What are good specs for good Nikon lenses

justphotos · Oct 23, 2006

I'm trying to find a wide angle, macro, and telephoto lens for my Nikon SLR. Any advice is welcome

rmh159 · Oct 23, 2006

dpreview.com and kenrockwell.com are two big sites for equipment reviews... though IMO Ken Rockwell tends to be opinionated and self absorbed. Not to dismiss the knowledge that the site has but... it can be a little irritating (ie... check out his review on the Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D... his first line is "Honestly... I have never seen one." then goes on to say what a high quality lens it is... right or wrong... it can make you wince while reading).

Tiberius · Oct 23, 2006

What sort of budget are you looking for?

Telephoto - If you have piles of cash, the 70-200 f/2.8 VR is arguably the best zoom lens ever made for any system. Absolutely stunning. The 80-200 f/2.8 Two-Touch is 95% as good optically for almost half the price, and you can find used 80-200f/2.8 Push-Pulls (great optically, but no tripod mount) reasonably inexpensive as well.

Macro - you'll find many opinions about this. The 105VR is supposed to be quite nice, as are Sigma's Macro options (the 150mm sticks out in my mind, although I've never used one to be sure)

Wide Angle - Wide or Ultrawide? For just a plain wide-angle, the 18-70mm kit lens is fantastic for the money (can often be had for $200 used), and the 17-55f/2.8 is absolutely killer while a bit expensive. For an ultrawide, I reccomend the Tokina 12-24mm. Built like a tank and optics nearly as good (some say better) than the Nikon 12-24, for $400 less.

dsp921 · Oct 24, 2006

I use this site for my lens research, and avoid Rockwell, I followed his advice once and ended up with a paperweight.
http://www.naturfotograf.com/lens_surv.html#top

Since you said SLR and not D-SLR the Nikkor 12-24, 18-70 and the 17-55 mentioned will not work for you , they are DX lenses made for digital cameras. Are you looking for primes or zooms?

Don Simon · Oct 24, 2006

Good point, did you mean film or digital SLR? I too would assume that SLR means 'film' as opposed to d-SLR meaning digital, but it might not occur to some people that an SLR would be anything but digital.

I can't really speak from experience on Nikon's own lenses, but Tokina do make good wide-angle zooms for a very good price. For a good macro lens choose a prime rather than a zoom; extension tubes with say a 50mm prime might also be an option if you don't want to pay for a dedicated macro lens.

Oh and 'Ken Rockwell' is simply one of the ways Satan manifests on Earth.

justphotos · Oct 25, 2006

Zaphod said:
Oh and 'Ken Rockwell' is simply one of the ways Satan manifests on Earth.

lol. thanks for warning me

Sw1tchFX · Oct 26, 2006

ZaphodB said:
Oh and 'Ken Rockwell' is simply one of the ways Satan manifests on Earth.

I dissagree. Yes, he does seem self-absorbed, and yes, he is VERY opinionated, but that's why you visit his site. For an OPINION. I visit Kenrockwell.com everyday because its one of the few sites that provides equipment reviews that are THAT in-depth. And I usually agree with most of his statements, such as if i need a camera next week, than buy it now and figure it out, as opposed to waiting for the next upgrade and unpacking it at the shoot. But I also completly dissagree with some thigns he says, like always shooting in jpeg. I avoid shooting in jpeg as much as possible, beucase IMO it robs me of the true power of my D70.

Tiberius · Oct 26, 2006

The number of people complaining about Ken is indicative of the number of people who READ Ken. He may occasionally go a touch extreme, but 95% of what he says is right-on and solid stuff. Most people are just jealous that they can't pull anywhere near the traffic he pulls.

rmh159 · Oct 26, 2006

Yeah.... jealousy... that's it. :er: While I do agree that he has some useful info I think my main beef is with the writing. He sounds like a High School kid reporting for the school paper... but... whatever.

Don Simon · Oct 26, 2006

Yes, the jealousy argument would probably be more convincing if I actually had a website. :lmao: the style of writing is my main complaint too, that and the aforementioned "Honestly, I have never seen one". The fact that someone would even consider reviewing gear they'd never seen is quite funny, the fact that he does it and so many people then put their faith in that review is just astonishing. Yes of course it's just an opinion; I just wonder if Ken knows that. There are many factors that would persuade me to trade all my stuff in to invest in Nikon, but the idea of having to regularly read Ken is not one of them. :lol: