I am considering buying a Nikon D80 camera for photography and need help with a lens?

I am wondering whether to buy a Nikkor lens or a Sigma lens and why? Thanks

Personally I have a Nikon D50. I have ordered the D80 and it is on its way.

Nikon make very nice lenses, but I think some 3rd party lens manufacturers make very nice lenses often cheaper than Nikon.

I trolled a number of forums when I wanted my first telephoto lens. The answer I received was Tamron. People generally felt that Tamron lenses gave better quality and service than Sigma do. Tamron have been making a number of serious lenses for a very long time, and are good at what they do.

In general people felt Tamron was better with things like lens flare, chromatic aberration and Purple Fringe, as well as being slightly sharper than Sigma.

I bought the Tamron 70 ~ 300mm lens at F3.8-5.6 for less than US$200 and I have been extremely pleased with it. Purple Fringe has been a little bit of an issue for me when photos are taken under very high contrast conditions, but hey it wasn't a $10 000 lens.

I stress that I have never personally bought a sigma lens, and I am not trying to rubbish their product. You may well buy one and be very happy with it.

I hope this helps you.

Nikon is known for the quality of their lenses. You'd be better off buying a cheapo camera fitted with a Nikon lens than a Nikon camera with a cheapo lens.

I'm a young photographer i am in the big program in the state of IN and my teacher always Nikon is the best!! so go with Nikon

If you want ONE lens to start, get a "decent" lens, such as their Nikkor AF-S 18-70 f/3.5-4.5G ED DX lens. This is well-reviewed. I bought one for my wife with her D50 and liked it well enough (for the money) that I bought one for my "backup" D70s.

If you have deep pockets, the current dream lens is the Nikon 18-200 VR lens, if you can find one.

You might like to see when Ken Rockwell says about various Nikon lenses. http://www.kenrockwell.com

I have the D80 and I got a Tamron lense with it instead of the one that they recommend to get just because I'd heard better things about Tamrons rather than Nikkor lens. I love mine so much and I can use it for many different things like up close shots or landscape shots. Here's a link to the exact one I have http://www.tamron.com/lenses/prod/18200_...