Buying a new lens - help please!

[spacemonkey]

Hi Guys,

I'm relatively new to photography, I've always had an interest in it but didn't actually do anything about it until about 12 months ago when I bought a Nikon D3100.

I don't know a great deal about the technical side of photography but I do know that I'm wanting to take better night shots of my surroundings an include the stars in them - like this kind of photo... http://royalepost.com/wp-content/upl...t-stars-19.jpg.

Now my Nikon D3100 came with 2 lenses the standard 18-55 and 55-300, and my understanding is that to get better night shots I'll need to learn how to edit the pictures a bit better and also get a lens with a larger aperture.

Please someone step in and correct me here if I'm wrong.

I don't know what lenses will/will not fit my camera but here are 3 in my price range - I'm not going all out for a fancy lens just yet ;-) so can someone please tell me which one would be best for what I want to achieve but would also be good for general use...

Nikon 1 10mm f2.8 Lens Black

Nikon AF 50mm f/1.8 Lens

Nikon 1 VR 10-30mm f3.5-5.6 Lens Black

[doctorjames]

primes are better than zooms for long exposures on the whole. A tiny change in focal length over the shot (which could be several minutes) will cause significant problems.

I would go for something inbetween the two primes you listed, somewhere around 24mm, as this will give you enough scope for some nice landscapes. A 50mm on a crop sensor will likely give you too limited field of view.

As for a larger aperture... actually no, as you start to lose depth of field and sharpness. Night photography (if using natural light) if always fraught with difficulty with regards to sharpness.

What you havent mentioned, is what tripod you have. You may actually see a much bigger improvement by having a good tripod and head so that your camera is nice and stable, and continue to use your kit lenses until you get a little more familiar with what focal lengths you are using.

As for the photograph you posted, dont expect results like that straight off the camera, nor anytime soon. That takes a lot of careful planning, experience and a reasonable amount of pp most of the time.

I have a heap of photos that I need to PP, but it is a labour intensive job with low light night photography. Here is one of mine from a couple of weeks back though.... ironically shot with a zoom, and on a lightweight tripod.... I really wished I had of taken the heavy manfrotto with me.

[scootermcq]

The Nikon 1 lenses are not for your camera.

[homank76]

As stated above you really need a good tripod and head to eliminate vibration, I also recommend a cable release to help this as well, it would be better to use mirror lock-up, but your camera lacks that feature. You could even get a small sandbag to set on top of the camera to help with vibration.

Your kit lens will be perfectly fine for something like this. Your tripod and head combination should cost no less than $200 and the cable release you can get for around $20.

[Aegea]

None of the lenses you mention are really suitable. The two Nikon 1 lenses are for Nikon's new System 1 cameras and will not mount on any DSLR. The 50/1.8 does not have a built-in motor and will not autofocus on the D3100. You need a lens that is designated AF-S, not AF.

I would suggest the 35 f/1.8 AF-S. Good lens, and quite cheap.

[homank76]

The 35mm that Aegea recommended is a great lens as my wife uses it all the time on the D7000, but you really need a good tripod and head before you get a different lens. Without it you'll still have camera shake and pictures won't be worth anything to you.

[spacemonkey]

Thanks to everyone for their replies.

By primes I assume you mean lenses that are fixed and cannot zoom?

I do need a better tripod though I just have a cheap one.

When you say "You need a lens that is designated AF-S, not AF." Why is that? for night photography I won't really be able to autofocus anyway but does this mean that it is not compatible with my camera at all?

Are you able to point me to an article that explains AF-S/AF because I don't even know what they mean. Sorry for my ignorance as I said I haven't been at this long but I am interested in that particular style of photography. I know that I need the correct gear and need to do some work with the photos after shooting them but I would like to start with a lens better suited for that style.

So can we all agree that the 35 f/1.8 AF-S would do the job?

and could someone also get back to me about the 50mm.

Thank you everyone once again for your help. I'm always open to helpful hits, tips and advice.

[homank76]

Basically you need a lens that has a motor built into the lens since your body does not have a motor in it. Without a motor in the lens you won't be able to auto focus as all. Nikon has labeled every lens that has a motor built into it with the AF-S.

[Doug Sundseth]

An AF or AF-D lens will work on the D3100. You will have to manually focus. It sounds like that isn't an issue for you in this application, but if you shoot in brighter light as well, working autofocus is often nice. (These are brilliant for indoor portrait work, for instance, where there's enough light to autofocus but not enough to get a reasonable shutter speed with a slower lens.

Nikon does make a slightly more expensive 50mm f/1.8G AF-S lens that will autofocus on the D3100.

For star photos, the search term you are looking for is "astrophotography". It's not one of my specialties so I'll just leave it at that rather than misinforming you.

[inkista]

Actually, for astrophotography, I'm not sure you need a better lens than the kit, although it would be nice. But if you're stopped down and doing long exposures, chances are good, the kit is going to be decent.

The main problems are a) tracking, b) light pollution, and c) having your battery last long enough for the exposure. A really good tripod, a good tracking head or stacking images in post-processing, and living somewhere isolated without any city lights are far more key to astrophotography than the max. aperture on your lens.