Advice required

[cdgaskin]

After a good long chat with my wife we came to the decision that when i get the deposit for the wedding, that i can use it to get a 200mm lens and a flash gun (for the wedding, then ill have the majority of the kit ill need) but im stuck, as i dont know what is best for my budget? the deposit is £200/$275. any advice?

[Murtasma]

Are you going to be spending any extra money on top of the deposit to get this flash and lens? If not I'm not sure what you will purcahse will actually be worth it to you. $275.00 is not enough for a decent 200mm zoom and a flash gun. Your money would probably be better spent renting a good flash and lens if possible. I'm not sure if these lens rental places have lens for a sony Alpha.

[Swisstony10]

I've just had a look at Warehouse Express - my usual one-stop-shop for camera goodies, their range of Sony-fit lenses is here - Cameras & Lenses - Camera Lenses - Sony / Minolta Fit - Warehouse Express

I haven't looked properly through the thread where you mentioned the wedding, but in general you want a pretty fast lens, because light can often be a problem - lots of people recommend/rely on an f2.8 (constant) lens, and those seldom come cheap, not with a maximum zoom of 200mm+, anyway..

Hiring might be a better option - use the deposit to hire really nice kit that would normally be totally out of your price range. That has two advantages - firstly, if you do it a couple of times you'll have enough cash from the balances of jobs to buy the really nice lenses, and secondly you'll have been able to try out a few different ones, and see which one works best for the way you shoot.

Since you're in the UK - Lenses For Hire Ltd. - they only hire lenses for Canon and Nikon at the moment, but it'll give you a good idea of what to expect. I don't know if Calumet hire Sony-fit lenses, but they hire nice expensive pro cameras. EDIT - if you end up hiring a different camera for the wedding, make sure you have it for plenty of time before-hand, so you know your way around it. I probably didn't even need to suggest that...

EDIT#2 - *points up* What she said.

Russ.

[cdgaskin]

Thank you both for your advice.

i had originaly thought of hiring but i cant find any that stock sony fit lenses. i have however found a sony to nikon lens mount adapter here, this would mean i have full range of all hire outlets. this however ponders a new question. do they have any "side effects" to a capture or any other niggles? are they recommended or barge pole'ed?

i have found this , which saves me needing a hot shoe adapter and also has a slve function (got to wait 2 weeks for the deposit though so it will probably be gone by then but at least i know what im looking for now)

[FoG]

No idea Chris sorry matey ... reckon on about 175 for a decent flash though and at least that for a lens maybe you could get a used one from a reputable dealer ?

[inkista]

Just to let you know, I think that Nikon F -> Sony Alpha adapter may have a glass element in it. If it does, it's going to essentially act as a teleconverter, to achieve infinity focus. Which means you're going to lose some image quality if you mount a Nikon lens. It may not be enough to worry about, but it is something to consider. Secondly, you don't want to purchase any Nikon G-mount lenses, because without an aperture ring, it's going to be exceedingly tough to control the aperture of the lens. (So, the 55-200 VR is out of the running).

I'd actually recommend looking for an old Minolta AF lens, say a 100-200 f/4.5, before looking for a bargain on the Nikon side.