LocalNavy433 Photography

The featured image was taken with the lens that I am recommending it shows the sharpness of how good it is. The shot was taken handheld at f16 to truly showcase the level of detail that you will get with it. Enjoy y’all

Hello and how the hell are you?  If this is your first time here thanks for stopping by y’all.  In this blog we are going to talk about when to upgrade your kit lens.  To make this short and sweet you will want on that has the same focal range but with a lower f-stop.  This will give you a better ability to get things out of focus and open up the doors to shooting in low light.  This means that you will have the ability to get better images than what you were getting with the kit lens.  This is not to say that the kit lens is bad but the lower f-stop allows you to shoot at a lower iso which means better IQ. 

The longer answer is something that we all have to go through when using the kit lens.  We see all the images on line that are just wow and we want to create them.  You can go out with a kit lens and get the shots but you have to use a higher iso meaning that your images will be noisy and that is not good when you go to print the images.  I for one was in this boat and I wanted that better lens for IQ and lower iso when shooting street photography at night.  The fact is the f2.8 zoom lenses are the way to go for this style of shooting.  By getting a f2.8 lens you will also get a sharper image because the lenses are built better than the kit lens.  The real question is which one do you get.  Do you go for the cheaper route by way of older lenses or do you go with brand new that costs so much. 

The route that I went was to buy the older lenses that I found with a little research.  I had to wait months of checking the web for when one was available to buy.  When the lens I wanted was available I jumped and bought it.  I sold the current mid range zoom and purchased the Tamron 17-50 f2.8 non vc.  I had this lens before and sold it thinking that I was going to be shooting nothing but full frame so I knew the IQ I was going to be getting with this lens.  You see out of all the zoom lenses out there for sharpness there is only two lenses that are better than this one.  You have the Sigma 18-35 f1.8 which is the best of the best for IQ.  Then you have the Canon 17-55 f2.8 which is heavy and big like the Sigma. Then comes in the older Tamron 17-50 f2.8 non vc which is smaller lighter and just as sharp.  So why this lens you ask well it came down to budget and availability of it. 

You see now days for APSC shooters like me this lens is the unicorn lens because it is so rare.  I had to wait for 6 months to see one available for me to buy.  The fact is everyone who has researched this lens knows of how sharp it is and the low cost of buying one.  With buying this lens you will have a direct replacement for your kit lens with a wider f-stop giving you so many more options when out shooting.  The Macro capabilities are just wow so you will not need to buy another lens for the flower type shots that we all love to take.  Then you have the new ability to shoot the night sky like never before.  I mean yes you can get shots of the night sky using the kit lens but what if you want a more zoomed in look of the sky.  Now that you have a f2.8 lens at 50mm you will be able to get that look.  

You see most of your low light shots are or should be on a tripod if you are shooting a DSLR like I am.  This will allow you to get focus and just get the shots that you were after.  The starbursts on this lens are so yummy to me I love love love it.  With all the good that I have said about this lens there are plenty of cons about it as well.  The lack of weather sealing is on huge fact that most will pass on this lens.  When out shooting on a windy day you are going to have to clean the lens by way of taking the front element off because it collects dust behind it.  Then you have the fact that in low light AF is not an option for you.  So you will have to go into live view and manually focus the lens.  The warmer tones that it produces.  This can be fixed if you are shooting in RAW so not a big deal. The last con to the lens is the lack of image stabilization (VC) in the lens.  This means that you will have to shoot at a slightly higher iso when shooting hand held in order to get a sharper image.  This is not a deal breaker at all because the iso value will not be as high as shooting with the kit lens.  

Even with those four major cons this lens is one that you will want because the pros out weight the cons for sure.  The overall usage for this lens is going to be different for every shooter but at the end of the day a lighter sharper lens is what we are all after.  I for one recommend this lens for anyone that is looking for a replacement of the kit lens.  The last reason to buy this lens is the cost you can get a excellent copy of this lens for around 120 USD.  That alone makes this the lens to get for sure.  Thank you for stopping by and I hope that you enjoyed this article.  Enjoy from St Johns y’all