Beginner buys a d80 with no kit lens. My Bad?

I'm a first time buyer of a DSLR. I was looking for one with a kit lens, but I found a

superb deal for a body only. I thought It wouldn't be so bad, I'd just buy myself a

nicer all-around lens with extra cash plus the money I saved from getting a good

deal on the body.

 

Now, one of my photographer friends reamed me out (well, not really. She just

made me feel like an ass) saying I could be wasting my money on a lens I might

not use and that I should have just waited for a good kit deal. Woe is me! How do I

make the best out of this situation ? And is my predicament as dire as my friend

has made it out to be?

Dont listen (in this case!) to your friend. Now you get to buy the lens you want :-).

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What type of shooting do you like? For a good (but lengthy) lens article, please see

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http://www.bythom.com/rationallenses.htm

<p> and jump to the 'Economy DX' section. Let us know what you decide!

Shawna... You made the right decision! Now you can buy a better lens than the kit one! All you have to do is decide what kind of pictures you'll be most likely taking and according to that you go and buy a good lens. read about it and if you need any more help just comeback here! Rene'

If you can share what you intend to shoot mostly (e.g. portraits, landscape, animals, family, travel, etc.) and your budget for the lens, then perhaps others can suggest a few options for you. The D80 is quite a versatile camera that can take on a whole variety of lenses.

regardless of what else you pick up, get the nikkor 50/1.8. it's cheap ($115), sharp, and light, and helps newbies learn framing and composition, i.e. the art of "sneaker zoom."

 

also, dunno what your shooting style is, but if i had to do it all over again, i would have avoided the kit zooms and gone straight to the fast glass. i recommend the tamron 17-50/2.8; the 28-75 is good too. neither will break the bank.

Now you get to pick. What's the problem? No mention of what sort of shooting interests you, so share that with us. A 50/1.8AFD is cheap and probably sharper than the iffy kit lenses. Go to www.nikonlinks.com and snoop around the lens reviews.

The kit lens may be cheap, but it is not well made. Optically it will be ok for a while until the inside tape holding it together fails.

 

You can get a set of prime lenses or a nice zoom. The new 16/85 is nice. So is the older 18/70.

 

35mm is considered a normal lens for this camera18 to 24 semi wide. 55 to 85 short telephotos. A 24/35/50 would be a nice set.

I'm with the rest Shawna - this is what you would call a 'lucky mistake'!

 

If you want a good "normal-ish" zoom that is not super-fast I'm with Ronald in suggesting 18-70 or 16-85. Whatever you do, don't make the mistake I made with getting the 18-200 (its not horrid and I use it, but I would not buy it again if I had my time over).

 

And get at least one fast (wide aperture) prime which is where the fun really is! The cheapest option is the Nikon 50mm f/1.8 which for the money (not much more than $100) is one hell of a high quality lens and will greatly expand your options in low light.

Nikkor 50mm f.1.8, it's fast, cheap and super sharp. You'll get a great feel for composition and it will make you work at getting the shots you want to get. The only downside to getting the 50mm f1.8 is that after this lens, most lens' will feel slow and pretty boring in comaprrison. After a few years of photography, i decided to sell a bunch of gear to upgrade, and the one lens i found myself loving agan, was the 50mm f1.8!

 

Have fun shooting!

Since the lens is about 80% of everything, great care must be taken in selecting them. One to consider for general photography is the newer Nikon 18-55mm VR. It's a good general purpose lens that is very versatile and optically pretty good. Really though, you gave NO info about what you want to photo, where, or what you want to spend. I'm going to break with some of the others and suggest you forget the 50mm f1.8. Yes, I have one. No, I don't use it much--it's more of a specialty lens. If you photo at night or in dark interiors you might consider it after you have a couple of other more versatile lenses. In fact, I'd suggest you might get more use out of a tripod or a SB-400 flash. For general purpose, I'd suggest the Nikon 18-55mm VR and the Nikon 70-300mm VR. You can photo quite a bit with those two lenses.

 

Kent in SD

Buy a 50mm f1.8 and another lens that suits your style. If you aren't sure just what your style is yet then you can't go wrong with the Tamron 17-50 f2.8. If you like to travel but don't want to lug around a bunch of gear, consider the Nikkor 18-200mm VR. Kent is right about the tripod. The easiest way to improve your photos is to use a tripod.

Hi Shawna - I think you made a great decision too! I purchased the D80 with the 18-135mm kit lens and now I hardly use it. If I were to do it again, I would probably start with the Nikon 18-200 VR. It's a great all-around lens. (I went from a P&S to my D80) I also agree with the other suggestions on getting the Nikon 50mm f/1.8 itﾒs only about $100 and well worth it. Itﾒs one of my favourite lenses. Itﾒs really fast in low light and will give you excellent focus detail and DoF. I have love experimenting with the DoF.

