Affordable Zoom Lens ?

Hi there,

What's ur recommendation for an affordable Nikon Zoom lens? budget, , about 300-400USD. I am totally new to dSLR photography - one of my areas of target is Macro (for this i have found a nice lens) and also Sports (that's why i need the zoom lens).

I found this one http://www.adorama.com/NK70300AFGU.html but can't understand why it is so cheap! (indeed, it is!) is that because there is no VR? As a newbie, do I really need this? what do you think?

which lens would u recommend?

thank you!

George
ps: my camera body is D300

Giorgoc said:

Hi there,

What's ur recommendation for an affordable Nikon Zoom lens? budget, ,
about 300-400USD. I am totally new to dSLR photography - one of my
areas of target is Macro (for this i have found a nice lens) and also
Sports (that's why i need the zoom lens).

I found this one http://www.adorama.com/NK70300AFGU.html but can't
understand why it is so cheap! (indeed, it is!) is that because there
is no VR? As a newbie, do I really need this? what do you think?

which lens would u recommend?

Click to expand...

Not that one.

There are 3 versions of this lens. That is the cheapest one. You can read about them here.

http://www.slrgear.com/reviews/showcat.php/cat/13

If you don't have a lot of money, try this one. It also has a nice macro-ish functionality -

http://www.slrgear.com/reviews/showproduct.php/product/230/cat/31

If you have $600, perhaps the VR Nikkor -

http://www.slrgear.com/reviews/showproduct.php/product/992/cat/13

If you're looking at this price range with no VR then go for the Sigma 70-300 APO. I had one and was very pleased with it. I swapped it out for the Nikon 70-300VR, a much better lens (not to be confused with the 70-300G which is completely different and the one you looked at).

--
Bluenose

Hi there, and thanks for the reply,

What about that one?

http://www.adorama.com/NK55200VRU.html

55-200 with VR ....?

Outside said:

Giorgoc said:

Hi there,

What's ur recommendation for an affordable Nikon Zoom lens? budget, ,
about 300-400USD. I am totally new to dSLR photography - one of my
areas of target is Macro (for this i have found a nice lens) and also
Sports (that's why i need the zoom lens).

I found this one http://www.adorama.com/NK70300AFGU.html but can't
understand why it is so cheap! (indeed, it is!) is that because there
is no VR? As a newbie, do I really need this? what do you think?

which lens would u recommend?

Click to expand...

Not that one.

There are 3 versions of this lens. That is the cheapest one. You can
read about them here.

http://www.slrgear.com/reviews/showcat.php/cat/13

If you don't have a lot of money, try this one. It also has a nice
macro-ish functionality -

http://www.slrgear.com/reviews/showproduct.php/product/230/cat/31

If you have $600, perhaps the VR Nikkor -

http://www.slrgear.com/reviews/showproduct.php/product/992/cat/13

Click to expand...

Giorgoc said:

Hi there,

What's ur recommendation for an affordable Nikon Zoom lens? budget, ,
about 300-400USD. I am totally new to dSLR photography - one of my
areas of target is Macro (for this i have found a nice lens) and also
Sports (that's why i need the zoom lens).

I found this one http://www.adorama.com/NK70300AFGU.html but can't
understand why it is so cheap! (indeed, it is!) is that because there
is no VR? As a newbie, do I really need this? what do you think?

Click to expand...

No VR, poor image quality (the upgraded "ED" version of this lens only pulled 2 stars on photozone...that sucks.)

http://www.photozone.de/nikon--nikkor-aps-c-lens-tests/249-nikkor-af-70-300mm-f4-56-d-ed-review--test-report?start=2

Giorgoc said:

which lens would u recommend?

Click to expand...

For sports you could get the Nikon 55-200mm VR, it focus faster than the budget-line 70-300s, albiet not by much. More importantly, though, it does out performs them optically by a huge margin. It costs $250 new, but you might be able to find it for less (used) from people who have upgraded to the 70-300 VR. IMO, VR is very useful (I'd say critical) for telephoto lenses, when you don't have your monopod (or tripod) with you.

Ideally for sports however, I'd save up, if you can, and get the Nikon 70-300mm VR. Its AF is significantly faster than any Sigma/Tamron 70-300. It's also much faster than the 55-200mm VR as well, and the VR is the newer VR II - good for 4 stops instead of 'just' 3. Expect to pay about $550 new for it.

Here's just 2 snaps from the 55-200mm VR. I've seen much better sports shots from this lens, but I had these handy... oh, and please fogive the hideous composition, I didn't have my choice of seating.





-- NHT
while ( ! ( succeed = try() ) );

Giorgoc said:

Hi there,

What's ur recommendation for an affordable Nikon Zoom lens? budget, ,
about 300-400USD. I am totally new to dSLR photography - one of my
areas of target is Macro (for this i have found a nice lens) and also
Sports (that's why i need the zoom lens).

Click to expand...

I'm not going to suggest any lenses, but just so you know, not all "zoom" lenses would be appropriate for sports photography. What you really need is a telephoto zoom lens.

Giorgoc said:

Hi there, and thanks for the reply,

What about that one?

http://www.adorama.com/NK55200VRU.html

55-200 with VR ....?

Click to expand...

Always a good call for the $$, and you get VR, which can be very handy in some applications.

If you check the test results for this lens, you'll see that it's only significant issue is "vignetting", which is light falloff in the corners of the image at certain aperture settings.

There are several image software programs, such as ViewNX or Photoshop, that can correct for this automatically.

thanks for your help guys, really appreciated!

I will research this a bit more and see how to proceed!

thanks,
George

--

Be careful with these zooms -- some of them are designed for crop-frame bodies and are very sub-optimal on a full-frame.

I was just about to ask the same sort of questions.

Similarly, I am new to DSLR photography and would like a good value telephoto zoom for sports photography. I will be going to some Formula 1 Grand Prix's this year and would therefore need a fast focusing lens that would be OK to use handheld - therefore VR would be a 'nice to have'

Is the 70-300 VR the one to go for for this sort of shooting?