So now that I have a dSLR, I’m drooling over all of the lenses available to me. I’m also remembering fondly the lenses I had that were stolen. I had three, one of which I was very grateful that it was stolen — it was a boneafide piece of shit. The other two, I absolutely loved.
That being said, I tend to lean more towards prime lenses (as opposed to zoom lenses). As you know, I’m of the school that one should choose a focal length before composing the image, and not the other way around. Because of this, given enough prime lenses to cover the range of uses I employ, a zoom lens buys me very little. Well, that’s not entirely true. One zoom lens is more portable than the 2 (or 3) prime lenses it might replace. But, you sacrifice sharpness for a convienience. Aside from that, a few millimeters in focal length could save you from having to step forward or backward when framing the shot, but that’s just plain lazy. So, unless I can’t possibly move any closer or further away, and don’t want to crop the image at all, all of the focal lengths around a prime (i.e. 33mm, 34mm, 35mm, 36mm, 37mm for a 35mm) are useless to me. Another upshot of zoom lenses is that, most likely, you will need fewer of them, and therefore, you will save money. This might be worth it to some. It might even be worth it to me. I’m not sure yet. Even if I go with Zooms, I’d really like to have the 35mm f/2.0.
That being said, here are two wishlists — one for primes and one for zooms. Each lens is followed by a number from 1 to 5 indicating how much I will use it (5 being the most) and, additionally, a current price (new, USA warranty).
Prime Lenses
Nikkor 18mm f/2.8 D (2) $1,300* Sigma 20mm f/2.8 ES ASP HSM AF-D (3) $360* Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 D (4) $270 Nikkor 35mm f/2.0 D (5) $265 Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 D (5) $100 (HAVE IT) Nikkor 85mm f/1.8 D (4) $345 (STOLEN) Sigma 105mm f/2.8 EX Macro AF-D (3) $330 Sigma 180mm f/3.5 EX APO Macro IF HSM AF-D (2) $740 Nikkor 300mm f/2.8 D ED-IF II (1) $4,400 * = I don't need the 20mm if I have the 18mm.
Zoom Lenses
Sigma 17- 35mm f/2.8-4.0 EX ASP AF-D (4) $490 Sigma 28- 70mm f/2.8 EX ASP AF-D (5) $330 (STOLEN) Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 EX APO Macro IF HSM AF-D (3) $740 Sigma 100-300mm f/2.8 EX APO IF HSM AF-D (2) $1,900
If we look at just the 4′s and 5′s a Prime system will cost me $980 (actually $880, since I already have one of these) while a Zoom system will cost $820. I get smaller with the Zooms and Longer with the Primes. The Prime system is 4 lenses. The Zoom system is 2.
The nice thing about going with the Zoom lenses is that, with only one lens I account for almost 4 of the primes (take a little on both ends).
Sigma makes GREAT Zoom lenses. Their EX series is VERY comparable to Nikkor, which is why they’ve been chosen for all of my Zoom lenses. Unfortunately, they don’t make very many prime lenses at all, so they couldn’t be used in too many places.
So yeah. If you want to buy me a present… this is the list.