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Old April 29th 07, 08:34 PM posted to rec.photo.digital,rec.photo.digital.slr-systems
David Dyer-Bennet
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Default Help me pick out a lens for the Nikon D80

Gary Seven wrote:
Hello all. Can some of you good folks here help me out here? I am thinking
about buying the Nikon D80. I don't want to start or hear flames either for
or against Canon/Nikon, just looking for some advice here.

I will probably go for the D80 mostly because it fits my hand much better
than say, the Canon 30D. There are other little "pleasantries" I like,
especially the viewfinder. I'm at a loss though, of the type of lens or
lenses to purchase with the body. There are two types of shooting that I
do: (1) family shots of my two little girls (indoor and outdoor) and (2)
landscape style photography, mostly of my vineyards here in Priorat (Spain).
Along those lines I like to do shots of vines, overall vine/row shots,
background "mountain" shots, and I would also like to do very close-up
(macro?) shots.


The 18-70mm kit lens gets good marks. I've got one (purchased
separately used, though), and it indeed works well in general. I had
some flare problems with it, and it's not overall as good as the
17-55/2.8 that I eventually upgraded to, but it's quite decent.

So, for a D80, and on a budget, I'd suggest starting there.

You're probably eventually going to want a real "macro" lens; for
serious closeups, zooms with "macro mode" just don't cut it. The 60mm
macro is fairly cheap, and long enough focal length for most purposes on
a 1.5x crop body like the D80.

I'd suggest that as a good starting point, and then see. You might want
either wider, or longer, or both; after you have more experience using
those, you'll be in a better position to choose what the most valuable
thing to add next will be. (I'd guess an 80-200 of some sort; but you
probably aren't me, so who knows what you'll want?)