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Yeah, I think most of what’s written about lenses is bollocks. Put two A4 prints in front of someone, one taken with a Leica lens, one taken with a Nikon/Canon/Olympus etc and I doubt anyone could tell which one was which.
I can only think that most of the snobbery that’s written about lenses comes from the days when cheap cameras where cheap with plastic lenses.
@JB as Tina says, just decide what focal length you like (id guess it’s going be 28, 35 or 50) and buy the lenses you can afford. Nikon don’t really make a duff lens in those focal lengths, you just end up paying extra for rarity/ wider apertures.
Ste_S
Ok, so I was thinking about going Leica last year and while I found the body I wanted rather quickly I wasn't sure what lens to get exactly. I knew I needed a 35mm, and there aren't that many different (Leica) ones, but I spent many nights reading up on all of them, and looking at thousands of images, read comparisons and opinions from god know who..
Long story short: at that level nobody can see the fucking difference - if you don't purposely do very specific things that lens A is very good at and compare it to how lens B performs in this regard, and put images right next to each other.
And while most Nikon lenses may not be on par with Leica lenses it's still the same issue - sure the 50/1.2 will give you something the cheap Series E 50/1.8 can't do so well, but in a "normal" setting, subject in the center, shot somewhere between 3.5 and 8 even that cheap lens will give you great results.
To be fair it took me a lot of years to finally come to this point but a former boss (chief photographer of a daily newspaper) told me a few years ago that I should stop bitching about my equipment and concentrate more on being a good photographer. And a few month later I was regularly getting great shots out of a shit Canon with the stock zoom lens. Of course I still lusted after the premium gear, but you get my point.
Now (for me, for analog photography) it's just about finding some camera / lens that I actually like shooting, it's about how the thing feels more than corner-to-corner sharpness or that super special kind of bokeh.
Fuck bokeh.