I was perusing on B&H's web site, gathering up a wish list for my Powerball win.

What is the purpose of a "tilt" lens? I'm sure it's a special effects thing, but to what purpose? I've never known a photographer to own one, so I'm guessing they're not terribly common? So what do they do?


What's the difference in an "art" lens & regular lens? I note Sigma has both in their 14-24mm lens offerings among other lenses.


B&H offers a Nikon lens but in parenthesis they note it's a "white box" lens. Is this a gray market lens or something else? Link

Tilt shifts are cool, lots of architectural photography uses.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilt%E2%80%93shift_photography



On the "art" subject, I suspect it's something to do with tradeoffs between aperture and distortion/sharpness, meaning art lenses are probably optimized for minimal distortion at the expense of speed.  All I really know is when they slap the art label on it they charge more.

White box means it's not in retail packaging.  Could be a return, could be grey market, could be a refurb, etc.

That 24-120 is a fantastic lens, though, it's my walking-around lens.  I paid about $530 for a factory refurb from Adorama back in 2016, it was white box and had all the paperwork.  I think only a 90-day warranty that was never needed.  You can get it used or refurb for half of what B&H is asking, and it'll be like new.

Sigma segmented their lens lineup into Contemporary, Sport, and Art classes. "Art" lenses are generally higher quality glass and frequently faster (wider aperture) than comparable stable mates in the other classes. Contemporary is the more affordable line.

"White box" lenses are usually ones that have been separated from camera/lens combo kits.

Good point.  The 24-120 was the "kit" lens on some of Nikon's full frame bodies.  Hell of a kit lens, if you ask me.

They still use it as a kit lens on some cameras including the D850.  I was gifted a used one a few years back and for a kit lens, it's pretty darn good.  Some of my first shots with it, edited on my ipad while I was travelling.

I often saw the exact same lenses, Size, f-stops, etc but one was marked "art" & the other wasn't. I didn't delve into the comparison thing, which I guess I should have.

You'll want to check it out, but for me, the Art lens I own has been incredible. Absolutely incredible. The 50mm F1.4 Art lens for the Canon cameras is insanely sharp and the quality of the image is amazing from edge to edge. Between that and my 16-35 V3 L lens, they have taken the overwhelming majority of my all time favorite shots. I shoot quite a bit of HS sports during a normal year, so that's saying something.

Here is a sample that my 5 year old took recently. It's not the best, but she's 5... I let her instruct me with the post processing, so it was cropped to make the dog bigger and she liked the black and white with this one. Also  note that it's not full resolution. FWIW, this was shot at 1/200, F2.0, ISO 400.

Attached File

I haven't used any Sigma "art" lenses, but i have some lenses that render artistic to me....if there is such a thing.

Voigtlander 58mm 1.4 most of all, manual focus and makes the best images of any lens i have used.

Nikon 300mm f4, the old built like a tank version with the little internal filter feature.

Nikon 135mm 2.8 ais and 200mm f4 ais, maybe not first choice for disposing of Pball money, but in case you don't win

If she's doing that at 5 I can't wait to see what she can do when she's 15!