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Author Topic: Looking for a zoom lens  (Read 2903 times)

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Offline hzgone

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Looking for a zoom lens
« on: September 30, 2004, 05:59:36 PM »
I have a 35mm Minolta Maxxum 5 and i'm looking to get a zoom lens for it.  But i'm not really sure about buying one.  What do i look for? what is good, what is bad?  Used or new?  I'm really not a camera guy but i do like to take pics at shows.  So far i'm not really a fan of film cause everything i shoot comes out like crap except maybe one picture.  Oh well i got this camera for my birthday so i better use it.  Thanks for any and all info
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Offline MattD

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Re: Looking for a zoom lens
« Reply #1 on: October 01, 2004, 09:22:48 AM »
If you're looking to do concert pics, skip the zoom and get a really fast prime. Damon and I both use a 50mm f/1.4 lens at shows, since even a 2.8 tends to be too slow. I don't know what's available for the Maxxum line (I used to have a 500si though), but I'm sure you can find something similar. The reason I recommend the prime is that a fast zoom is likely to be big $!
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jpschust

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Re: Looking for a zoom lens
« Reply #2 on: October 01, 2004, 09:28:36 AM »
yah fast zooms are very expensive, especially with minolta mounts, reason being that fast zooms are expensive enough on their own, once you have that kind of money to spend most people tend to shoot canon or nikon at that point... not putting minlota down- my first SLR was a minolta (long time ago) and served me very well.

Offline hzgone

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Re: Looking for a zoom lens
« Reply #3 on: October 01, 2004, 05:44:17 PM »
cool thanks guys, what type of price are we talking about.  does this have to be a fixed focal length? could it be an auto focus?
« Last Edit: October 01, 2004, 05:54:03 PM by hzgone »
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Offline MattD

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Re: Looking for a zoom lens
« Reply #4 on: October 02, 2004, 01:08:14 PM »
Prime = fixed length (I think there may be more to the definition than this, but all primes are fixed length)
They can be autofocus, though at concert light levels, a lot of systems might have trouble with it. I'd say $300 is a reasonable price for a fast prime at a medium length (35, 50, 85 mm, say)
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Offline dmonterisi

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Re: Looking for a zoom lens
« Reply #5 on: October 03, 2004, 10:51:54 AM »
i concur that a prime is the way to go for concert shots.  zooms with a large maximum aperture are expensive.  i have a 50mm/f1.4 prime and a 24-70/f2.8 zoom.  i can get good shots with the 2.8, but the 1.4 excels in low-light.  depending on where you shoot from, the 50mm prime is most likely your best/most affordable bet.  it won't be great from long distances, but fast telephoto primes get expensive as well.  from a quick search on the B&H website, i found 2 Minolta 50mm primes: the f1.4 autofocus for $239 and the f1.7 for $77.  i don't know anything about the relative image quality of these two lenses, but the 1.7 for $77 sounds like a very good deal.  you will be able to shoot in concert environments with a 1.7 max aperture.  the 1.4 gives you an extra half-stop and if minolta's line is similar to canon's, the 1.4 is likely built a little better and with slightly better autofocus.  but, as MattD said, you may find yourself having to manually focus in extreme low-light situations anyway.  if you don't want to spend a ton of cash, the 1.7 sounds like a good buy.  but i would check reviews at photographyreview.com before i bought. 

EDIT: B&H has that 50mm/f1.4 used for $159.  sounds like a good deal.  i don't know which minolta lenses fit your camera so i would double check that.

Offline BCostigan

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Re: Looking for a zoom lens
« Reply #6 on: October 04, 2004, 04:10:13 PM »
I will agree that the 1.4 50mm would be nice for concert pics......if you can get close.  I also agree that you'll most likely manually focus more often than not.  My D70 is really fast in daylight but get in low light and it can't make up it's mind if it's in focus or not.
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Offline hzgone

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Re: Looking for a zoom lens
« Reply #7 on: October 11, 2004, 03:07:05 PM »
+T to all for you info. 
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Offline rerem

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Re: Looking for a zoom lens
« Reply #8 on: January 16, 2005, 08:52:36 AM »
I have a 135 f1.8 and a 300 f4. The 135 can do small clubs where there is less stage light,In big venues the 300 does okay. The 800 films available now are remarkable. These lenses I had since the early 80's. I doubt very much whether you could find zooms able to let in that much light,even these days,but you may find a fast telephoto of 135,200,even 300mm. A 50mm 1.2 obviously is nice in low light but you miss that up close impact like the 2ftx3ft Jerry Garcia at the Greek from the second row that my 300 did,its on the livingroom wall

 

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