I recently bought a Nikon D40 SLR. The lense it came with broke. I want to upgrade rather than have it repaired (no it is not covered through anything, I've been through that already), but I am on a tight budget. What are some good third party lenses, and how do they match up to Nikkor lenses? I take mostly portrait and landscape photography, much of it being nature subjects. I am looking for a good "walking around" lense. What are your recomendations? Ken Rockwell is not the best source of info; he will sometimes review cameras based on rumor and press releases, rather than actually handling the camera. Likewise, it's ridiculous to pooh-pooh third party lenses without actually trying or using them.
First of all, your D40 will only autofocus with lenses with a built-in lens motor, called AF-S by Nikon and HSM by Sigma. Right now, only Sigma and Nikon make such lenses, so that limits your choices for autofocus right there.
The Nikon 18-55mm kit lens that comes with the D40 is quite affordable, about $120 from http://www.bhphotovideo.com
The 18-70mm, imported, is a bit more expensive, at $279.00, but it's cheaper than the officially USA imported version at $349.00
Sigma makes an 18-50mm with HSM, two versions actually. The f/2.8 version is $499. The wider aperture makes this lens a bit more attractive and newsflash: this is an affordable alternative to the Nikon 17-55mm lens which will break the bank at $ 1,200.00 . The other Sigma 18-50mm version is more equivalent to the Nikon kit lens and costs $139, because it's f/3.5 to f/5.6.
Based on this, your best bet is to get the Nikon 18-55mm at $120 or the Nikon 18-70mm at $279.00. The 18-70mm is a far, far better lens than the 18-55mm, and thus might be worth the extra money to you. You would be better off buying a used Nikon lens instead of buying an inferior third party lens.
This from Ken Rockwell:
"Heaven help people who think they can pop a $100 no-name lens on a top camera and get all the sharpness for which they paid. Sadly there are way too many of these people."
"You could get away with this in the early days of digital photography (before 2005), but not today. High resolution DSLRs are extraordinarily critical of lens performance."
"Camera brand lenses say so. Don't believe camera store salesmen who claim that any off-brand is made by a camera maker, or the even funnier lie that an off-brand maker makes the lenses for the camera maker!"
"Nikons take Nikkors, Minoltas take Minoltas and Rokkors, Canons take Canons, Mamiyas take Mamiyas, Contax and Hasselblad take Zeiss, Pentax takes Pentax, etc. " You should be able to pick up one a used "kit" lens on eBay for about $200-250. Actually, the opinions Ken gives on products he hasn't personally used are pretty accurate and based on a great understanding of the physics that go into lens construction. Also, when he does review something he hasn't personally used, he states that and says "I'll let you know when I get my hands on it."
From my experience, 3rd parties aren't worth the cheap prices. From Nikon you will get a much longer warranty (5 years) standard. I've never seen anything close to that offered from a 3rd party unless it was offered by the retailer. Also, the camera maker knows how to make a lens perform as it should with the camera that they made, they're not obligated to share any of their secrets with the 3rd parties so a lot of their engineering is just guess work.
I would recommend the Nikon 18-70mm DX lens. It's quick and really sharp. I would not recommend getting an import though. In the event that something happens you won't be able to get Nikon to fix it without forking over some money... which to me would be worth the extra $50 or so on the front end. I have this lens and love it. I also have the 17-55mm Nikon lens mentioned above... yeah, it was pricey.... but you're paying for build quality, quickness, a long warranty, and a friggin' awesome lens... worth every penny.
Plus, half the reason to buy a Nikon or Canon, or whatever... is to be able to use their line of excellent lenses. Rockwell is the Rush Limbaugh of camera reviewers -- fun to listen to but full of s--t.
Go over to www.photozone.de where they actually test lenses rather than just having opinions on them. |
