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Lens for Nikon D5600

Looking towards lenses, I just want to give you a little briefer on lenses. Here we have two options of lenses that are available from Nikon. You have FX lenses and DX lenses. And the strange thing about this is that the DX lenses are labeled. That's pretty normal. But the FX lenses are not labeled as FX. They basically do not have a label regarding that. And the difference is, is that the FX lenses are the lenses designed for their full-frame sensor. And so as light comes through an FX lens, it has got a big enough image circle to project an image on the entire full-size sensor area. The DX lenses are specially designed so that they project an image just big enough to fit onto the smaller size sensor here in this camera. Now where things get interesting is when you start switching lenses to other bodies. So if you take the DX lens on this camera, move it on to one of the full-frame cameras, it's not gonna be able to give an image all the way to the corners. And so you're gonna get a c...

ropped image. On those cameras they have an option for Auto DX cropping, where it automatically crops. And you're gonna get a decent image, but it's not using all the megapixels that you have available to you. With this camera, the 5600, you can use the FX lenses. You can use all of the FX lenses, if you want. Now they do cast a larger than necessary image circle, doesn't really hurt anything, you're just simply using an image area in the middle of it. And so when you get to portrait, normal and telephoto lenses, you're gonna find that most of the options available, are mostly FX lenses. And they're perfectly fine to use on this camera. So beyond the FX lenses and the DX lenses for this camera, we do have one other option that you should be aware of out there, is that Nikon make a different series of lenses that go under the name Nikon-1, or 1-Nikkor, and these are for the mirror-less system, which is a completely different series of cameras and lenses and they're not gonna fit on this camera at all, or the full-frame cameras without some sort of adaptor to get them on. And even then, it's designed for a much smaller size sensor, so it makes no sense trying to put those on this type of camera. So just because it's a Nikon lens, you do need to do some further checking to make sure that it is going to work. So on the lenses, we have our CPUs, we have our lens mount mark, which we've talked about. There's gonna be a lot of lens information I'm gonna give you a little key code here to what some of that information means. A lot of the lenses are gonna be zoom lenses. You'll see that zoom focal length mark telling you where the zoom is at, and that second ring is gonna be for manual focusing. So if you do want to manually focus, that's what that second smaller ring is for. There's little indicators and little notches out on the front of the lens, so that you can mount a hood. Now each lens has its own very specific hood. The hood for the 18- that comes with this camera currently, is the HB-N106. And as I say, each lens has its own specific hood. It's trying to give it as best coverage as possible for blocking extraneous light. Now you do need to be careful when you use flash, because the hood may block the flash. And so the hood is something that I normally recommend you use almost all the time, and one of the big exceptions is when you are using the built-in flash. And then this particular lens has the lens retraction button, which is very unique. Most lenses do not have that. Something that you will see on other lenses, throughout the Nikon system, is a manual and auto focus switch on the side of the lens, simply with an A and an M. Pretty easy, M is for manual focus, A is for auto focus. Most of the time you're probably gonna want to leave it in auto focus. Some lenses will have a manual option, as well as an M/A option, and what that stands for is auto focus with the option for manual override. Those lenses, they have a special clutch in the motor system that allows you to grab the focusing ring and just turn it without causing any problem to the lens. Now Nikon has many different auto focus lenses, and their very first collection of auto focus lenses you couldn't just grab the focus ring and turn it. That was turning a motor drive, and you didn't want that to do it. Now the newer lenses, like this AFP lens here, this is a fly-by wire system, which means the focusing ring is controlled by electronics. And so turning this does nothing right now, because I have the camera in auto focus, but if I put the camera in manual focus, it will then focus. And so you've got to be very aware of the different layers and levels of lenses that are out there. So let me give you a preview about some of the different lenses out there. So Nikon is alphabet-happy. They love using different letter codes to indicate a series of lenses. And they've been going through different lenses. They started off with just basic auto focus lenses, and then they had D lenses. And then they had G lenses. And now they have E and P lenses, and each letter means something. And so what I want to alert you to, if you have this camera, is whether you have a G or E lens, that's kind of the common lenses that are available today. And I suppose we could put P lenses, but P lenses are kind of a different letter in a different place. And so one of the things that you want to look for is the letter that follows the aperture. And so the kit lens that I have here is an AFP lens, and so that P is kind of a separate issue, but after the aperture, my lens has a G on it. Which puts it in the G and E category, which