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Alternate Lenses?

gundy74

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Im buying a Nikon D50 tomorrow. The kit lens is an 18-55mm which is good, but i also want a longer zoom lens for sports shots. Preferably one that zooms to 400mm (35mm eqv so i guess thats about a 270mm digital). Nikkor lenses are pretty expensive. Are there any other brands compatible with the D50?
 
Indoor or outdoor photography?

If your going to be doing indoor work, get an f/2.8 lens such as the one below.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=124669&is=GREY&addedTroughType=search

$140 for a telephoto lens? You'll be dissapointed, I garuntee it.

Here's a snippet of another post I made about cheap telephoto lenses in a different thread:

Sw1tchFX said:
I almost bought the Sigma 70-300mm lens, and thank God I didn't!

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=403209&is=DEMO&addedTroughType=search

I saw a used one in a local camera shop while I was buying film, and since I only had my 35-70mm AF-D at the time, I was considering a telephoto lens because I desperately needed one.

I was shooting earlier so my camera was already with me, and I decided to take a look through it.

First off, there is no way with its max aperture that I would be able to handhold it at 300mm without using ISO 400 film (in broad daylight). Because it’s a compact, the f/stop changes throughout the zoom, which really blows because if your indoors, shooting even with ISO 400 film, you’d be lucky to get a shutter speed of 1/500 or 1/250 at 300mm and f/5.6. IMO, that’s flat-out unacceptable.

The build quality of it just isn’t’ there either. Its all plastic and weighs maybe ¼lbs. that might be a plus for some, but it tells me that its cheap.

I loaded up some film in my FE and took some snaps with it outside using my tripod (which was needed at 300mm). I wasn’t impressed, the images were nice and sharp at 70-150mm, but from 150-300mm, it became softer as you increased the focal length.

Personally, I’m really glad I didn’t buy it because it really isn’t that good of a lens. Instead, I bought an AF Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8 AF-D which is absolutely amazing. It is worth every penny of the extra cost because it has more elements, isn’t made out of just plastic, and is above all, f/2.8! However, it’s a bazooka. It can get heavy after carrying it around for a long time and the tripod collar is too small.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=124669&is=GREY&addedTroughType=search

I paid $935 for it with shipping, UV filter, and an HB-1 lens hood, but it seems B&H lowered the price since I bought mine.

EDIT: Unless you're in broad daylight, there will be very few times when you'll be able to hand hold a camera at 300mm without VR, so looking at a 70-300mm lens IMO is a wasted effort becuase you'll never go beyond 200 or 210mm unless on a tripod. If you need to reach out to 300mm, consider 200-300mm, or 200-400mm lenses becuase you'll get awful results from a lense with a minimum focal length of 70mm going all the way out to 300mm especially with a compact lens.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/con...&Q=&sku=124669&is=GREY&addedTroughType=search
 
I'll tell you a great deal if on a common lens also...an older Nikkor 70-210 F4 AF. They are abundant and cheap. A nice example can be had used for $100.00 or so and will deliver awesome picks.

LWW
 

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