Zoom Lens for Nikon d3500 dslr advice please...
Options
inspector_monkfish
Posts: 9,276 Forumite
in Techie Stuff
hello, just looking for advice please for my daughter, as we know nothing about photography and it’s all a bit minefield out there to us, sorry!
Our daughter is 15yrs old and just getting into photography.
We have recently bought her a Nikon D3500 dslr camera as advised by the photography course she has started.
it came with a standard type lens, which is fine, but she now needs a zoom lens for the next part of the course she’s taking.
We've been advised to get a 70-300mm zoom lens, but it’s hard (for us anyway) to understand what is compatible with her camera and why the prices seem to vary from anywhere between £80 and £500!
some seem to be different brand, but compatible with Nikon. Some seem to be actual Nikon brand, not really sure how this all works to be completely honest!
Dont really have the money to splash out on the top end lens, but equally don’t want to buy something cheap and not up to the job!
Any helpful advice please would be humbly appreciated to these completely novice parents, who are willing to learn!
Thank-you in advance
IM
Our daughter is 15yrs old and just getting into photography.
We have recently bought her a Nikon D3500 dslr camera as advised by the photography course she has started.
it came with a standard type lens, which is fine, but she now needs a zoom lens for the next part of the course she’s taking.
We've been advised to get a 70-300mm zoom lens, but it’s hard (for us anyway) to understand what is compatible with her camera and why the prices seem to vary from anywhere between £80 and £500!
some seem to be different brand, but compatible with Nikon. Some seem to be actual Nikon brand, not really sure how this all works to be completely honest!
Dont really have the money to splash out on the top end lens, but equally don’t want to buy something cheap and not up to the job!
Any helpful advice please would be humbly appreciated to these completely novice parents, who are willing to learn!
Thank-you in advance
IM
Please take the time to have a look around my Daughter's website www.daisypalmertrust.co.uk
(MSE Andrea says ok!)
(MSE Andrea says ok!)
0
Comments
-
This is something I'm at the beginning of looking at for my OH. I gather that like most things, there are branded & aftermarket parts available, and within that, different qualities available.
Probably something worth speaking to a 'proper' camera shop about. My target price for a similar lens is £150 to £200, being about 50% of the original camera price.0 -
Looks like the camera uses the Nikon F mount with AF so anything with that mount should be fine.
The three most popular lens manufacturers (for that mount) are Nikon, Sigma and Tamron. All are pretty good but Sigma and Tamron are likely to be significantly cheaper than Nikon.
I mainly use a mixture of Sigma and Tamron lenses on my cameras (Sony) and have no complaints about the quality of the lenses or the images they produce.0 -
The more expensive lens will likely have better performance in low light, faster focusing, and greater depth of field (to give the blurred background effect).
One thing to bare in mind is that if she takes up photography seriously/professionally she’ll almost certainly require a new camera (full frame) and the lenses won’t be compatible and she (you!) will be shopping from scratch again.
Therefore I’d seriously consider buying used from eBay, because at least you don’t loose too much value when she either upgrades or gives up on it.0 -
trojan10_om wrote: »The more expensive lens will likely have better performance in low light, faster focusing, and greater depth of field (to give the blurred background effect).
One thing to bare in mind is that if she takes up photography seriously/professionally she’ll almost certainly require a new camera (full frame) and the lenses won’t be compatible and she (you!) will be shopping from scratch again.
Therefore I’d seriously consider buying used from eBay, because at least you don’t loose too much value when she either upgrades or gives up on it.
The Nikon D3500 uses the Nikon F mount and therefore uses the exact same lenses as the top of the line Nikon cameras. She won't have to replace the lenses at all (except for quality reasons).
Edit: with the caveat that the lenses are full frame lenses of course.0 -
inspector_monkfish wrote: »hello, just looking for advice please for my daughter, as we know nothing about photography and it’s all a bit minefield out there to us, sorry!
Our daughter is 15yrs old and just getting into photography.
We have recently bought her a Nikon D3500 dslr camera as advised by the photography course she has started.
it came with a standard type lens, which is fine, but she now needs a zoom lens for the next part of the course she’s taking.
We've been advised to get a 70-300mm zoom lens, but it’s hard (for us anyway) to understand what is compatible with her camera and why the prices seem to vary from anywhere between £80 and £500!
some seem to be different brand, but compatible with Nikon. Some seem to be actual Nikon brand, not really sure how this all works to be completely honest!
Dont really have the money to splash out on the top end lens, but equally don’t want to buy something cheap and not up to the job!
Any helpful advice please would be humbly appreciated to these completely novice parents, who are willing to learn!
Thank-you in advance
IM
https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/buying-guides/best-telephoto-lenses-for-nikon-in-2018#section-best-70-300mm-lens
This has a decent selection split between the best 70-300mm and the best budget 70-300mm.
