Best All Around Lens for Nikon

by Wendy Adams
(Panama City Beach, Florida)

Nikon 18-300mm Lens

I shoot beach weddings in panama city beach Florida. I currently shoot with a Nikon D80. I want to upgrade to a Nikon D600 (I don't want to go much more expensive than this due to the salt air corrodes things faster). I currently shoot with the lens my D80 came with which is a AF-S Nikkor 18-135mm 3.5-5.6G ED. To give you a little bit of background on what I do is I have wedding packages with decorations and it also includes my photography for 1 hour.

We set the wedding ceremony 1 hr prior to sunset. During the ceremony I have to shoot in auto due to things happening so fast but afterwards I do have time to slow down and manually change ISO and aperture on my lens. I have to go between family shoots to then quickly to portrait shots of the bride and groom. What is an all-around professional lens that I can shoot family group shots and then use the same lens to shoot portrait shots?? I need one that has low aperture (eg. 2 - ish) I hope this makes sense.
Thank you!
p.s) I am venturing into family portraits which I have attached as well.

Hi Wendy,

Thanks for sharing your questions with readers of better digital photo tips. I am a Canon guy, so I don't know anything about lenses for Nikon digital SLR cameras.

You can Google "Nikon Lens Review" and get better information than I can give you here. Digital Photography sites that specialize in lens reviews are a great source of information when choosing the best lens for your wedding and portrait photography.

I do Like The Digital Picture, dpreview, and cameralabs as sources. I am also a big fan of checking out Nikkor Lenses on Amazon and reading the reviews of lenses from actual buyers. Amazon also has excellent customer service and an outstanding return policy.

Enjoy that Florida weather!
Bruce