Zoom lens for N65

Hi ,

I have bought a Nikon N65 two months ago. With that I have bought

50mm f/1.8D lens. Now I would like to go for zoom lens. Suggest me a

good zoom lens and the price range should be within 200$. I'm not a

serious photographer... I'm making it as a hobby. Suggest me !

Also I would like to go for speedlight for the same SLR. Suggest

which one to buy. As nikon is claiming that only Nikon speedlight has

to be used else would result in circuit problem..

Thanks

I have a 28-105mm AF-D that works as a great travel/general

purpose zoom. I also have a 75-300 AF that is a great lens, but a

bit large and slow. You can probably find either one used for less

than $200.

 

The SB-28, SB-50, and SB-80 all work great with the N65, but

may cost more than the N65. I have an old SB-22 that has a TTL

mode, but no way to do automatic exposure compensation.

Thanks! Can i go for sigma lenses which i find cheaper.. or any other breand that performs well?

There are plenty of good zoom lenses. There are plenty of zoom lenses that cost less than $200 new. I cannot think of even one lens that is described by both of those sentences, sorry.

 

If all you have is $200 and you want a good zoom lens, my advice is: wait until you have at least another $100. Then get the Nikkor 28-105 AF-D zoom.

 

That's the least expensive zoom I know of that would meet my own criteria for being "good."

 

If you want more reach at the telephoto end, you could get the 70-300 AF-D ED Nikkor zoom... but it also is more than $200.

 

As for speedlights, the logical choice would be the SB-50DX. The SB-80DX is wonderful and gives you scads of power plus tilt and swivel options and so on... but an SB-80DX puts a big dent in a budget.

 

If you were shooting 50 rolls per week, with heavy use of flash, the SB-80DX would actually be the cheaper flash because you can use rechargeable AA batteries in it (whereas the SB-50Dx uses pricey lithium batteries). But if it takes you more like a year to go through 50 rolls and you only use flash a minority of the time, the cost of new batteries for the SB-50DX won't ever grow to be a concern.

 

Have fun, don't throw away $200 on a poor or marginal lens when you could get a mighty nice one for not much more money... enjoy the hobby.

I second Jim's opinion.

The 70-300G Nikkor zoom is attractively priced, but very cheap in build. More importantly, it has severe distortion of straight vertical lines. It's not too bad in terms of sharpness, so if you only intended to photograph things that don't include buildings in the picture, it might be acceptable (for animals, flowers, etc.).

I have a Sigma 28-105 f2.8-4 which I got for around $140. It's a great lens and works very well with my Nikon gear.

 

For Speedlights, if you buy one I recommend you stay with Nikon. You might just want to keep experiementing with the built-in Speedlight before you spend a chunk of money on another one. It'll be a little more expensive for a Nikon Speedlight, but it will be much easier for you to get the full use out of it.