"S.Ross" <stevenross@mac.com> writes: > Thanks to all of you that responded. > In terms of zoom lenses, should you > only go for the fastest you can afford? and what other > aspects would you say to look out for? Or are > we all prime nuts....:-} I use zooms quite a lot. But I do enough photos in very dark conditions that I have a real fetish for fast lenses. So my two main zooms are both f2.8, and then I have prime lenses faster than that when needed (24 f2, 35 f2, 58 f1.2, 135 f2 especially). My zooms have always been from third-party manufacturers. In the mid 80s the prime manufacturers started taking zooms seriously, so these days they may make the best ones, and certainly make some special nice ones not duplicated by the third-party competition. Anyway, I think of the field as wide-open. And also, the prime manufacturers have started making low-line zooms that aren't anything special at all. If you're a news photographer shooting a couple hundred days a year, or you do serious expeditions to Tibet frequently, or something, there may be a significant difference in physical durability between a good Tamron lens and a good Nikon lens. I wouldn't know since I'm not one. I've got a Tamron from back to 1975 and some Tokina zooms from 1994 that seem to me to be in perfect shape with fairly serious amateur use over that much time. -- David Dyer-Bennet, dd-b@dd-b.net / New TMDA anti-spam in test John Dyer-Bennet 1915-2002 Memorial Site http://john.dyer-bennet.net Book log: http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/Ouroboros/booknotes/ New Dragaera mailing lists, see http://dragaera.info
