nikon 40 (which 18-200 to buy???)help!

[damianboyes]

hi,

i have a d40 and used to have a Nikkor 55-200vr but sold it because I found i rarely used it because it took too long to change lenses and then the photo op was gone. anyway i do a lot of travelling and am looking for a good all round travel lens and also perhaps a super fast prime too. i love the bokeh effect in my photography also here are my options:

Nikon 18-200 3.5-5.6 VR (by itself very expensive)


Sigma 18-200 3.5-6.3 OS HSM + nikon 50mm 1.8AF or nikon 50mm1.4 E series (with their MF and in the E series case manual metering)


Tamron 28-300 3.5-6.3 (IF) VR + nikon 50mm 1.8AF or nikon 50mm1.4 E series


I wonder if the nikon is so good that i should get it above all else forget the prime, or for the money get the sigma and tamron (is 28 too restrictive on the wide end?) and use the primes for night photography. im on a budget of around $700-800.

thanks, any advice much appreciated especially from those who have used the aforementioned lenses.


cheers damian boyes

[Visual Reality]

Why are you looking at the E series? What you want are the D lenses. Everything works including metering and TTL, they just don't have a focus motor.

http://www.amazon.com/Nikon-50mm-Nikkor-Digital-Cameras/dp/B00005LENO/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1211812465&sr=8-1

This is a tough question. The Nikon 18-200 is easily the best with color, contrast, sharpness, focus and VR II. It is also slightly faster at 200mm.

As far as night photography goes, no matter what lens you get it still isn't fast enough to use without a tripod which means you'd be doing long exposures no matter what. In that case you don't need (or want) a 1.4 aperture lens with almost no depth of field. Those are best indoors in social situations, museums, concerts etc.

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

The Nikkor 18-200Vr is excellent for what it is.
It does basically turn your nice DSLR into a super zoom though. ie it's got good range no need to change lenses but not fantastic performance at any length. When fully open I find my images lose a bit of contrast. Provided I'm shooting everything at F8 I find it's great but I struggle to isolate the subject from the background with it. For example, it's just not fast enough to put a bird in focus and have the background tree out of focus. It's convenient to carry only one lens though and be always ready to take a shot even if it's a less than optimal shot.

The 50mm F1.8 is exceptional value and allows you to play with low DOF. Well worth the money.

I've not played with the sigma 18-200 but have heard it's worse than the Nikkor.

[damianboyes]

thanks, i was looking at an e- series because i cannot afford the 50mm 1.4 nikon D lens. its around 300, where as i can get an e series for about 100. thanks for your commentdread pirate roberts i would like to get the 18-200 and the 50mm 1.8 both nikons but its so much money... maybe if i wait for a good deal, only problem is im going to tokyo in august and i want a lens for capturing unexpected shots. hence buying the large zoom range.

[Prospero]

The Series E lenses are generally pretty good. It was the low budget lens line of Nikon, but the only thing in which they were different from there more expensive AI-s equivalents was their build quality. However, with the 135 AI-s I find that the build quality is easily better than most consumer glass made today.

Still, I would go for the f/1.8. It may be 2/3 stop slower than the Series E lens you are looking at, but no metering is pretty tough to work with. It's alright for still-life or if you are shooting in the same light for a long time.
However, with changing light and when flash has to be used, it is pretty difficult to use. You need to set the flash manually (and if you use the pop-up flash this can only be done in the menu). Personally it often takes me some test shots to get that right.

[damianboyes]

thats really helpful prospero, thanks heaps, im thinking ill go for the sigma? 18-200 os hsm, and get the nikon 50mm 1.8. anyone else have any ideas?

[Rooz]

i'd be getting the nikkor for sure. first of all, its the better performer of all of them and second of all it has by far the best resale value should you want to sell it later for a better optical performer, (with less range).

since your not going till august wait a while before you buy the 50mm. personally, i'd go for either the 30mm f1.4 sigma or the new, (hopefully it will be avail by then), 50mm f1.4 sigma. you mentioned catching the unexpected shot...you're not gonna catch that shot with a MF lens. both the sigmas are HSM and will AF on the d40.

[Rooz]

or how about the 16-85VR ?? less range but far better optically.

[damianboyes]

yeah i know what you mean. but i definitely can't afford the nikon 18-200 VR and the sigma 1.4hsm as much as id love to. maybe if i sold my sb600. the way i saw it was the 18-200 VR doesn't perform as well as those nikon lenses with shorter ranges, and if i was going to upgrade later anyway if i became more serious the resale on a 18-200VR would put too much of a dent into a serious premium nikkor lens. but i see what you mean. i would rather the nikon 18-200 but in australia the difference is huge in price they are still 1000+ in stores and ive seen them for around 720 with shipping online whereas i can get the sigma for 480 with shipping.. the extra money could buy me a sharper prime lens, maybe if i wait till july and i got the sigma i could afford the sigma 30mm 1.4. its difficult when im saving for japan on a barman/uni student wage lol

[Rooz]

where in Oz are you ?

[damianboyes]

wollongong

[Rooz]

d-d-photographics have it for i think $870 odd.
http://www.d-d-photographics.com.au/

unfortunately you're "wants" outweigh your means. lol so you're gonna have to pick which comprimise you're prepared to live with. i put this scenario to you...if you think you;re gonna use the superzoom 90% of the time, then i'd be inclined to make sure that the optics you use for that 90% are the best you can get.

[damianboyes]

yeah, i know what you mean, brilliant photos btw on your flickr page the 1.4 is amazing

[Rooz]

thanks mate. :)