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By Steve, July 5, 2010

For travel photography, the lens is better: a 55-200 mm zoom lens or Nikon 35mm f/1.8 DX?

I'll be traveling for six weeks, much Central Asia (Baku, Tbilisi, Tashkent) with my Nikon 40dx. Originally, I was going to buy a 55-200 mm zoom lens to help capture the great scenes. But then I read an article that said that for a second lens of the new Nikon 35mm f/1.8 is best for low light and portraits. The article said that the objective standard for the DX 40 gives sufficient width and zoom capability. I realized I wanted to be able to take photos in the cafes and markets and the capture of the common people and not attract attention about myself. Since we do not want to go with three lenses I think I will opt for the 35 mm 1.8. Am I missing something?

The 18-55 kit lens is adequate, and it covers the range of 35 mm. The only advantage of the 35 mm f/1.8 is much wider opening, which allows about a 2-stop advantage over 1918-1955 in 35 mm. For your travel The 55-200 would be a much better compliment to your 18-55. The 70-200 mm f / 2.8 would be even better, but since the new version 2 model costs $ 2,000 more than the 55-200 would be good enough. If you can swing the little extra, get the version of the 55-200 VR.

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