Recently I made a lot of fuss on Facebook in a discussion where people misunderstood the point I was making as a statement that nobody needs full frame DSLR cameras and that they have no technological advantage at all. And I was just saying that their advantage over contemporary APS-C sensors is overrated, as many people with little photographic experience are rushing into upgrading their system to full frame bodies as some “magic wand” for their personal photographic advance, without taking into account all the aspects that full frame brings. Those aspects that I took into account last year when I decided to upgrade my system, but remain on the APS-C format.
The irrationality of full frame
I see people all over the net suggesting beginners pointless things, like buying a used full frame camera with sensors which are yesterday’s technology, far inferior to contemporary full frame sensors, and even inferior to contemporary crop sensors. They suggest it as some kind of “entry” into building a full frame system, but I see no gain in that suggestion. Just loss of enormous amounts of money on buying full frame lenses – which may one day become really usable if a proper, technologically advanced full frame camera is bought. But the final price of all that is far greater than what people were actually considering to invest when looking at the prices of used full frame bodies. There is simply no “shortcut” for the full frame world – you have to invest heavily, because it’s expensive technology. Advances of some 5-10% in terms of image quality and photographic possibilities cost you an increase in spending of around 5-10 TIMES.
Who can really justify that kind of investment today? Professional photographers only. And I don’t mean the “would be”, aspiring future photographers, dreaming about becoming pros. I mean people who make a living out of photography, without the need to do anything else to survive.
Building a (high quality) amateur APS-C system
I’m quite passionate about nature photography, and for my business having high quality photos is cruicial for the marketing efforts. But I do not sell my photographs directly, so I can consider myself just as an experienced (and averagely talented) amateur photographer. My photography upgrade last year was aimed at increasing the quality of my photographic output and broadening my creative possibilities – by a moderate investment, if possible.
Maybe bying a Nikon D500 doesn’t really sound like a moderate investment, but I’ve chosen today’s top of the line crop sensor body having in mind that I switch cameras very rarely, and that it would satisfy my needs for a long time to come. I would probably be almost just as happy with a D7200 (or maybe the latest D7500), but I decided to give myself that extra dose of perfection in terms of performance, autofocus system, connectivity, low light photography and build quality that the D500 brings as a, beyond doubt, professional camera.
The next step was building the right lens collection for my needs. And that can be expensive even when crop lenses are concerned. My goal was to cover the entire zoom range with as much quality as I can possibly get from a crop system, without resorting to the extremely expensive (as well as heavy) full frame designated lenses (which usually have a four figure price tag each). I wanted to have everything, but at the same time fitting into a lightweight photographic backpack that wouldn’t be masochistic to carry around. So I quickly came to my ideal, all purpose, 4-lens system – which is very close to being a universal recommendation for anyone wanting to build an optimal Nikon APS-C system (the base of the system can be a cheaper crop sensor camera, like those from D7xxx series, for example). Let’s to to the lenses!
Primary (not prime) lens: Nikkor 16-80mm F2.8-4E ED VR
This is probably THE best DX (crop factor) designated zoom lens for Nikon cameras that money can buy today. It has a golden N mark on it with a golden ring around the lens, featured only on the top class professional Nikkor lenses. Coming as a kit lens with the D500 was definitely an advantage pricewise, since when bought separately this lens carries a $ 1000 price tag.
I’ve read some raving reports about this lens on the net before I bought it, and using it for one year I can only say that all the fame surrounding it is founded. In fact, it’s even better than what you can read there – it’s simply a dream to work with! Razor sharp across the range, starting at an extremely useful 16 mm instead of the more conventional 18 mm, it features a full 5x zoom, which is sufficient for most photographic situations you find yourself in, and you rarely feel a need to replace it by some other lens. Due to it’s very good aperture start at F2.8 it is also fantastic to work with in low light conditions – I’ve made some breathtaking shots under the starry sky with it in the past season.
One of the strongest sides of this lens is it’s VR system – it is so effective, that you can even make sharp handheld shots with the shutter at 1/3 of a second! So you can make some quite spectacular images of waterfalls and streams with the effect of flowing water even without a tripod. It focuses precisely, and fast, without being excessively noisy.
So is it really a perfect lens? Does it have no bad sides at all? Well, nothing is perfect, so is the case with this lens too. If features a slight light falloff towards the edges, which can lead to vignetting at the wide open aperture (especially at 80 mm). But this should not bother anyone, since this is easily corrected in software (either Photoshop or Lightroom – they both have predefined lens profile for this lens).
After working with this lens for a year, I simply can’t imagine relegating to anything else as a primary zoom lens – either the 18-140 mm, or the dreadful (and cheap) 18-105 mm. Only the 17-50 mm F2.8 might be a worthy replacement.
The telephoto zoom: Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED VR
There are several dirt cheap Nikkor DX format designated telephoto zoom lenses, but none really offer the quality and performance that aspiring amateurs expect from a lens of this type. So I decided to buy the entry level FX designated lens, which when used on a crop sensor even offers the advantage of a 105-450 mm equivalent zoom range.
The F4.5 aperture doesn’t really give this lens a lot of light, so to expect decent quality (especially with fast moving objects requiring fast shutter speeds) it’s not meant to be used with CPL or ND filters. It’s clearly a daylight lens, since you can’t expect much from F4.5 as soon as the light diminishes (unless you’re prepared to work with extremely high ISO settings). However, opting for a F2.8 telephoto zoom lens would mean not only trippling the pricetag, but also trippling the size, and weight. And I certainly don’t intend to walk around with something resembling a rocket launcher in my hand. So for wildlife and portrait photography (and other situations when I need to bring distant objects closer) this lens seems to be the ideal compromise.
