Nikon Lenses

[gstroupe]

Ok folks, I think I've decided on the Nikon D70 for a body. Now I need to get together a short list of lenses for U/W use. If you have to chose 3 lenses, 1 for Wide, 1 for Macro, and 1 other lense (perhaps a fisheye or an additional wide?) what would you chose and why?


thanks!

[justleesa]

I recently asked a simular question without specifying the brand. You'll find some interesting lens info in my thread, starting with post #10.

[gstroupe]

thanks...I will review that thread.

[ssra30]

Basically the commonly used Nikkor lenses are 10.5mm, Sigma 15mm, 12-24mm, 60mm macro, 105mm macro. Some other alternatives are 70-180mm macro, Sigma 150mm macro.
For wide angle, new Sigma 10-20mm and Sigma/Tokina 12-24mm are also an option.
For wide angle, I really like the 10.5mm but Sigma 15mm might be an easier lens to start of with. 12-24mm is very nice but expensive. Sigma got some really good feed back for 10-20mm but I don't know which housing manufacturers support that lens yet. 60mm is good for macro and fish portrait type work and 105mm for general macro.
I am not a big fan of the 18-70mm as it requires diopter and does not focus close enough for real macro work and not quite wide enough for real wide angle work but is probably ok if you want to do fish portrait only.
First I would check with your housing manufacturer first to see what lenses they support as not all of them will support the same range of lenses.

[kdietz]

I second what Boi says, but would add that I think the 2 best starter lens are the Sigma 15 and the 60mm macro.

The Sigma 15 is very sharp and will focus very close. The 60 can shoot fish portraits or 1:1 macro on the same dive. Add a Woody's external diopter for even closer macro.

Karl

[dbh]

My 3 lenses are the 60mm, 105mm and the 12-24mm. I am VERY happy with all 3. I can put on an external diopter (Woody's) with either the 60 or 105 and can add a 2X teleconverter to the 105 for really small stuff. I don't plan on getting any more lenses.

The first lens I would get out of the bunch is the 60mm. Look in Karl's T&C Gallery. The shark shots were with the 60mm alone. Once he added the Woody's Diopter, he was able to shoot the goby.

Just make sure that whichever housing you go with supports the lenses you want to use. I believe they all support the 60mm & 105mm.

HTH,
Dave

[gstroupe]

A follow up question. You recommend the Sigma lenses vs. the Nikon DX lenses?

I second what Boi says, but would add that I think the 2 best starter lens are the Sigma 15 and the 60mm macro.

The Sigma 15 is very sharp and will focus very close. The 60 can shoot fish portraits or 1:1 macro on the same dive. Add a Woody's external diopter for even closer macro.

Karl

[kdietz]

The Nikon 10.5 DX is a specialty lens and hard to light properly. Better for advanced users IMHO.

The Nikon 12-24mm DX is a very good lens, but it's over $900 new and the Sigma 15 is just as wide (very, very close) and it only costs $400 +/-. The Sigma 15 will focus closer than the 12-24 and it's as sharp or sharper in the corners.

I have both and seem to use the 15mm more and more. I would use the 12-24 on a shark dive or anytime that the extra zoom reach would be useful. For CFWA and WA, the 15mm is hard to beat IMHO.

For macro, I would only use the Nikon 60mm or the Nikon 105mm

Karl

[Warren_L]

The Nikkor 12-24mm AF-S DX lens is my main lens for much of the wreck photography that I do. Love the lens. I find having the ability to zoom to 24mm when required to be handy at times, though I generally shoot wide at 12mm. In the end, whether the Sigma 15 or the Nikkor 12-24, it would depend on whether the ability to zoom to 24mm for the extra cost is of any value to your photography.

[ssra30]

One problem I have with 12-24mm DX is that it often it requires diopter especially with smaller domeport. I used to use it with Sea and Sea Compact Domeport and the result was quite terrible. However when I switched to Subal and use the FE02 domeport, it is a much better match. If you consider a 12-24mm DX, make sure that you get a big dome and hopefully the manufacturer will offer a domeport/extension ring combination that won't require you to use a diopter with teh setup.
With Subal FE02 domeport, the 12-24mm DX will focus very very close to the dome without diopter which is veyr nice.
It seems that the 10.5 and Sigma 15mm is not quite as demanding on the domeport as the 12-24mm.