Kit lens 18-55 equal good/bad to 18-200 lens?

[Stephan Hubenthal]

Hi everybody,

I am just deciding whether to buy the FS100 together the NEX5+SEL18-55 or buying the FS100+SEL18-200 bundle. I am used to working with full manual lenses and do very much prefer that (in the 2/3-chip-world) to any automatic mode.

I heard bad thing about the kit-lenses in manual mode. But they do seem to serve as workhorses when it comes to a run-and-gun shot and there is no other camera available.

So should I buy the FS100/SEL18200 bundle or rather go for the FS100/NEX5+SEL1855? This FS100/NEX5 option would even be 500 Euros cheaper and provides me with an extra camera although I am not sure is this is any good in quality.

If I don't need the extra-zoom-factor of the 18-200 Kit lens, is the optical quality of both lenses up to 55 mm about equal?

Thank you so much!

Stephan

[Dan Asseff]

Stephan,

I would definitely would get the 18-200kit lens. I use it all the time for run and gun weddings. I just got done using it on an air show and it worked better than my NX-5. The lens has it short comings but it works very well with this camera. The stabilizing on this lens is fantastic. I have a friend that has the NEX-3 and the 18-200 and the 18-55 and the 16 and some extras for $1300 if your interested. He will piece it out.

Dan

[Thomas Wong]

Hi Dan
I have a question about the 18-200 kit lens
I found the video is not very sharp, not as sharp as i got from a 5Dmk2 with 24-105mm

is there any place in setting that i miss to improve the sharpness?

[Thomas Wong]

18-200 is pretty slow at 200mm unless you always shoot under bright light.
i will suggest to go for 18-55.... and use the rest of the money to get a nikon/fd/ef mount and get a fast tele lens

[Duncan Craig]

I expect when set to 55mm the 18-200 is actually faster than the 18-55.
That's certainly the same when I compare my Nikon 18-55 with my Nikon 18-200.

Remember these are lightweight, cheap zoom lenses. You can compare them with 2.8 fast zooms.

[Stephan Hubenthal]

Thank you for sharing your ideas!

But I wonder how come that nobody spoke about the problems focusing manually with the kit-lens? Or aren't those problems as big as often described? I read that manual rack focusing was supposed to be almost impossible with the kit-lenses because of their servo-driven mechanism. Is it really not that bad or are you all using the lens in autofocus-mode?

BTW: Personally I don't like to use a Nikon lens, because of the reverse focus-direction. Otherwise I could use lenses from my D300. I was thinking of combing either the 18-55 or the 18-200 lens with the SEL50. Does anybody work with that combination and can maybe comment on the manual mode of the SEL50?

Have a great weekend!
Stephan

[Dan Asseff]

I have to disagree with most about the 18-200kit lens. Yes it has some problems but how many that are criticizing the lens has actually use it. I used it at an air show filling very fast planes and it did better than my NX-5 at staying in focus. This lens is a tool and there are situations were it won't work, mainly very dark venues. Here is my first wedding i did with the FS-100 and i was very happy how the lens worked. The very dark reception i use the 16m lens and some nikor primes.

Michelle and Peter on Vimeo

Dan

[Jide Obi]

How are you finding this lens for precise manual focussing

[Thomas Wong]

for the price of the 18-200mm kit lens, you can get a used nikon 80-200mm F2.8 and still have money left for a used 18-55mm kit lens

i change to 18-55, only use it when i really need auto focus and need IS. You will not like sony's lens if you like manual focus, specially the sony 50mm 1.8. I did a manual focus shoot on a dish of salad, pull the focus from one end to the other end, the focus ring turns over 360 degree to do it

[Les Wilson]

@Stephan - There's an A-mount 16-50 f2.8 lens by Sony that can mount via an adapter that you may like. The adapter is expensive and has a restriction that when AF is active, can only stop down to f3.5. But since you are all manual, that won't matter I suppose.

[Stephan Hubenthal]

Thanks for your replies!
I look forward to receiving my Novoflex-adapter in a few days and then working with a few non-Nikon lenses (because of the focus-ring-direction) with Nikon-mounts.

I'll give my 18-200 Nikon kit lens (that came with my D300) a chance anyhow. This way I am already used to lenses creeping downwards and extending when trying to focus something on the ground ;-) And I heard it should (optically) at least not be worse than the FS100-kit-lens. Hopefully I am right there? Anybody out with a lens like that?

[Thomas Wong]

I am a lazy guy that rely on autofocus in the past. After I use fs100's focus peaking, I don't need autofocus now. My hand is faster than the lens.
The only advantage from Sony emount lens are autofocus and IS

[Stephan Hubenthal]

Originally Posted by Thomas Wong

After I use fs100's focus peaking, I don't need autofocus now.

Good to hear that! Now I am even more looking forward to receiving my Nonoflex-adapter soon to work all manually.

[Les Wilson]

Originally Posted by Thomas Wong

I am a lazy guy that rely on autofocus in the past. After I use fs100's focus peaking, I don't need autofocus now. My hand is faster than the lens.
The only advantage from Sony emount lens are autofocus and IS

You don't have to shoot with AF to use AF. Push-to-focus is a handy technique in many situations. ALso, it isn't just AF and IS. There's also auto exposure. This is also handy as a push-to-expose similar to push-to-focus as well as a fixed camera that has no operator. Time lapse is another handy use of AE.

[Andrew Bower]

Originally Posted by Dan Asseff

Stephan,

I would definitely would get the 18-200kit lens. I use it all the time for run and gun weddings. I just got done using it on an air show and it worked better than my NX-5. The lens has it short comings but it works very well with this camera. The stabilizing on this lens is fantastic. I have a friend that has the NEX-3 and the 18-200 and the 18-55 and the 16 and some extras for $1300 if your interested. He will piece it out.

Dan

Dan,
You mentioned that the FS100 with the kit lens worked better than your NX5. Are you talking about the NX5u with the 20x built-in lens? We do lots of live production work and did this event last year using one EX3 (behind stage) and three Sony Z5s:

2011 Ho`ike Preview - Halau Ka Waikahe Lani Malie and Halau Kahulaliwai - YouTube


We are going to either buy an NX5+Samurai or an FS100 and I am concerned that we won't be able to do the same quality production without $30k worth of lenses (that I can't afford). Let me know your thoughts...

Andrew

ps - The video was really to show the performings arts group a preview of their DVD, so we included all of the credits in this video.