With a D800 on order, I'm stepping up from a D300 and contemplating lens choices beyond DX.
I'm wondering how the 16-35 f4 and 24-120 f4 hold up indoors with the D800's strong low-light performance vs the DX 2.8 lenses I'm used to and the D300 not being so good at higher ISOs.
I like to take pictures of my kids without spamming them with a flash. Will f4 do or should I still consider at least 2.8 lenses?
Inside at f4 IMO is not going to work unless you want to crank the ISO or use flash. I shoot tons indoors at my house of my kids and to get an acceptable shutter speed even on a 24 f1.4 at f2 I have to up the ISO to 1600 or use flash. This is on a d3s so taking it upto 6400 is not an issue for me. With the D3x the noise is not great especially under crappy tungtson and mixed flouresent lights. The question for you is what shutter speed do you get now in your house with f2.8 lenses?
I tried 24-120 f/4 indoors for theatre rehearsal under 2 crappy tungsten light and i had to crank the iso to 6400 with D700 results were not bad but the noise was there, i wished if i had a 24-70 and 70-200 2.8. The good thing was VR was very helpful since the actor and actress were moving objects.
Indoors/poorly lit outdoor venues with "movers" I prefer f2....but will make do with f2.8 (+/-6400)
Sans flash, an f4 zoom becomes a non-starter for me...when stuff's not sittin' still
kaput wrote:
With a D800 on order, I'm stepping up from a D300 and contemplating lens choices beyond DX.
I'm wondering how the 16-35 f4 and 24-120 f4 hold up indoors with the D800's strong low-light performance vs the DX 2.8 lenses I'm used to and the D300 not being so good at higher ISOs.
I like to take pictures of my kids without spamming them with a flash. Will f4 do or should I still consider at least 2.8 lenses?
f/4 should work fine. Just bump the ISO a little from what It was set with the f/2.8 lens you used.
Uzay wrote:
I tried 24-120 f/4 indoors for theatre rehearsal under 2 crappy tungsten light and i had to crank the iso to 6400 with D700 results were not bad but the noise was there, i wished if i had a 24-70 and 70-200 2.8. The good thing was VR was very helpful since the actor and actress were moving objects.
VR does not help in a situation where the subjects are moving.
For me using f2 at high ISO is fairly common in indoor night shots. In fairly well lit indoors you might get away with f2.8 with high ISO.
Plus you should also consider bounce flash. Even if you have a fast lens and great high ISO, a lot of the time indoor artificial lights can result in relatively muddy low contrast shots with lots of shadows. Unlike direct flash, bounce flash can be very pleasing and with some practice you can learn to blend bounce flash and ambient light well. I often use ISO 800 + fast aperture in combination with bounce flash to take pictures which are well lit but also retain the ambient light.
Get a used 24-70 and give it a try. If you don't like it, sell it and move on to another lens or start to add a prime or two. But, the 24-70 is a solid lens with a place in most kits.
Just shoot and see for yourself. I shoot loads at 1.8 and 4 indoors sans flash, depending on whether I'm rocking the 50/1.8 or 24/4 (kit lens @ 24mm). Faster is always better, but you know your own budget.
One other advantage of f/2.8 glass over f/4 is that you can isolate the subject better.
That's what I love about f/1.4 glass- you can just completely blow out a distracting background. But w/ f/4, you'll get a lot of the background in focus along with the subject.
