Nikon D60 Lense advice

Me and the missus are thinking about buying a Nikkon D60 this weekend.

We have seen a few deals and we are looking at 2 packages. One is the D60 with the 18-55VR lense and a 55-200 lense. The other is the D60 with a single 18-200 lense. Now i know next to nothing about cameras but would i be right in assuming that the 18-200 lense will do everything the other 2 lenses would do between them? Would it do it aswell?

Also is it worth paying an extra 100 squid or so to get a D80 instead. My granny left me £1000 when she died and i thought this was a nice thing to spend it on so that is my absolute upper limit. At the same time i'd sooner spend less if i'm not gonna get any benefit from throwing all the cash at it.

Advice please.............

18-200 lense?!?! that would be great! I have the 18-55mm VR lense, which is great but sometimes I want more zoom. The camera overall is brilliant, by the way. Depending on how experianced you are with DSLR camera's, you might not need more than the D60 body; i know i certainly never will

But lenses, oh they warned me on here. They warned me that you can be sucked into a world of longer lenses, panoramic lenses, lenses which make the whole world look like no-one is at war, etc etc.

But i want a longer lense.

Yea, Nikon D60. great camera. The VR lense, great lense; at least, for most of my purposes

Matt

[fizzwheel]

Whats the aperture / focal length on the lenses ?

18 - 200mm sounds ideal, but it depends... if you can post a linky to what you are looking at that'd be useful.

[Bluepete]

I've got the same as Astar and would have loved to get the 18-200mm lens. It's all well and good getting two that cover the same focal length with better apatures, but then you have to cart them both around and each time you change out a lens, you get dust in the mirror box.

I would say, if you can afford it, get the 18-200 oon a D60. I'm a very experienced SLR user and it's got more than I'll ever use!

Bluepete has a good point; luging around a DLSR is a bit annoying, but to have another lense aswell make it more annoying. And if you wanna go changing lenses at e.g. brands hatch, your gonna get a camera full of dust...

I noticed that the "professional" photographers at brands had two camera's; one with a long lense, one with a long long long long long lense

Matt

Originally Posted by New Leaf

. . . Would it do it as well?

In a word, No.

However you might never notice depending on how you use it/what you use it for

To fit that focal length into one lens, some compromisies will have had to be made. It'll be slower (ie smaller maximum aperature) so it will appear slightly darker in use (although will have no effect on the resulting picture), bigger & heavier (so you might get fed up carrying it around) and it will be 'softer' in terms of the sharpness of the image compared to either a prime lens (ie one that isn't a zoom) or a zoom lens of less coverage. That lens is effectively trying to be a wide angle and telephoto all in one package. Modern lens design is very good so as long as you arent trying to print A3 size pictures from the images then you'll probably not see any issues, unless you start to compare the results directly with other lenses. For example, take some shots at a trackday, and then compare them with what the professionals have taken and you'll be dissapointed. But then they'll have spent ?1,000's on their lens so it should produce better results.

Personally I'd go for a smaller focal length so that it's not trying to push the lens design too far. I have a series of lenses - 10-20, 18-70, 28-105, and a new 100-300 that I bought after deciding that my old telephoto wasn't up to the job. If the Nikon mount is like others (eg Canon, Minolta, etc) then you'll probably be able to use a wide variety of lenses on it, that have been in production for some time. So you'll be able to pick up lenses on eBay for not a lot of dosh, once you've explored the one you have. It's easier to carry around a smaller lens on the camera (and perhaps another in a bag or rucksack) so you'll probably end up using the camera more than if you have a great dustbin stuck on the front . . .

hth

Hi all! Thanks for quick replies. Must be a miserable wet sunday all over the country - lol.

All the packages i was looking at are on here. (scroll down to see the diff lense options)I think jessops have pretty much the same packeges too.

The have the 18-55VR with the 55-200 two lense options, or a 18-135 or a 18-200.

I like the idea of a single do it all lense - but not if its pants to doing it all.

So what ya reckon?

go for the 18-55VR, and then later on when you REALLY need it, get a seperate, dedicated longer lense

[fizzwheel]

well the 18mm - 200mm lens looks to have a good aperture range 3.5 - 5.6

But I also think Mr Toad is right, you get the lenses to do the specific jobs you want them to rather than having one "general purpose" lens.

I found for sports stuff that a 200mm lens just isnt enough zoom especially at places like Donnington where you cant get close to the track because ( and sensibly so ) then safety fencing.

So in that case, what Mr A* says above about just getting the kit lens to start with and then getting a specific lens later on when you have worked out what you need might make more sense.

As Mr Toad says, Ebay is a good source for lenses. The Nikon Lenses do have a good rep especially the VR stuff, but they are expensive, where as if you look at the Sigma or Tamron lenses seem to be cheaper and do the same thing, but whether or not you loose optic quality or not I couldnt say.

[Sid Squid]

Disagree with Mr Toad and Fizz.

The Nikon 18-200 VR is an excellent lens, which I have to go with my D80, it has supplanted the 18-70 that I got with the camera to the point that I now don't use that lens at all.

Max, (and min), apertures are fine, and arguably are of less relevance with a digi that can emulate faster film speeds anyway, (as the D60 can), added to that the VR system is very useful in reducing the need for very wide apertures. 18-200mm to that lens on a D60 is roughly 27-300mm in 35mm terms, and as such unless you have some very specific use in mind I can't think most would find that lacking. I'm very glad I've got mine.