Nikon 14-24 mm f/2.8

I tried this lens recently. It is indeed very sharp and fun to use. The only downside is that because of it's curved lens, it won't take the regular filters that I already have. Here is a photo taken with this lens.

Overall the sharpness is better than other wide angle lenses, but lack of regular filters makes it hard to justify the price value. Regular wide angle lenses also take good photos as seen below.

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While all of these are good photos, and the place is just fantastic, none of these photos have the kind of clarity that you one can see in some of the professional photos. And yes, I used a tripod and various filters (including a polarizing filter which is a must have ).

Nikon 24-70 mm f/2.8

This lens is expensive . Despite a lot of good reviews, this lens exemplifies why an expensive lens isn't always the best thing you can have. With a focal length of 24-70 lens, it can be used as a general purpose, wide angle or as a portrait lens. It can come in handy for a number of situations. At an aperture of f/2.8 it should work reasonably well in low light as well. However, I felt the prime lenses (which are way cheaper) tend to produce significantly better results.

I was not too excited by the results after having used this lens for an entire weekend.

Some photos :

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Try it for yourself, but I would not buy this lens, even if I had the money.

Nikon 70-300 mm f/4.5-5.6

This is a good affordable Zoom Lens. While it does not have VR (which can be quite handy) and is not as sharp as the 70-200 mm, it does zoom upto 300 mm. That can give you plenty of good shots ! I could even get some good photos of sports action with this lens :

Photo1 : Agassi returning a serve

Photo2 : Some baseball action.

This is a very sharp lens for the price and given it's range upto 300 mm, gives that extra zoom, which the optically superior 70-200 mm lens lacks.

This is perhaps the best starter zoom lens a beginner can have.

Nikon 70-200 mm f/2.8

A pricey lens. But worth the $$ if you have cash. The Bokeh is very smooth and the focus is very accurate. Used this over a weekend and have these photos to share :

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This is a must have lens, once you have the cash.

Nikon 24 mm f/2.8

The Nikon 24 mm 2.8 is a good lens. However, being 24mm it is a wide-angle lens. Consequently you will not get that much bokeh with this lens.

After having used this lens for a while, I still don't have enough photos in which my 18-105 mm kit lens didn't do an equally good job.

Some examples of wide angle photos with the kit lens :

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Some photos with the 24 mm (it does take good photos,  just not better enough to warrant getting the lens)

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I would not recommend spending money on this one , as the results are not better enough compared to the Nikon kit lens.

Nikon 50 mm f/1.8D Review

This is the best lens one can have for the price. These is no excuse to not have this lens even for a beginner, unless you already have the 50 mm f/1.4. There is also the "G" version of the lens, which is ~$100 more. Both are very good !

This lens is very useful for

- low light photography
- portraits
- sports action (if you are close enough).

It is also a very light lens and very easy to carry around.

Here are some examples of excellent bokeh :

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You can also attach a reverse-ring to this lens and make it a darn good macro lens as seen in this photo

Samyang 85 mm f/1.4 Review.

Very sharp and affordable lens. Great for situations where you have some time to fous (as this comes only in manual focus). If you do get that time, the results are very good !

Here's a photo from a concert I went to recently.

When shot at 1.4, it also can have a very shallow depth of field. Things that are jut a few inches off the focus point will get blurred out, as seen this photo. This makes this lens one of the best for bokeh. and at a price that is hard to beat.

Overall, if you are shooting a subject that's relatively stationary, this is an excellent lens.

Here are some sample photos shot at night. Notice the extremely pleasant bokeh.

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