lenses for d80

[big baldo]

Hey all, first post here!!! Great website, full of info.
I have a quick question about lenses for a d80. I am new to photography and just recieved a d80 for Christmas. I live on a lake which is part of the St. Johns river in Florida. There is tons of wildlife everywhere.( five juvenile bald eagles on my beach almost daily) 90% of the pics i will take will be of wildlife and some landscapes. I've been trying to research on different lenses and now i believe there is smoke coming from my ears!!! So far I am looking at the Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S VR DX Nikkor Lens. this is at the top of my price range at this time.
Can someone tell me if i am heading in the right direction with this lense or am i wasting money on a lense that wont work for what i want to do?.
Thanks in advance, John

[mwfanelli]

Hey all, first post here!!! Great website, full of info.
I have a quick question about lenses for a d80. I am new to photography and just recieved a d80 for Christmas. I live on a lake which is part of the St. Johns river in Florida. There is tons of wildlife everywhere.( five juvenile bald eagles on my beach almost daily) 90% of the pics i will take will be of wildlife and some landscapes. I've been trying to research on different lenses and now i believe there is smoke coming from my ears!!! So far I am looking at the Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S VR DX Nikkor Lens. this is at the top of my price range at this time.
Can someone tell me if i am heading in the right direction with this lense or am i wasting money on a lense that wont work for what i want to do?.
Thanks in advance, John

Most wildlife shots require a long telephoto. My experience is that 300mm is the bare minimum with 400mm-500mm being better choices. Look at primes rather than zooms at these focal lengths.

[big baldo]

Most wildlife shots require a long telephoto. My experience is that 300mm is the bare minimum with 400mm-500mm being better choices. Look at primes rather than zooms at these focal lengths.

are there any decent 300mm-500mm lenses that are good quality and under 700 dollars? Also any opinions on the VR on nikon lenses? is it worth the money? would it be helpful for someone fairly new to photography? thanks again

[Photo-John]

VR is very good and should help you be able to shoot a couple of stops slower than you could normally. However, for serious bird photography a tripod is probably still a good idea. And good telephoto lenses are very expensive. Do you have any lenses at all? Or are you trying to buy one lens to do it all? If you're only going to buy one, I think the 18-200mm is a great choice. But, like Michael said, it probably won't really cut it for the bird photos. On the other hand, you won't be able to shoot much besides birds with a 300mm or longer lens. So shorter is better if you're only going to have one.

For more specific advice on what to buy for shooting birds - especially inexpensive options - you should also try posting on the Nature and Wildlife forum. There are lots of lens discussions there.

[starriderrick]

Congrats on the new Nikon D80 I have had mine for 3 months , I love it :O) There is a Nikon 500 mm F8 Reflex lense out there(E-bay) that would work.Very large lense.Extreme long reach.A very specialized lense/no CPU metering, but,at only $200.00. It's not the Digital match.Just an idea. What photo john said is accurate. VR is wonderful, I'm saving to get mine.

[big baldo]

Thanks all for the response. Yes I am looking for an all around lens for right now.I plan on taking some photography courses when I get my camera set up, which will hopefully give me a better idea of what tpye of lense is right for me.
Thanks again, John :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[Franglais]

Hey all, first post here!!! Great website, full of info.
I have a quick question about lenses for a d80. I am new to photography and just recieved a d80 for Christmas. I live on a lake which is part of the St. Johns river in Florida. There is tons of wildlife everywhere.( five juvenile bald eagles on my beach almost daily) 90% of the pics i will take will be of wildlife and some landscapes. I've been trying to research on different lenses and now i believe there is smoke coming from my ears!!! So far I am looking at the Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S VR DX Nikkor Lens. this is at the top of my price range at this time.
Can someone tell me if i am heading in the right direction with this lense or am i wasting money on a lense that wont work for what i want to do?.
Thanks in advance, John

I use the 18-200 VR lens on my D200 almost all the time (the D80 is very similar). This is an amazing combination - there is NO other lens on the market like the 18-200. I use it for almost everything, including semi-pro jobs. It's not quite as good as my big f2.8 zooms but you can hardly tell the difference.

However as others have said - for bird-watching it doesn't have the reach unless you're pretty close.

Charles