Re: Start Out - Canon / Nikon?
Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 9:40 am
Hi Jaff, and welcome.
The D90 is a great body for you to start with.
For shooting jewellery, rather than getting either of the kit lenses (or maybe as well as) you may better off looking to get something like the Tamron 90mm. It's relatively inexpensive, it's a fast lens, but has consistently good image and build quality. It won't give you the versatility of either of the kit lenses that you mentioned, but for macro work, it's a lens whose purchase you will not regret.
My guess is that you should be able to pick up the 18-105 and the Tamron 90 for around the same price as the 18-200.
There's a couple of other aspects of shooting jewellery that you will also need to consider. Lighting is important: have you considered how you're going to light your subjects yet? What about somewhere to shoot: do you have a light tent? These are very important questions; shooting jewellery/macros etc is not simply a matter of getting up close and personal. The quality and direction of your light sources can easily break your images .... there are inexpensive ways to overcome the issues you may see.
And then there's focus and image stability: what sort of camera support do you have? As you move in closer to your subject, focus becomes harder to achieve, and a good camera support helps you to overcome the issues that you will, over time, be sure to encounter.
The D90 is a great body for you to start with.
For shooting jewellery, rather than getting either of the kit lenses (or maybe as well as) you may better off looking to get something like the Tamron 90mm. It's relatively inexpensive, it's a fast lens, but has consistently good image and build quality. It won't give you the versatility of either of the kit lenses that you mentioned, but for macro work, it's a lens whose purchase you will not regret.
My guess is that you should be able to pick up the 18-105 and the Tamron 90 for around the same price as the 18-200.
There's a couple of other aspects of shooting jewellery that you will also need to consider. Lighting is important: have you considered how you're going to light your subjects yet? What about somewhere to shoot: do you have a light tent? These are very important questions; shooting jewellery/macros etc is not simply a matter of getting up close and personal. The quality and direction of your light sources can easily break your images .... there are inexpensive ways to overcome the issues you may see.
And then there's focus and image stability: what sort of camera support do you have? As you move in closer to your subject, focus becomes harder to achieve, and a good camera support helps you to overcome the issues that you will, over time, be sure to encounter.