D60 disaster

Okay, I'm sure it's all my fault for not reading carefully enough, but we have a disaster on our hands here. My

wife, missing her N70 and ready to move up from her tiny little Coolpix, just bought a D60. We didn't do much

with it when it came a couple of days ago, but we pulled her beloved Tamron 28-200 off the N70 and took the new

camera to a family gathering today. To our surprise, it doesn't autofocus.

 

Looking at the specs on the Nikon site, it seems that this camera works just fine with most lenses, except that

it won't autofocus! Sort of an odd shortcoming in my mind.

 

Is it correct that the least expensive Nikon digital that will shoot with standard F-mount autofocus lenses is

the D80? Is there another lens that she could get instead of her current Tamron that would be cheaper than moving

up to the D80?

 

I routinely shoot manual focus, and her lens works just fine in AF on my camera, but she's not about to lug

around my monster DCS760, and I'm not willing to part with it anyway.

 

Van

Technology has to move on eventually. I keep wanting some new Nikon glass to fit my old Nikon film cameras, but unfortunately they don't have aperture rings anymore (the G lenses).

 

The answer is "yes". The 50mm f/1.8 is a superb lens and costs about $110 (last I looked). Zoom? They'll be more, but for the difference in price for another camera, there isn't much I would recommend if you truly want to get the Nikon look. There's no sense in buying a Nikon if you're not going to use great lenses on it.

If what you are looking for is lenses that will autofocus with the D60, there are numerous lenses made by Nikon (AF-S), Sigma (HSM), and a couple by Tamron that do that. Here's a list:

 

http://www.flickr.com/groups/d40slr/discuss/72157605944198606/

 

Check the Tamron site for a few lenses that will autofocus with the D60 that have recently been released. I believe they are the new model of the 28-75 2.8 and the new 28-300.

 

Best,

David

This is the down side to poorly trained sales clerks in big stores. The Nikon D40, D40x , and D60 require AF-S lenses to auto focus. You should have been told that when you looked at the camera. It also states this in the manual, but you're already bought the camera before you can open the manual.

Michael,

Don't think the 50 1.8 will work.

I believe the D60 will only auto focus AF-S lenses.

" and D60 require AF-S lenses to auto focus." - either you get a D50, D70, D80, D200 and upper level camera for your lenses that you have (the Tamron) or get AF-S lenses for your D60.

 

The least expensive would be used D50, or you can find a new but mostly they were sold out, or else, used D60, D70, D70S. Those were discontinued, but some stores have them new, and plenty of used.

 

D80 is the lowest price camera in production that has the mechanical scredriver auto focus, AF.

 

On DX format camera, like your D60, your beloved 28-200 Tamron will become an equivalent angle of view of 42-300 mm lens.

 

Unless you get a camera with mechanical screwdriver focus AF, like D50 or D80, "The 50mm f/1.8" will get you into another surprise, like your Tamron lens did. Michael recommended this lens for the D80 when answering your questions, and that lens would work in manual focus on D60.

 

You need to understand a bit of cameras, as you see cannot rely of vendor sales force...

 

If you intend to use own lens on a new camera, best is to take the lens to the camera store and try it there.

The <a href="http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/449087-

USA/Nikon_2162_18_135mm_f_3_5_5_6_ED_IF_AF_S.html">Nikon 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S DX </a> is what

you want to replace the Tamron zoom and get the same angle of coverage on the D60 DX format.

If I were u, I would quietly buy the 18-135mm Nikkor (~$299) and don't look back.

Disaster? Hardly. All of the Nikon product data clearly states that the D60 will only focus with AF-S lenses.

I owned an N70 camera for several years with either the same or similar zoom lens. I was never impressed with the quality of my pictures. Being a Canon user since I was a kid, I assumed that the picture quality was 'normal' for Nikon. Now that I am older and wiser, I realized that the lens was the problem.

 

Follow Robert's advise. You won't regret it! The D60 is a superb camera. The 18-135mm lens is a superb lens that is a perfect match for your camera. You and your wife are going to love the results.

save your marriage and get an 18-200 VR. or, if you're the cheap kind, get an 18-55.

Ditto Eric's advice. Get the 18-200 VR. Superglue it on there. Done. Few people will ever really need another lens.

 

If that's too pricey, get the 24-120 VR. Very good lens too.

Better to get one of these new lenses, like the 16-85 or 18-135, since the old Tamron won't bring out the image quality potential of the D60 anyway.

I have a 28-200 tamron too.. Loved it on my film nikons. but when I went Digital and got a 18-70 with my DSLR the

difference in image quality was amazing( I was blown away !). For a normal zoom similar to the 28-200, get a

Nikkor you wont regret it. . any of the Kit lenses would blow away the Tamron 28-200. The choices are

 

1) 18-55 VR : Cheapest but really good.

 

2) 18-70 : Nice Normal range. similar to 28-105

 

3) 16-85 VR : Latest Kit lens. Very nice wide normal zoom, has VR which is a nice bonus.

 

4) 18-135 : this is similar to the 28-200 Tamron in angle of view. Its also very sharp( for a zoom lens

in this range).

 

5) 18-200 VR : The classic one. Similar to your 28-200 but a bit longer. VR makes it very usable at the long end.

 

I would recomd the 16-85 or the 18-200 if you have the money. Otherwise the 18-135 because it is similar to your

tamron 28-200 which you are used to.

My vote is for the 18-135 VR. with the 16-85mm VR as the runner up.

Heh, that is the down side to the nikon economic dslrs! When I was going to buy a dsrl I did extensive research online at site like dpreview and looked at countless e-gallaries of both comparitive images and fun ones. After narrowing my choices down to the D40x and the D80, I opted for the cheaper D40x even though it was not auto-focus compatible with older lenses. My film SLR and lens are from the now extinct Minolta so I wouldn't have been able to interchange lenses anyhow. But if I had had a Nikon SLR, I probably would have invested the extra money for the ability to inerchange lenses between the film and digitial cameras. The D60 seems to be pretty much a new version of the D40x/D40