"Gary Seven" wrote in message
...
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.

So what to do here? I have the feeling that buying just one lens (I
assume
a tele-wide) will NOT be a one-size-fits-all solution. I get the feeling
I
will need two, but simply don't know which way to go here. Of course, my
budget is not unlimited and I simply can't plop down another $2000 in
glass
on top of the $900 I will be spending on the body.

Thoughts anyone? TIA.

For a general-purpose lens I think it's hard to beat the 18-70mm kit lens,
or perhaps the 18-135mm kit lens that was introduced with the D80 if you
need or want the extra reach at the long end (I have no personal experience
with the 18-135 though). Either of those should be wide enough at the short
end for most ordinary purposes. If you feel the need for something
ultrawide, the obvious choices are the 12-24mm Nikkor (expensive!) or the
12-24mm Tokina (half the price, and reportedly just as good as far as
optical performance is concerned). I have the Tokina 12-24 and it's great.

For macro there are a couple of current and some older Nikkors that should
suit you if you don't mind paying the price. For non-Nikon macro lenses the
Tokina 100mm Pro D reportedly is outstanding. I just ordered one myself,
don't have it yet so can't comment on it from personal experience.

Neil