Good all purpose lens?

[anubis404]

What is a good all around purpose lens? I have a D40 with a kit lens (18-55mm) coming, but I have heard that the kit lens is very cheap glass. I was thinking of getting a 50mm f/1.8. Is this a good lens? What else would you recommend in the $100-200 range?

 

[reg]

A 50mm 1.8 is very good.

 

[osirus]

I have a D50
and the 18-55 is actually a decent lens, i use it alot.
i also have the 50mm f1.8 and its great also.( Auto focus wont work with it on the D40 though)

in the 100-200 dollar range..

Well all i can recomend for that besides the 50 f1.8 is that you look on ebay

I got a sigma 70-300mm apo dg lens on there for $180 brand new about a year ago. ITs a decent lens for the price. ( was about $350 in stores here)
its a lil cheaper on ebay now i think.

 

[reg]

i also have the 50mm f1.8 and its great also.( Auto focus wont work with it on the D40 though)

LOL, I feel bad for D40 owners.

 

[anubis404]

I don't mind manual focusing once and awhile.

 

[osirus]

it can just be tough with the small dof at f1.8
but sometimes its actually easier too as the autofocus can have a hard time actually focusing on the exact spot you want it to at that Fstop.

www.coop81.deviantart.com

theres my deviantart page
the first 10 or so pages were all taken with
a D50 with either a
, 18-55 kit lens,50mmf1.8, or sigma 70-300.
( a few shots may be the 18-55 with a cheap fisheye adapter on it)


So take a peek if you want to see the quality

 

[reg]

I don't mind manual focusing once and awhile.

I mind not having the ability to autofocus once in a while.

 

[dylj]

Since you're thinking about getting a manual focus lens, look into getting some old AI, AI-S or pre-AI mount primes. They're cheap and very high quality, if you don't mind manual focus and manual metering! 50 f/1.4, 105 f/2.5, 135 f/2.8.

Also, I've heard good things about the cheap Nikon 55-200 4-5.6 VR. Sure, it's slow, but at least it's faster than the kit lens (50 at 5.6 vs 55 at 4)! Get it refurbished for $160.

 

[Dao]

I believe your kit lens is cheap. But they are not that bad. I am a Canon user, but I saw pictures that took with that lens and they were fine.

According to the Photozone, the optical quality is not too bad. (Better than the one that came with my Canon )

http://www.photozone.de/Reviews/46-...f35-56-g-ed-dx-ii-review--test-report?start=1

 

[Battou]

50mm primes are one of the most versital lenses you can get, For the longest time they where the kit lens of choice for for most of the major makes. You can't go wrong with a 50mm prime.

 

[asfixiate]

I use 50mm as walk around lense. I actually walked the entire philadelphia zoo with it and was able to use it in nocturnal exhibits without flash as well as everywhere else.

 

[JimmyO]

Wehther you have AF or not the 50mm f/1.8 is great to have. Another lens you might wanna take a look at is the 18-135mm AF-S. That or the 55-200mm, but then you will find yourself switching lenses more often.

 

[nynfortoo]

If you have the body and kit lens on their way, I'd hold off buying a new lens for a while. Just play around with it, and you'll soon learn of any shortfalls — whether they be in image quality, lens defects/distortions, or even lack of focal length in either direction, etc. Then make an informed decision about whether to upgrade, fill a gap or just keep your kit as is.

 

[Mav]

What is a good all around purpose lens? I have a D40 with a kit lens (18-55mm) coming, but I have heard that the kit lens is very cheap glass. I was thinking of getting a 50mm f/1.8. Is this a good lens? What else would you recommend in the $100-200 range?

The kit lens is cheap, but that doesn't mean it's no good. All of the photos I posted in this thread were taken with the Nikon 18-55 kit lens. I even compared it to my $1200 17-55 f/2.8 pro lens, and stopped down during daylight shooting at an aperture of f/8 they were identical, which is why I laugh when people post the great photos they took during the day with their 17-55 lenses. It's no different from the kit lens shooting like that! The slightly more expensive 18-55VR kit lens equals the 17-55 f/2.8 at night as well. The vibration reduction is just good enough that it will equal the f/2.8 speed for night time city walkaround shooting too. I use my 17-55 for other things so I wouldn't sell it, but the 18-55's are perfectly good lenses for most uses.

The $100 50/1.8 is a great 2nd lens, although you'll have to manually focus. As long as you're not trying to track a randomly moving object like my 14 mo old daughter, it's not as big of a deal as you might think. Just move the focus ring and watch for the focus confirmation dot in the lower left of the finder. To make things easier, stop the lens down a little to f/2.8 or smaller (higher f/number) for a little more depth of field. You don't need to be shooting wide open at f/1.8 to enjoy the benefits of prime lenses like these. They're unbelievably sharp, and have great color and contrast which has nothing to do with lens aperture.

Two photos from 50mm prime lenses taken with my D40.

50mm f/1.8D @ f/2.8, 1/60s, and iso400

See how the background is nicely out of focus here? That's what you get with the larger aperture lenses (smaller f/number) since they have tighter depth of field at the focus plane. And my daughter was gyrating back and forth there, yet I still managed to get a few photos where she was perfectly in focus.

Next one:

50mm f/1.4D @ f/1.4, 1/25s, iso1600

Almost complete darkness. This is the more expensive 50mm, but at f/1.4 it has sixteen times more light gathering ability than the 18-55 does, which is only f/5.6 at the long end. I couldn't have pulled this shot off without a fast prime. Otherwise I would have needed a flash or more lighting in the room, both of which would have ruined the natural 'sleeping beauty' dreamy look.

It's also great for landscape type photos.

f/6.3 on my D80 with autofocus support, although I really didn't need it here either

The color and contrast here is amazing. I tried some similar photos with my kit lens and it just didn't compare. The kit lens is great from about 35mm on back, but it does seem to lose a lot of color and contrast at the long end. Doesn't mean it's no good though. It's just not the best. You can still take plenty of great photos with them.