" is a bad name for the chipped lens. The better name is "auto chip". Your exposure settings on the camera are recognized by the lens, the camera will meter more properly with the lens settings, etc. The only thing needing to be manual is the focus (with the chipped models) Unchipped models for both Canon and Nikon have to be treated in an old school way while taking photos/videos to set exposure, etc. Open up the aperture to see your scene, choose the ISO applicable for the conditions, set shutter speed, focus, stop down...half shutter...check meter (adjust if needed) fire shot.
 
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