Zoom lens

[kmclark]

Have a 18-35 mm 1.8f lens coming from a rental company for our upcoming Halloween trip to WDW. I have the kit lens 55-200mm also that I usually take with me. What zoom lens is better than the kit zoom lens? I was looking at a Tamron and Nikon 18-300mm

I just know the one that I have gets real grainy on when zoomed all the way. Wondering if one of these or something else would be clearer.

 

[cbombard]

Have a 18-35 mm 1.8f lens coming from a rental company for our upcoming Halloween trip to WDW. I have the kit lens 55-200mm also that I usually take with me. What zoom lens is better than the kit zoom lens? I was looking at a Tamron and Nikon 18-300mm

I just know the one that I have gets real grainy on when zoomed all the way. Wondering if one of these or something else would be clearer.

My walk around lens for my D5100 is a Sigma 18-250. I have been very happy with it.. www.bombard.org is my personal site.. most of the pictures there are with the Sigma..

I would be interested to hear what you think of the 18-35.. My other lens is a 50prime 1.8 Nikon (the new one)

-Charlie

 

[kmclark]

I have the 18-35 coming from lensrental.com

The only sigma that they have like yours is 18-200 mm

Do you have graininess in your zooms with the Sigma?

 

[havoc315]

Have a 18-35 mm 1.8f lens coming from a rental company for our upcoming Halloween trip to WDW. I have the kit lens 55-200mm also that I usually take with me. What zoom lens is better than the kit zoom lens? I was looking at a Tamron and Nikon 18-300mm

I just know the one that I have gets real grainy on when zoomed all the way. Wondering if one of these or something else would be clearer.

The lens is not grainy. You're shooting auto. When the lens zooms in far, you get a smaller aperture, and you need a faster shutter speed. That then requires a higher ISO. And a higher ISO = grainy.

The ways to improve are to master manually setting the camera, and lenses with larger aperture. All super zooms -- like 18-300s, have small slow aperture.
An improved walk around lens would be something like the Tamron 17-50/2.8. Of course, that doesn't zoom very much. If you really want a telephoto zoom that won't get grainy, then you need at least 2 lenses: something like the Tamron 17-50/2.8, paired with a 70-200/2.8.

 

[photo_chick]

Have a 18-35 mm 1.8f lens coming from a rental company for our upcoming Halloween trip to WDW. I have the kit lens 55-200mm also that I usually take with me. What zoom lens is better than the kit zoom lens? I was looking at a Tamron and Nikon 18-300mm

I just know the one that I have gets real grainy on when zoomed all the way. Wondering if one of these or something else would be clearer.

While some lenses do have a gritty look to them, it would be consistent throughout the focal range. As already said your issue is increased noise because you have a smaller aperture when your lens is at it's longest focal length and therefor require a higher ISO setting. If you want a zoom to help with this issue then you need one with a faster aperture on the long end and/or a fixed aperture throughout the range.

 

[boBQuincy]

The previous two posts tell how to solve the issue. The lenses that do this are usually: large; heavy; expensive. To get the best from these lenses will require knowledge of camera modes like "A" (aperture).

A 18-300 will probably be even worse than the 55-200 for what you want.

 

[xlxo]

I agree with the ISO being too high is leading to grain.

I like my 18-300mm, but 18-200mm is a little lighter when travelling when I don't need that extra reach. BTW... if you want sharpness, these lenses like f/8.

If you need those high ISO is because of lack of light... consider the 24-70mm f/2.8.

 

[Pixel Dust]

As everyone already mentioned, it's the high ISO due to the smaller aperture of the lens.

While the 70-200mm f/2.8 is a great lens, the price is pretty steep. Looks like you are shooting with a crop sensor camera. A similar lens would be the Sigma 50-150mm f/2.8. It's made for crop sensor cameras like yours and is a lot cheaper. You will get much better results over your current 55-200mm. And while the 70-200mm is a much better lens, you many not even notice a difference, unless you pixel-peep.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/853531-REG/Sigma_692_306_50_150mm_f_2_8_EX_DC.html

http://www.lensrentals.com/rent/nikon/lenses/telephoto/sigma-50-150mm-f2.8-dc-hsm-os-for-nikon-dx