Advice on Nikon lens

[mirzaair]

Hi All
I got a Nikon D70s and would like to to buy 2 new lenses.
1. a wide angle lense BUT the thing is I would like to get a budget but decent lens (sounds greedy? I know) any suggestion?

2. 18-300mm lens: here I'm totally confused. some of 18-300 are available for £120 and some are £399! can't find the difference between the lenses. and also why 400mm lense are so expensive than the 300mm, any idea?

Thanks

M

[Yandros]

Originally Posted by mirzaair

Hi All
I got a Nikon D70s and would like to to buy 2 new lenses.
1. a wide angle lense BUT the thing is I would like to get a budget but decent lens (sounds greedy? I know) any suggestion?

2. 18-300mm lens: here I'm totally confused. some of 18-300 are available for £120 and some are £399! can't find the difference between the lenses. and also why 400mm lense are so expensive than the 300mm, any idea?

Thanks

M

1. The obvious choice is the Sigma 10-20mm, but you're looking at over 300 quid I'm afraid.

2. Closest to your requirements would be the Tamron 18-250mm F/3.5-6.3 Di ll LD Aspherical (IF) Macro, at £290. Some lenses are optically stabilised (eg the Nikon 18-200VR) which add to the price, and others are a higher optical quality, or let in more light. Basically a very cheap long zoom only be usable in good light, and be less sharp than expensive counterparts. As lenses get longer, it gets harder and harder to gather enough light, and the price skyrockets. The key number is the widest aperture you can use at the long end. For example, that Tamron is f6.3 at 250mm. By comparison, the more expensive Nikon 70-300VR will allow f5.6 at 300mm, and also has optical stabilisation. To get below f5.6 on any lens above 300mm costs you more than some family cars!

[Valleyman]

What's your total budget?

It may be worth getting one okay/pretty good lense to begin with and then getting more lenses as you can afford them. Personally I don't think there is any point in getting the cheapest lenses out there, just to get the full range, when you'll end up being frustrated with the results.

If you really want to go cheap and want a starter setup go second hand and get an 18-70mm 3.5-4.5 for dirt cheap (There are hudnreds as they were the D70 kit lense). Then get something like a Sigma 70-30 APO for about £130. Or if you don't mind a bit (ALOT!) of weight you could hunt the classifieds for an ex pro second hand second generation 80-200 f2.8 for about £250.

[mirzaair]

I have a decent 18mm-200.

I am interested to buy one wide angle and one 300mm.
I found this one: Sigma 70-300mm F4-5.6DG MACR and its only £124 whereas most other 300mm are much more expensive than this one. So that's why i am confused.

Alos, any suggestion about wide angle lense for Nikon D70s?

[Yandros]

Originally Posted by mirzaair

I have a decent 18mm-200.

I am interested to buy one wide angle and one 300mm.
I found this one: Sigma 70-300mm F4-5.6DG MACR and its only £124 whereas most other 300mm are much more expensive than this one. So that's why i am confused.

Alos, any suggestion about wide angle lense for Nikon D70s?

See my above post. Sigma 10-20mm is your best option for getting wider than 17mm.

The Sigma 70-300mm APO DG macro is the best value 70-300mm zoom. The best quality consumer one is the £300 Nikon 70-300VR, which adds optical stabilisation.

[Valleyman]

There is a Sigma 70-300 DG and a Sigma 70-300 APO DG...
Whatever you do, buy the APO one, as the other one is no where near as good.

From best to worst (for cheap-ish telephoto lenses) as far as I have used and read about:
1) Nikon 70-300 VR (I like this but find it hard to justify the price for such a slooow aperture lens)
2) Sigma 70-300 APO (Repeated winner of best telephoto for the price in alot of peoples minds)
3) Tamron 70-300 LD (I had this years ago and it's slow with poor CA, but good picture quality)
4) Nikon 70-300 D (This is basically the same as the one above, someone would say IDENTICAL...*wink*)
5) Sigma 70-300 Non-APO (Pretty tame)
6) A toilet tube
7) Nikon 70-300 G (Soft, bad, old and nasty... I had one of these on a film camera when it came out god knows how long ago, and it was bad then)

[mirzaair]

Thanks Everyone, so final verdict is:
Wide angle: Sigma 10-20mm
For Zoom:Sigma 70-300APO

am i righ?

[Yandros]

The superwide choice is pretty much betweeen the Sigma 10-20mm and the more expensive Tokina 12-24mm. I went for the Tokina, but there a LOT of happy Sigma owners.

As for the long zoom - personally I'd save and get the Nikon 70-300VR if you intend to use the 300mm end without a tripod a lot.

[dazza74]

admittedly more money but I'd go with a second hand Nikkor 12-24 or Tokina 11-16 2.8 personally

[Yandros]

Originally Posted by dazza74

admittedly more money but I'd go with a second hand Nikkor 12-24 or Tokina 11-16 2.8 personally

I gather that the main advantage of the Nikon over the Tokina 12-24 is a pretty much a complete lack of CA (which is, admittedly shocking on the Tokina ).