As said above you have to balance between price/quality/performance, read all of the reviews and speak to your daughter to see which is most important to her and the course.0 -
-
inspector_monkfish wrote: »hello, just looking for advice please for my daughter, as we know nothing about photography and it’s all a bit minefield out there to us, sorry!
Our daughter is 15yrs old and just getting into photography.
We have recently bought her a Nikon D3500 dslr camera as advised by the photography course she has started.
it came with a standard type lens, which is fine, but she now needs a zoom lens for the next part of the course she’s taking.
We've been advised to get a 70-300mm zoom lens, but it’s hard (for us anyway) to understand what is compatible with her camera and why the prices seem to vary from anywhere between £80 and £500!
some seem to be different brand, but compatible with Nikon. Some seem to be actual Nikon brand, not really sure how this all works to be completely honest!
Dont really have the money to splash out on the top end lens, but equally don’t want to buy something cheap and not up to the job!
Any helpful advice please would be humbly appreciated to these completely novice parents, who are willing to learn!
Thank-you in advance
IM
As a parent myself, you have mny sympathies. However, as a hobbyist photographer since the days of my first Russian-made Zenit 35mm camera, I'm bound in all honesty to say that a 15 year old getting into photography really doesn't need Nikon equipment to do so -- it's complete overkill, as are the prices likely to be encountered.
That's because, to use your phrase, "top end lenses' and 'top end equipment' is directed to 'top end users', i.e. people who know how to get the best from that which they've so expensively acquired.
Having come across this kind of nonsense time and again with local authority-run so-called 'education programmes' (though hopefully, what's being referred to here isn't such a scheme) it's blindingly obvious that those running such programmes / schemes haven't a clue what they're doing, and shouldn't be taken the slightest notice of.
Telling a complete novice they need to have a Nikon dSLR regardless of the fact that they know nothing about photography is like telling a would-be artist that they need to buy the Sistine Chapel in order to learn how to paint. It's blatant stupity.
You'd be much better advised NOT to waste any further time looking at grey market prices / Nikon UK prices and instead buy your daughter a decent bridge camera, either new or refurbished -- Panasonic's excellent FZ1000 and successor comes to mind -- as it's this type of camera which actually stimulates a user into taking more and more pictures . . . and getting rewarding results which will encourage them to do more, learn more, and enjoy more. A massively expensive dSLR kit will likely achieve the exact opposite where a novice user is concerned.
As to learning the art and practice of photography, a thorough reading of a bridge camer's user manual (so as to become familiarised with 'manual' shooting) and membership of an online bridge camera user forum will be of considerably greater help, at considerably less expense, than chucking £100s at Nikon lenses that are neither needed nor justified.
Put your money away. The advice you're being given is absurd.
PS: online reviews of 'bridge cameras' are easy to locate via a simple search enquiry. Such reviews are informative, but should not be regarded as Gospel because the entire online reviewing 'industry' is poisoned by the sheer number of free samples and free trips handed out to so-called 'reviewers' by manufacturers of all shapes and sizes. Though Amazon's 'Vine' programme took plenty of stick for being 'corrupt', it at least was honest enough to be visible.0 -
PS: just to add to my earlier post, think long and think hard about whether you want to tie up your funds in dSLR equipment at a time when so many dSLR users are giving up on the folly of lugging all that stuff around with them. Portability and manoeuverability are, along with actual ability, the three defining qualities to be looked for in photographic equipment. Unfortunately, once you start down the road of acquiring expensive extra lenses for a camera that was never that portable (nor remotely pocketable) in the first place you're on a mission to nowhere: there are actually mobile phones and tablets out there already which can take as good a photograph as a Nikon dSLR in optimal light situations. (I'm speaking from experience, comparing the results from my 2017 iPad Pro with my now no longer used Nikon 5200.)
As cellphone photography increasingly replaces traditional photography, it's wise to stay on the right side of things, and not finish up with a massively devalued dSLR kit that no-one really wants when their phone or their tablet is already working just fine, thanks.
At the moment, zoom cameras are doing that which no phone or tablet can adequately match. Though I'm yet to achieve with my highly pocketable go anywhere Canon SX740 HS an exhibition print capable of occupying several square feet of wall space -- but then, I'm not expecting to -- I'm enjoying the capturing of images at zoom lengths no mobile phone can possibly manage.0 -
trojan10_om wrote: »greater depth of field (to give the blurred background effect).
That's wrong!0 -
There's a lot to be said for buying cameras and lens on eBay. Many people buy all the gear but find it too unwieldy to carry round .. much of it never gets used!!0
This discussion has been closed.
Categories
- All Categories
- 343.2K Banking & Borrowing
- 250.1K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 449.7K Spending & Discounts
- 235.3K Work, Benefits & Business
- 608.1K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 173.1K Life & Family
- 248K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 15.9K Discuss & Feedback
- 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards