Upgrading Lens

ashleysmithd

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Hi.

At the moment I am using a Nikon D40 along with an 18-55 standard kit lens.

The D40 has been great considering the price. However, the kit lens is a bit troublesome.

So I was thinking about either going two ways:

Getting the new Nikon 18-200
Buying prime lenses one by one. (Starting with an f1.4, 50mm)

The only thing that puts me off the 18-200 is that it's such as huge zoom range. And the more glass elements involved, the lesser the quality.

I'm going more for contrast as opposed to resolution.

Has anyone here played with the 18-200? Would anyone here agree or disagree with getting it?

Thanks.
 
The only thing that puts me off the 18-200 is that it's such as huge zoom range. And the more glass elements involved, the lesser the quality.

Thanks.

I think you answered your own question and you are absolutely right. The more you ask of it, the less able the lens is to hold up well to all the ranges. I think you'd be better off getting a decent 24-70 and a decent 70-200. Another option is getting some really good primes that break up that range.
 
You're goign to with you hadn't bought the D40 becuase most of Nikon prime lenses are not AF-I or AF-S lenses. if you want quality, than drop some serious cash on an f/2.8 lens. I'd suggest the 35-70 f/2.8 and the 80-200 f/2.8, but those are both AF-D lenses, so you'll be stuck in manual focus. As a result, if you want AF, you need to drop well over $1000 on AF-S lenses.
 
Ok thanks guys.

As far as the auto-focus goes I'm not too fussed...

It's nice to have the feature there but I've had plenty of practice with manual from using my old Canon T70 (30 year old 35mm slr)
 
But since it's a manual focus camera, it has a focusing system that makes it easier. Manual focusing onto small ground glass is not fun. It's difficult, and innacurate.
 
are you saying that manual focus is not as good as auto focus? my personal preference is manual focus. I do not think you can say one is inferior to the other
 
Manual focus is inferior to Autofocus on any modern SLR without a focusing assist like a split prisim.
 
I wouldn't say it's inferior... maybe if you're trying to shoot moving animals or Hockey or something like that. For most photography I would say manual focus is just as good if not better... unless you don't know how. ;)
 
I have to agree with Sw1tchFX on this... it's not a question of which is 'better' as a method for precise focusing, it's about how easy it is to focus accurately and quickly with manual focus on a dSLR. As I see it, manual focus is made difficult by modern consumer SLRs/dSLRs which firstly have none of the focusing aids that were common on manual-focus-only film camera viewfinders, and secondly often have tiny dark viewfinders compared to those older cameras. Maybe everyone else just has better vision than me, but I don't find it all that easy focusing manually with dSLRs, certainly not compared to the manual-only cameras I'm used to. Of course you can also use guesswork, as with zone-focus cameras, but sometimes that doesn't cut it with a fast lens and shallow DOF.
 

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