marcsantacurz
Well-known member
Also, as DX means that zooms have a +X crop factor I suppose this also applies to the bottom end of the zoom and a 10-20 DX becomes, say, a 15-30 on the camera?
The 35mm DX f/1.8 should probably be in your bag. It's inexpensive, fast, and great image quality. If you don't have any other fast lens, get this. It is really nice for evening & indoor shots in available light.
That 10-20 DX AF-P is supposed to be a very nice wide, though I've not used it. And it's only 8oz (227g)! If you want a wide, that's a great choice.
Shooting wide is it's own art form, and if you like to do that, go for it. I don't shoot wide too often, and when I do it is for getting deep 3d perspectives not to "fit more" in the frame. Personally, I'd try to get a more general walk-around lens because switching between 18-55 and 70-300 will miss shots and I find it a hassle when I'm going around as a tourist. I'd use a good walk-around lens like the 18-200 like 10x more often than I would the 10-20.
If the 18-55 focal length works for the majority of your shooting when not birding, then you can ignore what I'm about to say. I find 18-55 (24 - 80 equivalent) to not be that interesting of a focal range.
I think something like a used 18-200 DX AF-S VR or 18-300 DX AF-S VR would do more for me as a general purpose lens. The 18-200, while a bit heavy at 19.9oz (565g), is pretty inexpensive used. There are two versions of it with about identical optical performance. The "ii" version has a zoom lock to prevent lens creep if you're taking on strenuous hikes. With this, you would have one walk around lens and one sports/birding lens. I understand that usually one does not want to duplicate focal length (the 75-200 overlap), but for me it is more of a specialization of functionality (walk-around vs sports/birding) and to reduce lens changing.
The 16-80 f/2.8~4 E DX VR is also supposed to be great and it is pretty fast, but also expensive. That's 24 - 120 equivalent, which is right in there as a walk-around "street sweeper" focal length.
Marc