means it is fully compatible. The older lenses, which are the D lenses, or they don't have anything, they basically have something other than G or E, after that aperture number. They're also gonna be pretty obvious, because they're gonna have this big old aperture ring that you can mechanically turn, and those lenses you cannot auto focus on the D5600. So if you want full compatibility, get a G or E lens. And if you want to use one of the older lenses, you can use it, but it's partial compatibility and the key thing is that you're not gonna be able to focus on those older lenses. And so on this particular camera, you typically don't want to get lenses that are 10 years old and older, actually I forget exactly the year frame that we're talking about here, but the G and E lenses are the most current series from Nikon. So let's look at a few lenses that I would recommend. Let's start with some basic zooms. A little bit confusing, because Nikon makes a lot of different lenses. So we have the AF-P version of this, and that has to do with the way that the focusing motors are working in this camera. And the key difference between these two is the VR, the vibration reduction option. They do make one without it, which makes the lens a little bit less money. I prefer the one with VR because it makes hand-holding the camera available for shooting under lower light conditions. So those are kind of the current lenses that are available. The other ones that you might see is the slightly older versions. And so these are the AF-S versions. These work on the camera 100% compatible. They just don't have the fly-by wire focusing, so the advantages to the AF-P is the camera tends to focus a little bit more smoothly when shooting video. The AF-S ones, I would say they're equally good optically, but focusing-wise I think the AF-P versions are slightly preferable. So you're gonna see a lot of different letters in the Nikon system. So here is a key-code to some of the more common letters that you're gonna see. We talked about FX and DX. We have the different types of focusing motors, the stepping motor in the AF-P lenses. There's not many of those, they're just kind of making their way into the market right now. Let's look at some more lenses. So once you have the basic kit lens, you're probably gonna want to get a telephoto zoom. They do make a couple of DX lenses, specifically lenses for that crop-frame sensor, the 55-200 is one of the most common. It's gonna be one of the least expensive options. And if you want just a basic one, it does fine. If you want a little bit more reach, they do make a couple of 70-300s. And the only difference between these two is the VR. And I would definitely want to get the one with the VR. It sells for a little bit more money, but I think it's worth the extra fifty bucks or so that it is. Now these are all DX lenses. As I said before, you can use the FX lenses. Now the FX 70-300 doesn't really gain you too much. What it does gain you is a half-stop or a third-stop on the aperture when you're out at 300, so it's a little bit faster, let's in a little bit more light. And construction-wise, it is definitely better built. So when you pick it up, it's gonna be a little bit heavier, it's gonna be made out of a little bit better materials. You'll also notice it has a focusing scale on it. And so it's a good lens that I generally recommend for intermediate level cameras. A few other lenses that I am fond of. I don't have time to talk about all of them, but a few of my favorites. Primes. Primes are lenses that do not zoom. So fixed lenses. And so the 35 1.8 is one of the best deals in photography. It's only about two hundred bucks. And for anyone who's doing family photography and you're shooting pictures of the family inside the house, the 35 1.8 is a normal lens as far as its angle of view, but its 1.8 aperture is roughly about ten times faster than the standard kit lens that you get with the camera. And so if you are shooting under low-light conditions, it's a great lens. You can also shoot with somewhat shallow depth of field to blur the background out. Now if you want to get into portrait photography, take a look at the 50mm 1.8 lens. That lens is also around $250 or less, and that's gonna enable you to shoot at much faster apertures, which means shallower depth of field. They also make a 50 1. if you want an even faster version of that. And if you do a lot of portraits outside, and you like a little bit more working distance between you and your subject, that's when you might want to look at the 85 1.8. Let's look at one more page of some specialty lenses that I like. If you wanted a lens that zoomed but let in more light, yes, Nikon makes it. But you're gonna pay for it in money and in weight and size. It's the 17-55 2.8, that's the fastest zoom that Nikon makes for this camera. But if you said, "I really want something faster," well then you could go over to Sigma, which makes an 18-35 f/1.8. This is the fastest zoom available on the market for this camera. So it allows you to change your angle of view, but still have a really fast aperture. But it's kind of expensive. And it is definitely big and heavy in comparison to the standard kit lens. If you're into macro or close-up photography, you're gonna want to photograph bugs or jewellrey or anything really small, then you might want to look at the 85mm micro lens. Micro lenses are the close-up lenses from Nikon, and this would be an excellent choice for this camera. I think they also make a that's a pretty good choice, as well. Another great area to go into is wide-angle photography. Now Nikon just introduced, just a couple of weeks ago, the 10-20mm