Which S/H lenses for a Nikon DSLR ?

[Patrick1964]

Hi folks. I've recently upgraded from a Canon EOS300D to a Nikon D80 with the 18 - 135 kit lens. At the same time my wife has bought a D40 with the 18 - 33 lens and she wants to try her hand at photographing flowers, insects etc. As neither of our lenses are macro, I'm looking to buy a macro zoom (100mm ish - 300mm ish) and also a wide angle (either 10 - 20 appx or a prime lens around 10mm). I'd like both lenses to be fully compatible with the bodies, but can't afford to buy new at the moment. Any recommendations for S/H lenses that would fit the bill ?

Thanks

Patrick

[rustyspit]

You'll be quite restricted by the lens needing to have an internal focusing motor (AFS in Nikon-speak) to work with the D40.

If you want a zoom lens with a real macro facility (i.e. approaching 1:1 magnification) then you won't have much choice and it ain't gonna be cheap (in fact the only 'proper' macro zoom lens for Nikon that I'm aware of is the 70-180 micro-nikkor, but it won't AF with the D40 and is seriously pricey). On the other hand there are a few zoom lenses that have a "marketing-macro" that would be good enough for flowers and bigger insects. The only one that comes to mind which would AF with the D40 is the Sigma 70-200 f2.8 EX DG Macro - it might be a bit expensive as they haven't been available for long, but you could try getting one from Hong Kong on Ebay. I've got the non-macro version and it is a lovely lens albeit a bit on the chunky side.

If you'd consider a dedicated 'proper' macro lens to go with a cheaper non-macro zoom, then have a look at the Sigma 105mm EX Macro.

The only really wide-angle zoom that I know of which will AF with the D40 is the Sigma 10-20mm EX DC HSM.

Edited to add that an alternative to a macro zoom lens might be a close-up filter like the Canon 500D ( [url]www.camerahobby.com/Access-Canon500D.htm[/url] ) that could be attached to a standard zoom lens. I think you'd lose a stop of light so you'd need to attach it to a decent lens and have plenty of light to get good results.

Edited by rustyspit on Wednesday 25th April 21:18

[beano500]

Just to open this one up again, as far as compatability with the D40, I assume that the one thing that non-AFS lenses won't do is autofocus.

As far as getting a lens for macro work, you'll probably be quite happy with manual focus 90% of the time so don't limit your choices to only autofocus AFS lenses for that piece of the jigsaw.

...just a thought...

[Patrick1964]

Thanks to you both. I spoke to two different shops about switching from a Canon to a D80 for me and a D40 for my wife so that we were both on the same platform, and neither of them bothered to tell me that the lens requirements are different. If I'd known at the time it may well have influenced our choice of bodies (especially the D40). As we've not bought and used the cameras we're stuck with them !