There are a lot of camera lenses out there! For those with a specific type of specialized photographic interest, like taking ultra-sharp pictures of bugs and flowers, and who have an unlimited budget, it’s pretty easy to pick lenses because any of the major manufacturers certainly have something designed especially for them.
On the other hand, those who dabble in a wide range of photographic pursuits are doomed to either spend an unlimited budget they don’t really have, or to live with a couple of general-purpose lenses that turn out images with obvious flaws. It’s certainly a dilemma, and you really wouldn’t believe the amount of time I’ve spent researching and wanting various lenses, all the way from a 10.5mm wide angle prime to a 70-200mm image-stabilized outdoor action-scene-capturing f2.8 monster zoom, with others along the way, like macro primes everywhere from 85 to 150mm, and pretty much every good zoom lens covering parts of the range of 12mm to 200mm. Sometimes it makes my head spin!
To help me sort all this out I’ve started keeping a list of lenses I’m really keen to try, along with a count of my ‘i-really-wish-i-had-that-lens-right-now’ moments when actually taking pictures. I figure that will help me separate the measurebator and geek toy urges from what would be really useful for the types of photography I do. I also looked through my photo archives at the types of shooting I do, considered the focal length, aperture, and ISO settings I used, as well as whether I had to use a flash, and what effect that had on the image.
The images I take without flash and with the 50mm f1.8D my mom got me for Christmas a couple years ago are much more pleasing to my eye than the ones I take with flash or the 18-70mm kit lens, but I often wish I had more field of view, and I remember lots of times taking a shot that’s too close, with my back already jammed against the farthest available wall.
When I told him about those factors, plus the short, dark days and a lot of time spent taking family snapshots and portraits indoors, Captain Obvious told me that a fast prime lens somewhere in the range of 28mm to 35mm will make a great addition to my small collection of lenses. I’d really like to find a Nikon 28mm f1.4D, but it’s been discontinued. Sigma makes a 30mm f1.4 that lots of people seem to like, and finally, there’s the Nikon 35mm f2.0D. I would consider buying either of the Nikons used on ebay or from a reputable camera dealer, but the Sigma would have to be brand new and exchangeable, since I hear they have significant quality variance from lens to lens, even in the same model.