Nikon D40/D40x + night lens ?

David J Taylor wrote:
Beladi Nasrallah wrote:

I am thinking about buying a small dSLR such as Nikon D40 or D40x. My
main interest is to take pictures of landscapes at low light. Thus, I
am looking for a rather short focal length lens. I want to have a
fixed focal length. The aperture should be 1/1.4 or 1/1.8. I want the
lens to be cheap (a few hundred dollars). Obviously, it should have a
built-in motor. Someone mentioned such a lens around here, but I did a
search and could not find. Can you advise me ? Thanks.

Doesn't Sigma do a 30mm f/1.4 or something like that? Not sure if it's
AF-S, though.

Yes Sigma HSM lenses will AF on a D40, that one is $640. They also make
20, 24, & 28mm f/1.8 lenses from $370 to $530 without HSM.

If the subject is landscapes though, a tripod might be the best idea.

Beladi Nasrallah wrote in news:a6c562a4-2040-4d58-a022-
:
I am thinking about buying a small dSLR such as Nikon D40 or D40x. My
main interest is to take pictures of landscapes at low light.

For landscape photos, you don't need AF? Just focus on infinity. The Nikkor
50/1.8 is a great low-light lens for about $100 and works fine with the D40
(manual focus).

On Feb 4, 5:05*am, sally wrote:
Beladi Nasrallah wrote in news:a6c562a4-2040-4d58-a022-
:

I am thinking about buying a small dSLR such as Nikon D40 or D40x. My
main interest is to take pictures of landscapes at low light.

For landscape photos, you don't need AF? *Just focus on infinity. *The Nikkor
50/1.8 is a great low-light lens for about $100 and works fine with the D40
(manual focus).

When I said "landscape", I actually meant "city landscape" and
architecture. Focussing is still important.

"Beladi Nasrallah" wrote in message
...
On Feb 4, 5:05 am, sally wrote:
Beladi Nasrallah wrote in
news:a6c562a4-2040-4d58-a022-
:

I am thinking about buying a small dSLR such as Nikon D40 or D40x. My
main interest is to take pictures of landscapes at low light.

For landscape photos, you don't need AF? Just focus on infinity. The
Nikkor
50/1.8 is a great low-light lens for about $100 and works fine with the
D40
(manual focus).

When I said "landscape", I actually meant "city landscape" and
architecture. Focussing is still important.

You might want to look at the tilt/shift lens.

On Sun, 3 Feb 2008 15:01:02 -0800 (PST), Beladi Nasrallah
wrote in
:

On Feb 4, 5:05*am, sally wrote:
Beladi Nasrallah wrote in news:a6c562a4-2040-4d58-a022-
:

I am thinking about buying a small dSLR such as Nikon D40 or D40x. My
main interest is to take pictures of landscapes at low light.

For landscape photos, you don't need AF? *Just focus on infinity. *The Nikkor
50/1.8 is a great low-light lens for about $100 and works fine with the D40
(manual focus).

When I said "landscape", I actually meant "city landscape" and
architecture. Focussing is still important.

Really? What subject distance?

--
Best regards,
John Navas
Panasonic DMC-FZ8 (and several others)

Beladi Nasrallah wrote:
sally wrote:
Beladi Nasrallah wrote:

I am thinking about buying a small dSLR such as Nikon D40 or D40x. My
main interest is to take pictures of landscapes at low light.
For landscape photos, you don't need AF? Just focus on infinity. The Nikkor
50/1.8 is a great low-light lens for about $100 and works fine with the D40
(manual focus).

When I said "landscape", I actually meant "city landscape" and
architecture. Focussing is still important.

20mm f/2.8 on a D80, or a used D50 which actually has pretty good low
light performance.

John Navas wrote in
news
When I said "landscape", I actually meant "city landscape" and
architecture. Focussing is still important.

Really? What subject distance?

This is true. The Nikon 50/1.8 lens doesn't focus beyond 10 meters (30
feet). Anything beyond that is essentially infinity. This is not a
telephoto lens.

On Feb 4, 4:09*am, Paul Furman wrote:
David J Taylor wrote:
Beladi Nasrallah wrote:

I am thinking about buying a small dSLR such as Nikon D40 or D40x. My
main interest is to take pictures of landscapes at low light. Thus, I
am looking for a rather short focal length lens. I want to have a
fixed focal length. The aperture should be 1/1.4 or 1/1.8. I want the
lens to be cheap (a few hundred dollars). Obviously, it should have a
built-in motor. Someone mentioned such a lens around here, but I did a
search and could not find. Can you advise me ? Thanks.

Doesn't Sigma do a 30mm f/1.4 or something like that? *Not sure if it's
AF-S, though.

Yes Sigma HSM lenses will AF on a D40, that one is $640.

Yes, I did a search, and that's what I found (Sigma lens, that is,
which has autofocussing motor). But it is more expensive than Nikkor
50mm f/1.8 which is $130. Actually, here the notorious guy named Ken
Rockwell makes a comparison of Sigma 30mm f/1.4 with the Canon 28mm f/
1.8 lens,
http://www.kenrockwell.com/canon/lenses/28mm-f18.htm

To me, the quality of image is the same (Sigma vs. Canon lens). I
might well get Canon Digital Rebel 400D (XTi), which is of the same
size as Nikon D40. And the price of the Canon lens is slightly less.

Beladi Nasrallah wrote:
[]
Yes, I did a search, and that's what I found (Sigma lens, that is,
which has autofocussing motor). But it is more expensive than Nikkor
50mm f/1.8 which is $130. Actually, here the notorious guy named Ken
Rockwell makes a comparison of Sigma 30mm f/1.4 with the Canon 28mm f/
1.8 lens,
http://www.kenrockwell.com/canon/lenses/28mm-f18.htm

Well, they are lenses with a different application. For architecture,
particularly on a DSLR, 30mm may be much more useful. Take a look through
the viewfinder.

To me, the quality of image is the same (Sigma vs. Canon lens). I
might well get Canon Digital Rebel 400D (XTi), which is of the same
size as Nikon D40. And the price of the Canon lens is slightly less.

When deciding between Canon and Nikon, be sure to hold the cameras in the
shop.

There's two reasons to visit your local store, and buy there once you've
used their facilities.

Cheers,
David

On Feb 4, 11:59*pm, "David J Taylor" -
this-bit.nor-this-bit.co.uk wrote:

When deciding between Canon and Nikon, be sure to hold the cameras in the
shop.

I have already held those Canon and Nikon cameras in my hands, and
took a few snapshots with them. I borrowed them from my colleagues who
had them for work reasons. What stroke me was that both cameras were
compact, and I liked that. I did not find much difference between them
in the compactness factor.

Both cameras had kit lenses on them (18-55 mm ?). The quality of the
pictures was good, but unremarkable. I subscribed it to the quality of
the kit lens.