Yep another D70 owner, need advice on Zoom

[monaco]

Chaps

Yep another D70 owner on the way !!

I’m buying the wife a D70 for her birthday ( so that I can use it ), she’s a reasonably keen photographer but on a budget, so I plan to get the D70 kit with the 18-70 lens and would like to get her a reasonable zoom at the same time, I have narrowed it down to three but would like to know if the difference in cost between them is justified and which is the more worthwhile buy ?

So here goes

1 NIKON 70-300mm f4/5.6 “G” £90
2 sigma 70-300 F4-5.6 APO Super Macro II £150
3 NIKON 70-300mm f4/5.6 AF £250

Any advice or other suggestions would be appreciated

[Don]

I got the cheap 70-300 "G" lens.

Works fine. Can't say any more really - I'd love the upgrades but I don't have the camera budget at the moment...

[beano500]

ANOTHER D70!!!

It's no good - I won't be able to do much more of this hanging around waiting for the price to come down/new models to be announced!


Anyway - even "cheap" Nikkors are pretty damn fine. Although you shouldn't rule out Sigma/Tamron/Tokina et al. But you do get what you pay for in terms of quality, build quality, and general tactile technological tastiness.

Don't rule weight out of your decision either. Tempting to get a brilliant lens only to find you don't want to traipse around with it all day long ( Tokina 28-70 ATX, lovely but it does your neck in after an hour on an F100!!!)

[-DeaDLocK-]

If you're serious enough weight shouldn't be a factor.

I've got one of these:



I take it with me EVERYWHERE. When I first got it I freaked but you get used to it. It's now part of my permanent kit, as is a big Manfrotto tripod. Don't allow a little bit of a pain in the neck prevent you from snapping that perfect pic.

[beano500]

Er - I think there's a slight difference between "keen" (as described at the top of the thread) and.....



"Hardcore!"

[beano500]

-DeaDLocK- said:

I take it with me EVERYWHERE.

PS: How do you go to the loo?

[-DeaDLocK-]

beano500 said:

PS: How do you go to the loo?

Good question actually.

When I'm out on my photography trips I'm typically alone, which means big rucksack chocked full of gear and a tripod either hanging off it or in my hands. Camera is always around my neck, and quite often with that big thing on it.

Couple that with cramped European toilet cubicles and no free hands (or more to the point abn abject fear of resting anything on toilet floors), and you have quite a sight whenever I need to take a whizz.

And don't let me get started on No. 2... now that's a REAL pain in the arse...

[monaco]

This is all very nice. but which one should I buy ????

Ta

[simpo two]

monaco said:

This is all very nice. but which one should I buy ????

You didn't say if you want 'cheap' or 'good'

[-DeaDLocK-]

monaco said:

This is all very nice. but which one should I buy ????

It's a lottery. Do a Google for reviews and make up your own mind.

Remember that for the branded kit (in your case Nikkor lenses), the price difference from two lenses of similar focal lengths rarely equates to a proportionate increase in quality. So the higher up you go the better quality and features you get, but as a "value" proposition it becomes worse and worse.

With this in mind, I'd say buy the cheaper Nikon lens as a taster. The bottom line to me is that the difference between the two Nikons is simply the elements - both have the same focal legth, aperture opening and neither have AF-S.

If you decide that maybe you want more from the cheaper lens later down the line you can always upgrade to something pro or semi-pro (with all the AFS, f/2.8 and VR grubbins you could ever use), and when you do this you don't lose much on the outlay.

But ultimately the best thing you can do is this - go to a shop which has all three lenses. Bring your camera body. Take about 10 photos for each, bring the camera home and take a look at the pics. Allied with your knowledge of the ergonomics, weight and build quality of the lenses (which by now you will have) you will be in a good place to decide which one you want.

We can't simply tell you - and by the way, since when were tangents not allowed on PH threads?

[maxf]

Ive got the 70-300 ED Nikon lens - 219 on london cameras website. I paid about 230 from jessops with a free UV filter.

Most of the cathedral pictures and the swan pictures were taken with it: www.maxf.smugmug.com

Very impressive for the money - noisy focussing and not super fast but definitely passable!

Max

[pug406]

Welcome to the Clud (sic)

[_Dobbo_]

Been away for a few days so only seen this now...

I have the second lens you list - the sigma. It's noisy, and not very fast to focus, which sounds as though it's par for the course for a lens at this price.

Can't say any more as I haven't ever used any other telephoto lenses!

Why not go into Jessops with the camera and ask to test out the lenses?

[simpo two]

If you can stretch to silent-wave focusing (that's AF-S on a Nikkor or HSM on a Sigma) it's worth it IMO - focusing is far faster and means you get shots you might otherwise miss.

[Monaco]

OK CHAPS, I GOT IT !!!!

Spent the last week searching round for the best deals on the D70+ 18-70 dx kit and a cheap 70-300 tele.

Would always rather get this price kit over the counter in case of defects/returns etc, but thought it wasn't going to be possible, as all the best prices were website based, well who knows where?

So I printed off a couple and thought I might just ring Jessops and see how far they will go with a price match, and oh my, they came up trumps !!

Prices I gave them,

Cameras2u - D70 kit £727.72, jessops £799.99 rrp
camera depot - nikon 70-300 "g" ( just to have a play with until I can get something decent) £89.99, jessops £119.99 rrp

The chap at jessops says he'll phone head office and get back to me, 20mins later a phone call, no problem, and we'll do the tele cheaper still at £79.99

Thats a grand total of £112.27 jessops dropped there prices by !! result

Needless to say I when down to the shop within the hour, paid £807.71 for the D70 kit and the tele..

And I've still got the £100 voucher to claim back from nikon.

I'm a happy chappy.

[beano500]

[beano500]

I think you'll find the D70 amazing.

I keep taking pretty cr@ppy images ...

...like this

...and this

...but I can't get enough of it.

It so easy to become familiar with it...