Chuck Lawson
TalkEmount Regular
I've had a lot of fun in my first week with the Nex 5R, and have been enjoying exploring some of my old Minolta lenses as well as the kit zoom, but I could use some advice as to where to go from here.
One of my various goofy hobbies is keeping dart frogs, and the primary reason for abandoning my old point-and-shoot was to take better pictures of them. The nature of the challenge is that these guys are about an inch long (+/- 25%), are in a heavily planted glass enclosure that's 20" or so front-to-back, a bit spooky, and faster than greased lightning.
I've gotten some great shots (compared to my old p&s, anyway) with the Nex, but I'd like to go to a longer lens that will let me fill more of the frame with the frog.
In other words, I want to go from this --
to this --
...without having to crop nearly so much.
This was shot with the kit zoom at 55mm, f8, manual focus. I've taken some good shots with my Minolta 50mm also, but it has a fairly long minimum focal length, which limits how close I can get even if they are near the front.
At the moment, I'm kind of torn between something like the Tokina AT-X 90mm F2.5 Macro, or the 55-210mm native zoom. For this application, I'd be shooting both MF; the Tokina would be much faster (and I am limited a bit by available light) but the native zoom would give me stabilization for lower shutter speeds. Shooting angles are varied enough that I'd be too slow chasing them down with a tripod, so most of my shots will be handheld.
Both lenses are in the same rough pricing ballpark; I'm kind of leaning towards the 55-210, just for flexibility for other purposes, but if the Tokina (or something else entirely) would be much better for this task, then I'm liable to go that way.
Currently, my lens selection consists of the 18-55mm kit zoom, a Minolta MD 50mm f2.0, and a Tamron MD 28-70mm f3.5-4.5 (which has way too long a mfl to help). I've also got the Sony 16mm on order (found a cheap deal), so everything else being equal, I wouldn't mind improving the flexibility of my lens selection in general.
Any advice would be most welcome!
Thanks!
- Chuck
One of my various goofy hobbies is keeping dart frogs, and the primary reason for abandoning my old point-and-shoot was to take better pictures of them. The nature of the challenge is that these guys are about an inch long (+/- 25%), are in a heavily planted glass enclosure that's 20" or so front-to-back, a bit spooky, and faster than greased lightning.
I've gotten some great shots (compared to my old p&s, anyway) with the Nex, but I'd like to go to a longer lens that will let me fill more of the frame with the frog.
In other words, I want to go from this --
NEX-5R
55mm
f/8.0
1/100s
ISO 640
to this --
NEX-5R
---
55mm
f/8.0
1/100s
ISO 640
...without having to crop nearly so much.
This was shot with the kit zoom at 55mm, f8, manual focus. I've taken some good shots with my Minolta 50mm also, but it has a fairly long minimum focal length, which limits how close I can get even if they are near the front.
At the moment, I'm kind of torn between something like the Tokina AT-X 90mm F2.5 Macro, or the 55-210mm native zoom. For this application, I'd be shooting both MF; the Tokina would be much faster (and I am limited a bit by available light) but the native zoom would give me stabilization for lower shutter speeds. Shooting angles are varied enough that I'd be too slow chasing them down with a tripod, so most of my shots will be handheld.
Both lenses are in the same rough pricing ballpark; I'm kind of leaning towards the 55-210, just for flexibility for other purposes, but if the Tokina (or something else entirely) would be much better for this task, then I'm liable to go that way.
Currently, my lens selection consists of the 18-55mm kit zoom, a Minolta MD 50mm f2.0, and a Tamron MD 28-70mm f3.5-4.5 (which has way too long a mfl to help). I've also got the Sony 16mm on order (found a cheap deal), so everything else being equal, I wouldn't mind improving the flexibility of my lens selection in general.
Any advice would be most welcome!
Thanks!
- Chuck
