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I want to buy a D7200, but I am budget-limited to getting only a body and one lens, so I need to choose that lens wisely. I'm interested in astrophotography/low light shooting, and landscapes.

My top priority is brighter images with shorter exposure times.

I think I need a long focal length lens with vibration reduction (VR) to get this. Can you tell me what to look for?

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    \$\begingroup\$ This is not a place for recommendations, marking as off-topic. \$\endgroup\$
    – walther
    Dec 18, 2017 at 12:57
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    \$\begingroup\$ More specifically: this site isn't good for "What lens should I buy?" question where you're expecting to get a simple "Go buy this one!" answer. That's because the answers change frequently as new products come on the market (although with lenses, less so than cameras!) and because the decision requires a lot of personal opinion. (What's a budget? $100, $500, $1000? What's good?). So, we'd rather have questions about the factors that can lead to your decision. What is it about the lenses you've looked at that you can't decide between? \$\endgroup\$
    – mattdm
    Dec 18, 2017 at 13:20
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    \$\begingroup\$ "With as much focal length possible for making the images more lighten with a short exposure." That's not how it works. If you want a fast lens you need to look at the aperture, not at the focal length. \$\endgroup\$
    – Peter Taylor
    Dec 18, 2017 at 14:48
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    \$\begingroup\$ You are very confused. No amount of VR will help with astrophotography and it should have little impact in low-light landscapes since you must use a tripod. Astrophotography is not done with a telephoto either. I suggest do some research and then ask what you don't understand. \$\endgroup\$
    – Itai
    Dec 18, 2017 at 16:38
  • \$\begingroup\$ I've rewritten the question a bit. I think it can now have a good answer which corrects the poster's incorrect assumptions about what is needed in a lens. \$\endgroup\$
    – Philip Kendall ♦
    Dec 18, 2017 at 16:58

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Generally for landscapes and astrophotography you'll want a wide lens, not a long one. Longer lenses have a narrower field of view. When you're taking pictures of mountains, for example, you usually want a very wide field of view. You get a wide field of view with a shorter lens, not a longer one. In fact, with astrophotography, the shorter the lens, the longer the exposure you can take without seeing star trails. (See this post on the rule of 600 for an explanation of why.)

To let as much light into the lens as possible, you'll want to pick one that has a wide aperture setting. The lower the "f number", the wider the aperture. So f/1.8 is a wider aperture than f/3.5, for example.

I recently spent time photographing the Milky Way. I used a 16-35mm lens on a full-frame camera, and an 11-16mm lens on an APS-C crop-sensor camera (which is what the D7200 has). You can see one of the pictures here.

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