lens. Now they do have a couple of other wide-angle DX lenses, but this one is really inexpensive. So if somebody is looking for a lens, for not too much money, it's a little over $300 right now, this is gonna get you something that is notably wider than the 18 on the kit lens. 10mm is gonna be a very, very wide lens. And if you were going to Africa on Safari, you might want to have a really big lens, so one of the bigger lenses from Nikon is the 80-400. Yeah, this is a big, heavy and expensive lens, but it would do great on this camera for somebody who is into bird photography or wildlife photography. That would be probably the biggest option that I would see. They do make even bigger ones. There's lots of other lenses from Nikon. This is just the tip of the iceberg. In fact, if you do want to know more about lenses, I do have an entire class, a 10-hour class, two-day class, that we filmed here at Creative Live, that goes through all the details on Nikon lenses. And so one you get to know your camera, once you get to know photography, the great thing about being in the Nikon system is being able to interchange the lenses. And so if you want to know more about all the different options that are available and how to use them, this class goes into the nitty-gritty details of how to get the most out of the lenses you currently have, and ones that you might want to be getting into the future. So we're gonna take a look, if we have some questions. And it looks like we've got a couple of questions. So let's see what we got coming in from you guys. First up, I think you said that the HDR mode is for jpg shooters. Does it not work in RAW? So if I am correct, it does not work in RAW. In fact, let's just do a little check here and see if I am correct. Just because I want to be 100% correct on this one. So what I'm gonna do is I am gonna take a look at the back of the camera, and hit the info button. And I am currently set in RAW right now. But I'm gonna go in and see if I can turn on HDR and HDR is not available. It won't let me get there. So I'm gonna go change RAW to jpg, fine quality jpg, and now HDR is available. And I can set it to a specific setting. And I'll go ahead and shoot this just so you can hear what's going on, and I'm gonna kind of lean in with the microphone, and what you're gonna hear is I'm gonna press the shutter release button once, but the camera is gonna take three photos. Here we go. And so it took three photos very, very quickly and combined it into one photograph. And then when I play that back, if I look for some information on here, it's telling me it is a fine quality jpg. And so it is not available as a RAW image. If you are looking to get the widest range possible in an image, I haven't done this test, but it would be my guess and my opinion, that you're better off just shooting a single RAW and adjusting it yourself in some sort of computer program afterwards, than shooting HDR. But HDR is an in-camera option that's available, but I prefer shooting RAW. But good question, glad I was able to answer that 100% for you. Next up: Can John explain the difference in image size between fine, normal and basic in jpeg format? Are there noticeable differences in appearance between those three options? And so the image size difference, and I'm not gonna do it here, but you can go back, because one of the options in this class is you can get the keynote in just visual form, go back to the page that I had the RAW jpg options. I had the file sizes. And so what happens is it compresses and it throws away some of the color information. So the file size, I'm forgetting the exact numbers, but it might go from an 18 megabyte file down to a 13 megabyte file down to a six megabyte file. Now, how much of a difference are you going to see? That depends on how close you look at the image and what you're actually gonna do with the image. If you plan on printing your images, if you want to get the most from your images, you want to leave it on the highest quality fine quality setting. Where you're gonna notice a basic image is when you start getting into the details you're gonna notice they're a little bit muddled. You'll notice the difference in color areas. You're not gonna get quite the same range of colors on it. And so I always get a little nervous when somebody asks a question like this, because I was like that at the beginning myself. And I was very tempted to set the camera to lower resolutions and more compression, because I got more images on the memory card. And I thought that was really cool, I could get as many images on a memory card. Folks, memory is dirt cheap these days. I spent $20 on a memory card and it shoots more than a thousand RAW images, and it's very seldom that I ever shoot more than a thousand RAW images at any one go. A lot of times now when I go on a photo trip that might last upwards of two weeks, I store all my images on one memory card, as far as in the camera. I back up, yes, I back up. But you can buy a memory card that will store an entire two weeks vacation images in there. Look at a 32 or even a 64 gig card on there and you're gonna get tons of images. Hard drives are cheap. Don't shoot in really small formats if you don't know exactly what you're gonna be doing with those photos, because you know, I've looked at my parents' photos, I've gone through my parents' photo albums and scanned them in, and I've never gone back to my parents' photos and said, "Wow, wish they would have used "a lower quality camera." These types of things, you don't know what you're gonna be doing with. Unless you know that you only need them for a small size, try to shoot in the highest quality possible.