What do you think of this setup for a noobie photographer?

[shadesofme]

I have a Nikon D50 body with a kit lens. I am going to get rid of the kit lens and get the following:
Nikon 18-35mm f3.5-4.5
Nikon 50mm f1.8
Nikon 70-210mm f4-5.6

What do you think of this setup and do you have cheaper alternatives that you would recommend?

Thanks.

 

[thebeginning]

would you mind sharing your lens budget? it helps us to know what to suggest. dont think in terms of as cheap as you can get, but more of in terms of as much as you can get (quality wise, not quantity) for what you have. I made that mistake before, and now i'm about to go through the hassle of fixing it.

I'd look into primes. Those zooms you have decided on are quite nice, especially that 70-210, but you can get the same quality in a faster lens for cheaper if you buy primes. My suggestion is to first off get that 50mm 1.8, as it can be used for low light situations, portraits, and a number of other things. Then you may want to look into the 180mm 2.8 or the 135 f2. It pretty much depends on what you're looking for, though. if you dont need the speed, and you want the flexibility of a zoom, go for it. you've picked good ones.

 

[shadesofme]

Being a student, having just bought the camera and not much disposable income, my budget is limited to $1500CDN ($1200USD) for now. I am not saying I am going to buy all three right now, but $1500CDN is what I see I will spend for the next 9 months for photography related things.
It's difficult for me to get used to the idea that spending $500 on a lens is considered cheap because in my everyday life, $500 can get me a lot of nice things, i.e. an iPod, a PSP, heck, even the XBOX360 is "only" $299.
Photography has turned out to be an expensive hobby. But I guess that's the price I gotta pay for something I am really enthused about.

 

[thebeginning]

the xbox 360 is out???

sorry, off topic. yeah, i'm a student too. it's tough dealing with that whole money thing. I only have one lense as for now, but my list of 'wants' is quite long

i know how you feel about that whole pricey hobby thing. but it's worth it i think. also, arent most hobbies fairly expensive if you get nice equipment and get really into it? unless you like...collect bottle caps?

it looks like that setup of lenses you chose is around 1000 USD (sorry, don't know about CDN, dont know conversion factor). if you want you could buy one zoom and one prime, or maybe 2 or 3 primes. If you decide to change your mind on which lenses to buy, check out photographyreview.com and fredmiranda.com for reviews. good luck man!