Lens advice

[Brotage]

I'm just gonna get straight to the point

I need a lens(es) for around 400$ or less

I'll be shooting Skateboarding, nature, landscapes, in-the-city-shots..?, and I'd like to try infrared.

So any suggestions? Canon, or Nikon, gonna buy the body depending on lenses. Don't worry about the D40 AF problem.

Filter suggestions would be nice too

 

[Sideburns]

Nikon 18-200 VR. You have lots of different stuff...and that lens would cover pretty much all of it.

 

[Garbz]

Since you didn't mention long range or sports photography requiring the 200mm range I'd recommend looking at some of the tamron or sigma 18-50ish f/2.8 lenses.

Look into a circular polariser or a Y-B polariser for landscape shots.

 

[Sideburns]

Since you didn't mention long range or sports photography requiring the 200mm range I'd recommend looking at some of the tamron or sigma 18-50ish f/2.8 lenses.

Look into a circular polariser or a Y-B polariser for landscape shots.

well I figured nature included wildlife...but meh. you never know. he may have meant flowers.

 

[Brotage]

well I figured nature included wildlife...but meh. you never know. he may have meant flowers.

Didn't really think of that but I suppose I would like to take pictures of animals and so on... not so much flowers... already too many flower pictures... unfortunately we dont have many interesting animals around here...

Deer.. Birds.. More deer.. I'm sure I could find something interesting though

 

[sabbath999]

Nikon 18-200 VR. You have lots of different stuff...and that lens would cover pretty much all of it.

Not to be picky, but the OP said $400 or less... unless you are getting one of those in a back alley somewhere you are not finding an 18-400 VR for anything remotely close to $400.

 

[Rchang]

Too greedy! You may get one fits all but not really fit any at the end of the day.

Nature? Long and large aperture prime/zoom for safari and macro for insects.

Landscape? From ultra wide to long zoom for pinpointing intersting spots.

In-the-city? A large aperture prime or standard zoom.

IR has nothing to do with lens.

Yet, I'd like to suggest you to consider the "system" rather than lenses. According to your expectations vs your budget. Olympus is the choice. Why? It has smaller sensor size which enables you to multiply your focal length by 2, i.e. 150mm = 300 mm in 135 format, which is what you need for animals. It also has ultra wide lenses so you don't have problem in landscape. E510 has in-body image stabilizer which helps to realize your expectation a lot, and, it's price is lower compare with Canon and Nikon. In addition, Olympus' live view system may help you in-the-city shots.

 

[Brotage]

I was asking about IR because I read that some lenses have a "hotspot" in the middle of the images.

I also meant that a 400$ per lens budget, granted I don't think I can justify spending any more on one since im a noob.

 

[soylentgreen]

A $400 budget for a large aperature lens is not going to buy you anything spectacular. I mention large aperature, because the type of photos you want to take, mainly in-city, sporty action, requires such lenses to "stop" action with a high shutter speed and good low-light performance. A sigma 24-70 f/2.8 can be had for around $480 US but is a so-so lens. Tamron makes a 18-55 f/2.8 i believe that is much touted. The Canon and Nikon equivalent will be 2-3 times the price. You pay for what you get. Really depends on the image quality you are after. No one lens will suffice for what you need, so a longer telephoto for nature is a good investment. Say a 70-300 or 70-200mm. A smaller f/4 aperature is usable as long as there is good available light outdoors. And a fast prime is advisable. Say a 50mm f/1.4 or f/1.8. They are relatively cheap and good performers f/1.8 are like $80 US. Any maker should carry all theses lenses in this range and third-party lenses have mounts for all popular systems. Choose the camera body that has the functions you need. Low-light will require good high ISO performance, so you have to research there. How many frames per second do you need? Functionality? How the camera feels and works for you is paramount. So go to the stoer and try them out.