Advice on best/good all round lens for FF Nikon D700

theMusicMan

theMusicMan

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OK, so in the new year sometime I am considering - not a move, but an additional purchase - of a D700, because the IQ of many if not all the images I have seen taken with this body, is totally awesome and I might treat myself to one.

However, I will remain with my E-3 and longer lenses for my nature and bird photography as the x2 crop factor works very well and I have had some decent results with this kit.

So, knowing absolutely nothing about all things Nikon, for a D700 body, what would be a great all round general purpose short(ish) zoom lens to couple it with. I appreciate any advise would be based on what type of photography I'd want to be doing with the D700. With it I'd be interested in doing portrait work (with my home/portable studio), street stuff, urbex & exploration, buildings and landscapes. I don't specialise in any particular génre, as quite simply, I am not good enough to do that, I just want to be able to try my hand with the excellent FF and high ISO quality of the D700.

So... having no idea of what lens, what cost, what mount, what Nikon lenses work with FF - please can you offer me some advice.

Ta muchly.
 
The 24-70 2.8 sound like a good all-rounder for the D700. Not cheap at £930 but quality is excellent so I hear. Another consideration is the Tamron 28-75 2.8 which can be had for around £260 iirc.
 
either the new AF-S 24-70 f/2.8 G or perhaps a second hand AF-S 28-70 f/2.8. Both great lenses. Or perhaps if you don't mind primes the new AF-S 50mm f/1.4

loads of expensive choices.
 
John,

I knew the dark side would start to nibble at your sub-concious :D :lol:

As you know i went through the same as you are contemplating a few weeks ago, but i had to sell my Oly gear to fund the switch. I miss the E-3, but the D700 is just sooooo flexible it more than makes up for the loss :)

The Nikon 14-24mm would probably be a little wide for general purpose use, but would be useful when 'urbex'ing (but the fact that the front element cannot be protected by a filter plus the £1K cost may put you off. It is of a similar quality to the ZD 7-14mm, but found it to be not quite at good wide open (Vignetting / Sharpness / Rectalinier Correction) but as it was a loaner i had not lost anything!

The 24-70mm was / is a bit of a 'meh' lens to me. I got one for my D700, but found it to be not as good as the ZD12-60 on the E-3 which was a bit of a shock due to the £1k price tag, so it went back from whence it came!.

After a good bit of research, both on the net and via PM with Andy (Puddleduck), i invested in the Tamron 'twins' of 17-35mm F2.8-4.0 and the 28-75mm F2. Both of these are absolutley FANTASTIC, and the 28-75 is every bit as sharp as the 24-70mm Nikon, if not sharper. The 17-35mm is certainly sharp enough for the use i have, and is top notch if dropped down a F-Stop. They are both non-AF-S (USM / SWD) lenses, but are both really quick to focus, that its a moot point anyway.

The best bit was the price of these two beauties. The 17-35mm, was £120, New and Boxed and the 28-75mm was £267. This left me enough for the 50mm F1.4 and the 85mm F1.8 (could have gone with the F1.4 due to the savings, but the 1.8 came up at a good price and if i sell it on to upgrade to the F1.4 version i will not lose out on it. Like i mentioned i had the 24-70mm and was considering the 14-24mm, but the performance (or lack of) over the Tamron version just did'nt justify the extra expense (in my opinion of course - others may disagree)

So for around £700, plus the price of a D700 body (Around £1300) you could have the near perfect general purpose D700 setup with 4 lenses to cover most eventualities.

Now the longer lenses are a different matter and i am still investigating the options for a good 70-200mm range lens. VR / IS is not as important as on the Olympus due to the extraordinary ISO performance advantage the D700 has, but i have yet to look at all avenues.

The other thing that may surprise you with the D700 is that it is not much heavier than the E-3, especially if used with the Tamron 'twins'. In-fact i would go so fars as to say it was lighter than the E-3 / 12-60mm SWD combo.

Hope this helps!

Chris
 
WOW Chris, at those prices I am now even more interested (after paying a few debts off first of course ;) ).

Can you say where you sourced those Tamron lenses at those prices...? I can't find either at those levels.
 
PM'd

I can see the Oly stuff going up for sale soon ;), once the Telephoto side is covered :)

Chris
 
...Id like to know where you can get a D700 for £1300!
 
Id also be interested to know where they were at those prices too if possible please. Only seen the tamron 17-35 at around £230 so im not looking in the right place.
 
Come up all the time at that price second hand (low milage) and can be had for not much more new.

Mine came from Dixons Duty free, via my brother who was flying out of the country for a couple of days :)
 
Thought it maybe duty free for the D700

A very good pice indeed
 
Rikki said:
...Id like to know where you can get a D700 for £1300!
Click to expand...

Quite easily :)

I paid £1200 for mine (via Nikon Cafe)

I got a brand new one two weeks (which Wail now has) for way under the best on CameraPriceBusters.

There was one on Nikonians last week for £1250 with a battery.

As to the lens suggestion - Tamron 28-75 or Nikon 24-70.
 
Volusian said:
anyone rang misfuds.com to see if the price is correct and that they have stock in .. .?

they are more than half everyone elses price ..
Click to expand...


Yup price is correct, and they DO have stock, got one myself, but i got one of the 'used' mint boxed ones at £119. They say used, but it was still sealed in the box and had never been out of the box at all!

For the price i don't think it can be beat.
 
Volusian said:
anyone rang misfuds.com to see if the price is correct and that they have stock in .. .?

they are more than half everyone elses price ..
Click to expand...

After PM'ing Chillimonster last night to get details I ordered a new one. Had confirmation by e-mail that it was sent out today and should be with me tomorrow.

Good lens for a great price :thumbs:

Thanks again Chillimonster. Really appreciated the heads up.

Chris :)
 
Aaarrrgghhh - why did I have to come and read this thread.

Seriously thanks for highlighting this lens and price - off to do some research now...
 
well took my 5 day old dead pixel jobby D300 back to shop today and changed it for a D700 ... so might just have to try me one o' those tammy lenses mentioned ! :)

anyone got any pics from the 17-35mm / D700 combo to show off ???
 
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