Low light - What to buy? Body/Lens/Tripod?

[djacobox372]

Your fastest lens is about f4, if you were to upgrade to a lens that was f2 or faster you would achieve a two stop increase in low light performance. Of course you would also lose DOF as you go to wider apertures, which may or may not be desirable.

By comparison the D7000 is about 3 stops better then the D40 in low light performance.

I would start with the glass and flash--a 35mm f1.8 af-s is an excellent choice for either a d40 or d7000, as is a Sb-600. You may find that when you add those two things to your kit you may end up not needing the D7000 just yet, allowing you to extend the life of your d40.

 

[SunnyHours]

Thanks for taking the time to answer my question! I'm probably gonna end up going with the D7000 anyways but I'll try just getting the flash and the 35mm 1.8G lens. It's mainly because I have problems with my AF. The focusing screen is scratched so I guess that's why I'm having trouble with the AF. Do all third-party focusing screens cost upwards 100$?. The small coverage and magnification of the viewfinder doesn't help much with focusing the thing manually. As for the flash I might eventually get a second flash so I was wondering if I should go for a SB-700 since I could use it to control the other flash wirelessly, right?
Might as well use that 100$ towards a new body instead