Which kit lens?

Jozza

Jozza

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I'm about to buy a Nikon D80 but being quite new to all this, I'm not sure which lens to get? :thinking:

At the moment I'm taking all sorts of photo's - Landscape/wildlife/portraits/anything that moves or stand stills!

I'm leaning towards the 18mm - 135mm as this seems like it will cover a host of subjects but kinda don't want to make any costly mistakes...


Anyone got any advice? :help:
 
Sorry... I meant lens !!!

:amstupid:
 
Depends on your budget in the first place and also what your main topics are likely to be ... if it is an equal mix of stuff as you have indicated you might need a couple to fit the bill ... or at least a TC to add length for wildlife ... :shrug:


Oh ... and you can adjust sp errors in your own titles if you want ... can only be done in Advanced Edit though ... ;)




:p
 
i bought myself a D80 with the 18-135mm lens and im throughly happy with it, its a really quiet lens and covers a nice range.
i dont think you would be disapionted,
 
Another vote for the 18-70mm, for the money it is a hard lens to beat. I was at a seminar hosted by John Clements a couple of weeks ago and he used to work for Nikon, he really rates this lens as well.
 
I would highly recommend looking at this sigma lens too. It's the 17-70mm f2.8-4.5. You won't find anyone with a bad word to say about it and price wise it comes in at around the £220 mark :)
 
On a tight budget the 18-70mm is a no brainer - If, however, you want to look at the long road ahead of "lens upgraditis" you might want to decide now if 18mm is going to be wide enough for your needs as most people end up buying a 12-24mm or 10-20mm for really wide angle and the 18mm end of your 18-70mm becomes defunct - This is what happened to me & to cut a long story short I have eventually ended up with the 12-24mm / 24-120mm / 70-300mm combo which covers all the ranges I want / need - Took me quite a few changes to get there :nuts: but (for now) I'm happy ...
HTH - Paul :thumbs:
 
Joe T said:
^^^ above is valid, but I would say that the 24-120 is one of Nikons weaker lenses, especially with regard to sharpness. The VR is useful though.

I'd still get the 18-70. It is a good general purpose lens of good quality.
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Fair comment Joe though any such lens will compromise somewhere - Anyway I wasn't suggesting Jozza get those exact lenses just that it might be worth looking at getting something to compliment further purchases rather than jump straight in for a kit lens ... Paul ;)
 
Joe T said:
^^^ above is valid, but I would say that the 24-120 is one of Nikons weaker lenses, especially with regard to sharpness. The VR is useful though.

.
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Is it very bad or just not great?

Bud of mine has one and I always thought this was a nice lens...

Would you post some examples?:thinking:
 
Anton Roland said:
Is it very bad or just not great?

Bud of mine has one and I always thought this was a nice lens...

Would you post some examples?:thinking:
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Anton - Obviously as I have this lens I would suggest it isn't as bad as Joe feels it is - I read up on it too and felt it was the right lens for me based on price & performance - It scores 8.3 at fredmiranda.com and photozone.de gave the following summary
Verdict: The Nikkor AF-S 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED VR showed a quite impressive performance for a zoom lens with a 5x focal length ratio. Apart from a few weak spots the resolution figures are very high and on an APS-C DSLR vignetting is not a big issue. The amount of barrel distortions may be a little objectionable at 24mm (only) and the level of CAs could be a little better. Mechanically the lens is roughly in line with other consumer grade lenses made by Nikon so don't expect a tank-like construction. The VR (Vibration Reduction) is a welcome addition to the feature list as is the very fast Silent Wave AF drive. All-in-all it's a nice package ...
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Thom Hogan preferred the 18-200mm as a "one lens" solution but that wasn't what I was trying to achieve (in fact I've tried one & sold it on) - I haven't taken many shots with my 24-120mm to post samples but will no doubt in the future ... Paul ;)
PS - Sorry to Jozza for going a bit OT
 
Thanks guys thats quite interesting... I have also read some good reviews about the 18-70mm but thought that with a longer focal length the 18-135mm would be more cost effective? I agree with Paulboy in the wide angle aspect, as have seen some amazing pictures with the 12-24mm lens unfortunately budget wise, can only go for one lens at the mo, and will build up when I save up!

:thankyou:
 
Grendel said:
I would highly recommend looking at this sigma lens too. It's the 17-70mm f2.8-4.5. :)
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Ok, next question...

This sigma lens looks quite impressive... (Certainly faster than the 18-70mm Nikon) Now I'm not sure between the Nikon and the sigma!?! You guys... Thanks loads for the advice but now I've got another lens to add into the equation!!

:cuckoo:
 
I'd still go Nikon tbh. I had this problem a few months back when I had to decide on the two. I have not regretted going for the nikon for a second since.
 
oops sorry hit the wrong button!!!
 
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