Nikon AF-s DX 55-200mm lens needed

skylight

I bought mine from here:

http://www.microglobe.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php?pName=nikon-55200mm-afs-dx-vr-f456-lens&osCsid=8818128e402b37433fbd9ba41bdef208

£175

Good service and cheap enough (ha!)

espresso

JoeA81 wrote: »

But logically people could also say about VR "ooh it allows me to have a slightly longer exposure", which to me is more of a benefit that a higher F number, but they always go on about "stops"...why?

Because it's not just about the F number, the shutter speed can also be thought of as a stop.

darich

JoeA81 wrote: »

Why does the camera world always refer to "stops". When people talk about VR etc they always say "ooh it gives me a couple more stops".

Now I understand that they are talking about F-stops, i.e. the apature of the lens, and I assume they mean that because of the VR they can afford to use a smaller apature because not so much light is needed to produce a blur-free image if VR is used compared to non-VR with the same shutter speed.

But logically people could also say about VR "ooh it allows me to have a slightly longer exposure", which to me is more of a benefit that a higher F number, but they always go on about "stops"...why?

The other crucial thing to remember is that while VR (or IS - Image Stabilisation in a Canon) only reduces camera shake - not movement blur.

What i mean is that if you're shooting a moving car then VR or IS will not stop that blurring because the only way to stop a moving subject from blurring is to decrease the shutter speed - VR and IS don't do that.

But if you're shooting a bird box for example then the VR/IS system is great because it'll reduce the vibration from your hands affecting the camera ideally to a point where there is none

The reciprocal focal length is good advice i forgot to mention. eg at 200mm you should try to keep the shutter speed at 1/200 or less. VR/IS allows, say, 2 stops. A stop is half the twice the exposure so one stop is 1/100 and another stop is 1/50.

One other point - your Nikon camera has a crop factor due to the size of the sensor - 1.5 i believe.
That means that at 200mm you're effectively only seeing the same as a 350mm lens (200 x 1.5).
That in turn means that at 200mm you probably want to have at least 1/400s as a shutter speed to ensure sharp images.

moonrakerz

JoeA81 wrote: »

Why does the camera world always refer to "stops". When people talk about VR etc they always say "ooh it gives me a couple more stops".

The term "stop" can be used to describe either an "f" stop or a "speed" stop - 1/125 to 1/250 sec is one stop - why make a meal of it !

JoeA81

Thanks for the replies, I genuinely didnt know that stops could refer to speed stops as well as f-stops. You learn something every day! And thanks for defining what 1 speed stop actually is moonrakerz & darich. That question has been in my mind for ages.

thebroker1980

Thanks very much for all the advice..

Thanks again...