Nikon Lense Recommendations

[Glimmerman911]

I am getting a Nikon D70s digital SLR camera, and want to take pictures of my reef.

Can anyone recommend which lense(s) I should buy for this purpose?

 

[maroun.c]

Depends on what you plan to shoot. the kit lens could be good for fish, and whole tank shots.
Might need a wider one if you have a long tank with no space in front of it.
A macro lens could also proove usefull, depends on your type of shooting. nikon 60 mm or better yet the 105 mmVR would be very good yet expensive choices.

 

[Glimmerman911]

I am going to get 2 kit lenses, the 18 - 55mm zoom, and the 70 - 300mm zoom.

The two lenses I would LIKE to have are the 105mm micro-nikkor, and the 18 - 200mm VR lense.

 

[maroun.c]

I do have the 18-200 VR and a 50mm1.4.
I think you should make your decision on your future choice before you buy any of the lenses as if you would like the 18-200 i don't see why you're getting an 18-55 and the 70-300. if you will sell both of them in the future then I'm sure the amount you will loose will bemore than the drop in the price of the 18-200.
Also I never used the 18-55 but i would say get the 18-70 as it would still give you a little reach to avoid changing your lens to the 70-300 too much. That is of course if you have no specific preferrence for hte 18-55 over the 18-70.
One last thing watch out for the 70-300 as it comes in two versions G and ED. Never used both however I've read some bad reviews of the G type one so if you're choice is made up on the sum of an 18-55 and a 70-300 G then I guess you might have to add the difference to get the ED version which seems better. Overall Iguess the price of the 18-55 and the 70-300 is close if not more than the 18-200 and then price is not the deciding factor and yo uhave the ability to chose. One last thing to consider that we still did not consider the advantage of having a VRII lense which easily adds lots of benefits to the equation.I'm not trying to convince you to get the 18-200 eventhough I'm quite happy with it. very few lense changes since I got the camera and for the price a really good lense especially for taking along on travel or on trips. add to that the weight factor where teh 18-200 seems to be a very nice choice for a single lense: wide enough for most scene shots, sharp enough for portraits at the middle range, acceptable reach, add to it a set of closup lenses and it'll be OK for closeups although i'm happy with it alone on some flower shots but not for aquarium closeups....
It's a very delicate choice that you will have to stick to for a long time so i think you should seriously consider it. Wait for a few others to chime in, then when you finish asking people go to a camera shop and assemble all the stuff and imagine your setup with you at home, on holiday trips, on travel, hold the camera with each of the lenses and consider weight and balance of the camera, best thing to do is to take your memory card and take test shots with each of the lenses.
you can't go wrong in both ways yet try to buy something that more likely you will not regret, although we always endup regretting our choices: I do thikn sometimes that I whould have waited a bit more and gooten an 80-200 2.8 VR instead.
good luck and keep us posted on your choice

 

[Glimmerman911]

Thanks for the reply, lots to think about.

I am getting the camera off e-bay and the package deals are so good compared to what I can get locally, that the 2 lenses are basically free to me, and there is no choice to get the 18-200 in a package deal.

I can however, choose either the 18-55 or the 18-70 for a marginal price difference. I will investigate these two lenses further and pick one.

To put it in perspective I can buy on ebay and pay shipping and brokerage, and get:

D70s, 2 lenses above, 0.45x wide angle lense, 4gig card, USB card reader, full size tripod, and hard & soft cases.

For the same price as locally I get the D70s, and the 18-55mm lense.

Crazy hey! So I am considering the lenses a freebie, I will upgrade them later, I eventually would want the 105mm macro lense, and a nice VR tele zoom. But for now, I will get a nice camera, all the accesories, and lenses that will do for now.

 

[maroun.c]

That clears it, I guess it's a very good offerif it's in good condition.

 

[petpoor]

I would just be real careful about ebay and cameras, alot of the ads I was looking at when I was about to get my D70s were some of the camera shops of dubious character in and around New York city. I ended up using a local camera store, in case I have trouble at least I can walk in there and not get the runaround on the phone for who knows how long.

Tom

 

[Snausages01]

I'd go with the 18-70 over the 18-55 any day of the week. I've got both lens and don't touch the 18-55 anymore.