Longer Lens for D70

[Paul in OKC]

The only lens I have for my Nikon D70 is the one that came with the camera. I have a Tamron 70-200mm that will physically fit on my camera, but will it work? Is the 35mm area
compatable with the electronic D70 sensor area? Does Nikon make a telephoto zoom lens to fit this camera? Any suggestions? I will be shooting sports, etc.(not wildlife where I need a zoom lens that weighs 15lbs).

[Michael Fanelli]

The only lens I have for my Nikon D70 is the one that came with the camera. I have a Tamron 70-200mm that will physically fit on my camera, but will it work? Is the 35mm area
compatable with the electronic D70 sensor area? Does Nikon make a telephoto zoom lens to fit this camera? Any suggestions? I will be shooting sports, etc.(not wildlife where I need a zoom lens that weighs 15lbs).

Lenses built for 35mm will work fine on the D70. Digital lenses won't work on 35mm cameras.
Attach the lens and see!

[another view]

The only thing you have to worry about is that if it's a manual focus lens it probably won't meter with the D70. If this is the case, it's useable but a pain to do it and you'll probably miss a lot of shots (digital isn't very tolerable of bad exposure).

Nikon makes a lot of different lenses in a lot of price ranges - from about $100 to thousands. There are also good lenses from Sigma, Tamron and Tokina. It depends on what you want, what you need and what you want to spend (just like everything else!). For starters, you may want to look into the Nikon 70-300 ED lens (not the G lens). It's a pretty sharp lens for the money. Not ideal for sports, but not a bad start either.

[Speed]

The only lens I have for my Nikon D70 is the one that came with the camera. I have a Tamron 70-200mm that will physically fit on my camera, but will it work? Is the 35mm area
compatable with the electronic D70 sensor area? Does Nikon make a telephoto zoom lens to fit this camera? Any suggestions? I will be shooting sports, etc.(not wildlife where I need a zoom lens that weighs 15lbs).

It should work fine with the D70. If it's a manual focus, metering may be a problem. If it's an autofocus, then it will work fine.

One thing to be aware of if you don't already know - the Nikon digital sensors make every lens used on them magnify everything by 1.5. So a 70-200mm will give you 105-300mm. The good news is, there isn't any loss of apeture doing so, like you get with a teleconverter.

[Franglais]

The only lens I have for my Nikon D70 is the one that came with the camera. I have a Tamron 70-200mm that will physically fit on my camera, but will it work? Is the 35mm area
compatable with the electronic D70 sensor area? Does Nikon make a telephoto zoom lens to fit this camera? Any suggestions? I will be shooting sports, etc.(not wildlife where I need a zoom lens that weighs 15lbs).

My 80-200 f2.8 works just fine on the D70. But it's heavy and expensive.

I have a 70-210 as well but that's not a good choice because the zoom works by a pump motion rather than turning a ring and I'm afraid of it blowing dust into the camera where it might find it's way onto the sensor.

I'm waiting impatiently for the new 55-200 to become available because it's -

- small
- light
- cheap
- designed for digital

Charles

[Michael Fanelli]

One thing to be aware of if you don't already know - the Nikon digital sensors make every lens used on them magnify everything by 1.5. So a 70-200mm will give you 105-300mm. The good news is, there isn't any loss of apeture doing so, like you get with a teleconverter.

FWIW, the magnification (and perspective) don't change. That's linked to the actual focal length. Only the field of view is cropped off.