For everyday and travel I tend to grab my Nikon 18-200mm VR (and my Sigma 10-20mm if I will be shooting landscapes or interiors ﾖ ie. used it while on a cruise). I have been quite pleased with the 18-200mm VR. Itﾒs not nearly as sharp as the 50mm f/1.8 but great if you donﾒt want to lug around a lot of different lenses.

Best of luck on your decision and please let us know what you select.

C : )

Wow thanks for the responses! I would like to start out with portraits mainly, and landscapes secondly. That's pretty much it, though I may get a lense with some telephoto capability. Hmm. Thanks again for all that your wisdom, I'm going to browse around some lense reviews and see what I like. I'll let you know what I buy! I'm so terribly excited about it all I'm glad I found a knowledgeable and friendly bunch!

If you're interested in landscapes, you may want a wide angle (12-24mm range). If you

are interested in portraits you may want a normal to slightly telephoto (35-70 range).

One option to consider, is to get the new awesome 11-16 Tokina lens for landscapes.

And just get a normal 50mm/1.8 lens for portraits. This is the kind of "non zoom"

approach. I think you learn better this way and it forces you to think about

composition. If you decide you want to be "lazy" :), there's nothing wrong with the kit

zoom lenses; but the two lenses I mentioned will give you much better quality.

Take a good look at Nikon's 18-135mm lens. It is probably your best overall value and will give you superb results on your d80.

Most of the kit lenses aren't very good - they tend to be slow, and they tend to try to be "all things to all people", which means they zoom over a very wide ratio, further compromising their quality.

 

So you did the right thing. Now it's a matter of deciding what sort of photography you like to do and getting a GOOD lens for that. My advice -

 

1. If you buy a zoom, keep the ratio to no more than 3:1 - zooms are full of compromises and the compromises overwhelm the quality beyond 3:1.

 

2. Two good lenses are better than 1 "do everything" so-so lens. The D80 takes interchangable lenses for a reason!

 

3. Speed is important. Get an f/2.8 (or faster) if you can - it will extend your shooting day, allow you to use faster shutter speeds, or let you stop down (all lenses are sharper a stop or two below their widest opening)

 

4. Don't be afraid of buying used. Find a reputable used dealer such as KEH and you can get great pro gear at amateur prices.

You have several options depending on budget and how you work. For portraits I would look at a Nikkor 85mm or 105mm that is fast for shallow Depth of Field and a nice blurred back ground. For landscape I am happy with using focal ranges in the 18 to 50 range YMMV. There are some nice wide zooms if that is your preferrence, Sigma 10-20, Tokina 12-24, Nikkor 12-24 and just out the Tokina 11-16.

Possible solutions are:

Nikkor kit 18-55mm + Nikkor 85mm f1.8 or 105 f2.5 maybe best value

Tamron 17-50 f2.8 + Nikkor 85mm f1.8 or 105 f2.5 better low light

wide zoom 1x-2x + Nikkor 85mm f1.8 or 105 f2.5 for wide use

Nikkor 18-70mm slow tele but one lens

Nikkor 18-135mm slower tele but one lens

Nikkor 16-85mm $$$ with slower tele but one lens

 

I will be addinig the Tokina 11-16 to my Nikkor 18-70 and Nikkor 85mm f1.8. I also have and use primes istead of the 18-70.

I don't have a small budget, but the money that rolls in comes in staggered. Thus, I'd have to get my lenses staggered. See, I'm a waitress at a restaurant so I get money in daily increments as well as paycheques. Anyway, I'm leaning toward getting a prime or two first, I hadn't really looked into it before. For what I want to be photographing, my subject(s) won't be doing much moving, so I don't mind doing it;). So within the next couple days I'll pick up a nikon 105mm prime? Would it still make sense to get the 50mm prime at this time as well (maybe the other way around)? I don't have the feel for them yet so I'm not sure if it makes sense to do it... Within the next couple weeks I think I'll get the Tamron 17-50mm. Everything else(the do-it-all for travel zooms and ultra wide etc etc...), I'll think about after I've toyed with what I get now. Does this sound like a plan? I'm kind of going on what I know from about a day and a half furiously swimming in articles, websites, and forums. And I thought choosing the camera was hard.

Shawna, I think your plan sounds good. The primes are solid lenses that will serve you well for many, many years. Just recently I put my 50mm back on and have had a blast zooming with my feet again. It's amazing how lazy I got using zooms...

 

I agree with everyone else that your decision to get a great deal on a body and not purchase a kit was right. I haven't had great luck with kit lenses, but the ones I've researched and bought separately have been fantastic.

 

Good luck with your new photographic endeavor, and welcome to photo.net! You'll learn a lot here.