My experiences with this lens so far have been good. It is sharp across the range (maybe with slight falloff beyond 200 mm, but less than what other similar lenses exhibit), it focuses decently (very precisely and quite fast), and has an extremely good VR (vibration reduction) which is cruicial when it comes to usability of telephoto lenses. When tracking birds in the sky with continuous autofocus, you have to have a very steady hand, capable of tracking the object precisely – if it slips out of the focus area for a period longer that the blocked shot AF response time it will lose focus and you’ll have to help it manually to refocus (that’s the only irritating thing about the operation of this lens).
The prime lens: Nikkor 35mm F1.8G (DX)
“Playing around” with a prime, non-zoom lens is a great way of improving your photographic skills and the way you view composition – without the possibility to adjust the zoom precisely to what you need, you spontaneously start paying more attention to composition. Another good thing about the prime lenses is that they can supply your sensor with a lot of light – usually much more than the zoom lenses. So they’re ideal for working in low light conditions, and anytime you need a beautiful bokeh. Having an aperture of F1.8, this is by far the “fastest” lens in my collection.
The Nikkor 35 mm F1.8G (DX) is a low cost, extremely lightweight and small, but functionally perfect prime lens. The crop 35 mm translated to full frame is around 52 mm, which means it’s the “standard” eye view – exactly what you see, not zoomed, or widened. Such a lens has perfect geometry, and this one also happens to be razor sharp. It’s a little bit wider than what you need for a perfect portrait lens (the 50 mm would be more appropriate for that in the crop world), but it is remarkably usable, having in mind that it has no possibility to zoom. And you can be sure that, whatever you shoot with it, will render absolutely perfect results – the best that you can expect from a crop camera.
The only issue that I have with this lens is that it’s focusing motor is a bit on the slow side. But still I’ve never missed a good shot because of that. It does not have VR, but that isn’t something that you expect on a 35 mm lens anyway (or something that you really need). The F1.8 aperture gives you plenty of opportunity to use shutter speeds such as 1/50 or 1/60 even in the dim light of various nightlife settings, without the risk of having moving objects rendered unsharp (except the fast moving ones). And if you pump up the ISO values to something like 1000-2000, thanks to the wide open aperture you can even capture perfect still shots at concerts and other kinds of stage play, without the need to use a flash.
So a 35 mm fast prime lens simply has a special place in the collection of every aspiring amateur photographer. And it’s really not expensive to own one. Try it – you’ll like it!
The ultrawide zoom: Tokina AT-X 11-20mm f/2.8 PRO DX
If you want a fast ultrawide zoom lens (one that lets through a lot of light), there’s not much choice in today’s world, really. In fact, the Tokina 11-20 mm F2.8 is the only ultrawide zoom lens featuring a constant F2.8 aperture. Before I bought it I hesitated for a moment, thinking that the Sigma 8-16 mm F4.5 – F6.3 might be the better option for my needs, but the dreadful F4.5 aperture shattered all my ideas about being able to use it effectively for night photography, or any low light setting. So I concluded that the F2.8 aperture means more than the extra 3 mm of wide angle.
And I’m not disappointed by the choice of this, so far only non-Nikon lens that I have. It’s very robust with a full metal body, exceeding the build quality of any other of my lenses, and the optics of the Tokina have proven to be extremely well. Even though it starts at the wide 11 mm (equivalent of 16,5 mm in FX terms) it has no barel distortion at any point in the range – the geometry is as good as a 11 mm lens can get. And it’s very sharp across the range and at any chosen aperture. So I really expect a lot from it in future night landscape shots and any situation where such a wide lens is a welcome way to cut down on the excessive panoramic stitches.
However, when using it for long exposure shots I have to be extremely careful, having in mind that it has NO VR (as no ultrawide lens has), so using shutter speeds below 1/10 (or maybe even below 1/15) without a tripod is a sure way to get blurred images.
Are there really any alternatives to Tokina 11-20 mm F2.8? Maybe the Nikkor 10-24 mm F3.5-F4.5 is worth considering because it offers increased zoom range with very decent sharpness and geometry – but with significantly worse aperture starting at F3.5, and with a 50% higher price tag. And the Sigma 10-20 mm F3.5, priced similarly to the Tokina, fails to deliver what the Tokina delivers. So the Tokina is obviously the clear winner when it comes to choosing a crop ultrawide zoom lens (and this is valid either for Nikon or Canon camera users). End of story.
Is this the end of building a Nikon DX lens collection?
You can always find more interesting lenses that can prove useful for certain situations, but this four lense collection could be regarded as everything you really need in order to have a good solution for any situation. Which lenses could be good future additions to this set?
Before all, a few more prime lenses could be thrown in. The Nikkor 40 mm F1.4, or the Nikkor 85 mm F1.8. However, they both cost more than the DX version of the 35 mm lens, since they’re FX lenses.
A very welcome addition could also be the Sigma Art 18-35 mm F1.8 zoom lens – an extremely fast lens, pefrect for working in low light. But not cheap. In theory one of the 17-50 mm lenses (or in Nikkor’s case 17-55 mm) with constant F2.8 aperture could find their way into the pack, but there’s not much chance for that – the 16-80 mm with all it’s qualities renders them completely unnecessary. So the existing batch might well be the lens collection that won’t see any newcomers for a long time 🙂
I hope my experiences and the choices I’ve made can help other Nikon DX camera owners who consider some lens upgrade too. Remember that keeping a crop camera can help you get a lot out of your system for relatively little money. So don’t give up and rush to get an FX camera just yet – maybe you really don’t need to?