Which lens to get for Nikon D90

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I am relatively new to photography and purchased the Nikon D90 body only. I am looking for some advice on the best lens to get. With my limited budget, I can probably only get one lens. I talked to some friends and they recommended a Tamron 18-200 or so. I have an 18-55 and a 100-300 for my old Nikon, but I'd like to get new ones for the D90 seeing as how both my old lenses came off an old film Nikon and don't have VR or anything.

Does anybody have any recommendations on which lenses are the best all around (Brands, sizes, etc.) ? I do the occasional portrait shot but most of my shots are either sports shots, Telephoto shots, nature shots or urban shots.

Any guidance would be great!
 
Superzooms are never great; you loose image quality in favour of a wide coverage. They tend to have higher distortion and CA problem, along with lacking in sharpness.

Sports and nature are both towards the tele range along with portraits; 100-300 sort of range is probably good except for portraits; 150mm eff is getting a bit long for anything other than head and shoulders.

Urban? you'll need to define that more.

The lens I've heard nothing but good about is the 35 f/1.8 for DX. Why not use your old lenses (someone with more knowledge comment on compatability please... AF is a potential issue but I don't know a lot about Nikon gear) along with that as a far normal prime while you figure out where they lack and hence what you really need.
 
Congrats on picking up a D90, I am sure you will love it! It sounds like you like to shoot a wide variety of stuff. Do you know if your old lenses will AF on your D90? Just because they are older lenses doesn't mean they aren't good. I would recommend both the 35 1.8 DX and the 50 1.8 depending on which focal length you would use more. I think the 50mm is a steal and can be great for portraits. I think you would need to narrow down your range a little more for people to be able to give really specific recommendations.
 
Here are a few suggestions, I buy all my lenses used on ebay (buyers protection is fantastic!)

Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 af (non-VC)
Nikon 50mm f1.8 af
Nikon 35mm f1.8 af-s
Sigma 24-70mm f2.8 af

Basically for Zooms you want to look for something with a constant aperture, f2.8 or F4 are the most common. VR is only really necessary above 200mm, below that it's just one more thing that can go wrong with your lens and can actually degrade quality.
 
you can get a used 80-200 2.8 nikon for around 500 and then get the 35 1.8 for around 200 for your walk around lens
 
i thought the d90 had the vr built into the body thus making it unnecessary to have a vr lense?
 
really? so it doesnt need a lense with auto focus but does have to have vibration reduction? I assume that only is necessary for zooms anyways?
 
really? so it doesnt need a lense with auto focus but does have to have vibration reduction? I assume that only is necessary for zooms anyways?

It doesn't NEED a lens with a auto focus MOTOR. You still want an auto focus lens.

For instance, these 2 that were recommended;
Nikon 50mm f1.8 af (auto focus)
Nikon 35mm f1.8 af-s (auto focus with motor)

I personally don't think you need VR until you get into longer lengths, like maybe 200mm, and then only for hand held shots.
 
flatflip, so the s in af-s means the lens has a motor in it for reducing vibration? So with a d90 which has the motor built into the body, you wouldnt need the motor in the lense?
 
flatflip, so the s in af-s means the lens has a motor in it for reducing vibration? So with a d90 which has the motor built into the body, you wouldnt need the motor in the lense?

The motor is for focusing. VR is not in the equation. But yes, the "s" means the lens has a motor.
 
ha i am an idiot, you already told me that. thanks for being patient with me. For someone like me trying to cram all this photography info in just a few days with all these acronyms to deal with things get confusing!
 
ha i am an idiot, you already told me that. thanks for being patient with me. For someone like me trying to cram all this photography info in just a few days with all these acronyms to deal with things get confusing!

No problem at all. Keep having fun learning. Congrats on the D90. I know you can hardly wait to get it in the mail.
 
flatflip, so the s in af-s means the lens has a motor in it for reducing vibration?
No, AF-S means the lens has a Silent Wave Motor for auto focus in the lens.

Not all lenses need VR (Vibration Reduction) and VR should be turned off most of the time. Nikon VR explained

From: http://www.nikonusa.com/Nikon-Products/Product/Camera-Lenses/2198/AF-S-NIKKOR-35mm-f%252F1.4G.html Click on the "Lens Features" icons.
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