hi everyone
i have aquired a d80 body from my brother-in-law. he is upgrading to a d200 but keeping his lenses. i would like to know what lens or lenses to buy, particularly brands. i have seen sigma and tamron brands for sale but don't know enough about them to make a decision. or should i just stick with nikon lenses?
any help would be apprieciated
craig
My answer to this, of course, would be "it depends"...
Mostly, it depends on what you want to spend.
I have a bunch of lenses that I have picked up over the last year and a half, some of which I really like and some of which not so much.
Please keep in mind that most of my shooting is done in the "telephoto" end of things, so most of my lenses are long.
If money is a factor, I have 3 recommendations.
The first is my favorite lens for the money, which is the Tamron 70-300 LD DI... I got this as part of a kit on my first D80, and my thought was I would use it for a month or two until I found something better and then pitch it. The problem with that theory was that the lens is SHARP, it is light weight, and very versatile. It has a "macro" setting which really isn't a true macro but it is not bad... I have taken a lot of decent shots with the "macro" setting on it. The only real weaknesses of the lens is it has some CA that you have to fix in post (the D300 does an amazing job in camera on this... completely eliminates it from this lens as you shoot), and the focusing is a bit slow and noisy with a bit of hunting now and then. On the other hand, I see it all the time for $130, so what can you really expect.
I also own and like the 55-200 VR. Excellent little lens for the money.
The third lens I would recommend if money is an issue is the new 18-55 VR "kit" lens. It is sharp, well behaved and inexpensive.
Now, if money ISN'T a factor so much, I would recommend sticking with Nikon and getting yourself a 80-200 f/2.8 zoom and a 17-55 f/2.8 Nikkor. I don't own either, but I have shot both and like them very much.
I have a 70-200 VR, but frankly if I had to do it all over again I would have bought the 80-200... it is about $1K cheaper and the image quality is every bit as good.
Lastly, there's always the "nifty fifty", the Nikkor f/1.8 which sells new for $100 or so bucks. It is sharp & fast (although not as sharp as the Canon cheapo 50). The 1.4 is better glass, but about triple the price.