General Purpose zoom lens for the Nikon D40.

I have an online friend who recently purchased her first DSLR, a Nikon D40. Today she asked me which lens would I recommend her purchansing to enhance her photography experience. Since I'm a Canon user I can't really answer her question so I'm posing it here, to see if any of you might have some suggestions. She is an amateur and while she didn't say my guess is she'll want to spend less than $1000 (US) for a decent general purpose zoom lens. Here is her exact question:

I am going to order a new lense for my Nikon D40 and I need some advice. I want a lens that will let me zoom at least 4 x which is what I had on my other camera. The man at the camera store said I can't get any closer than that on the D40 as it is limited in the lenses it can use. I guess it must have to do with the size. I want a lens that I can use without having to use a tripod with it. In other words, I want to be able to use it without getting camera shake.

While we are on the subject, what about a wide angle lens. Right now, I am dealing with the starter lens that my camera came with which isn't worth beans IMHO.

Many thanks for any thoughts and suggestions I can pass onto my friend (and yes, I am inviting her to join OPF).

John

Hi Johon
I'm a Canonist so the only help I can give is to point you there, check the Optional Accessories…

You may find also some other lenses in the Sigma line and other lens manufacturers…

Hi John,

For a broad spectrum of user reviews, then http://www.fredmiranda.com/reviews/ may be useful. However, you have to not believe everything you read.


Best wishes,

Ray

Thanks for the responses so far guys. Ray I have forwarded that link to my friend but I haven't heard back from her yet. Nicolas I'll also send her the link you suggested.

Thanks again. Any other comments or suggestions out there?

JohnZeman, I am also a Canon shooter, but if "all round" is what you've been looking for, I don't think they come more "all round" than Nikon's 18-200mm VR. Huge (11x) zoom range, and VR (Vibration Reduction). It's supposed to be quite decent optically too. And it fits nicely in your friend's $1000 price bracket.

Not to be judgemental, but from what I read into her message, she's still a bit of an amateur, so I think she'll appreciate an all-round lens like this - the inherent compromises in a super-zoom won't bother her just yet.

Then again, I don't consider myself an amateur anymore, yet I find great value in Canon's (humongously bigger and three times the price) super zoom (28-300L) - i've learnt to work around its optical flaws as far as possible. So for a good all-rounder, she may want to look into the 18-200VR.

However, if she strongly prefers a particular type of photography, i.e. people (in low light) etc, then she may want to, for the same price, reduce zoom range, to something more sensible (like in the 24-70mm range) with a lower F-number (the 18-200mm does f/3.5 to f/5.6 across the zoom range, which is not great for indoor low-light photography without flash. Go for a f/2.8 zoom).

Good luck

Thanks for that Dawid. I will pass that along to her.

I started out with the D40 about nine months ago. I bought it in a kit with an 18-55mm cheapo (but decent) lens. The next lens I bought for it was the 70-300mm AF-S VR and I really did and still do enjoy the results I get with it. The VR helps a lot with the shaking part but I still use it a lot on my tripod anyway. For $1000 she could get that lens and a good tripod or other accessories. I also purchased the 105mm VR macro and really love this lens. That's off the original poster's question but I threw it in because it's such a great lens. I upgraded to the Nikon D200 about a month ago, just in time for Nikon to announce the D300, just my luck, but I still use my
D40 as a backup and almost as much as the D200. It produces some very nice results if I let it. I think the D40 is a great starter body and she should really enjoy it and the pictures she gets from it. Have her look at the 70-300 and I think she might like what she gets for the money.

Thank you James, I will pass that along to her as well.

I think the D40 has no screw drive for autofocus - so it will only be able to autofocus with lenses that have motors inside the lens!

I think this means only DX lenses (and maybe AF-S?).

Thank you Edward, this goes into my reply to my friend as well.

I think the D40 requires the AF-S lens also. I have the D50 and D80. A good "all around lens" kind of depends on the type of shooting she is doing. Still life and flowers, some nature and the like would be great with the 18-200VR (I am getting one of those myself in the near future). For action/sports/aviation, 200mm is not going to be enough reach. I currently carry three lenses for different situations; Nikkor 28-80 (came as kit lens with the D50, but it's crisp and sharp), Nikkor 70-300 and the Sigma 50-500. The Sigma has become my staple of late. It's heavy and cumbersome, but has a nice range that I can use in almost any situation.

The D40 does indeed require AF-S lenses to autofocus. AF-S means that the lens has a built in focus motor connected electronically to the camera. Nikon bodies other than the D40 have a focus motor within the body that connects mechanically to the lens with what is essentially a screwdriver/screwhead setup.

AF-S lenses are faster to focus, quieter, and better all around. Most modern Nikon lenses are AF-S, and therefore work great with the D40. One of the great things about the D40 is that it is small and light and inexpensive -- in part because they decided not to put a focus motor in the body.

There are some great lenses that do not autofocus with the D40 such as the 50 1.4 and the 85 1.4. But this is the sort of camera around which you would likely build a lightweight kit of a wide zoom and a long zoom, and you are pretty much done.

The kit lens (18-55) is very light and small and while it feels like a toy, it makes great shots.

My D40 has a pretty much permanently attached 18-200 zoom lens -- but that is not an inexpensive solution.

I've wished that Nikon would produce a 40 or 50mm 1.4 AFS pancake lens -- that would be awesome for this camera. I've heard that sigma makes one, but I have not looked into it.

Ron