What fast zoom should I get for my Nikon?

[kirbinster]

I've got an 18-200VR and a 70-300VR lens (all Nikkor) for my collection of Nikon bodies (D40, D40 and D300) but find I am wanting some faster glass. I don't want to mortgage the house and kids to buy one though. So what lenses would you guys recommend? Should I stick with Nikkor or are lenses by Sigma, Tokina, etc... acceptable.

[Harryb]

It all comes down to how much you are willing to spend. IMHO, the Nikon glass is better but also much more expensive. If you are not willing to spend $1300+ for the 70-200 2.8 then there are excellent lower priced options offered by Sigma, Tamron and Tokina.

[Art Scott]

It all comes down to how much you are willing to spend. IMHO, the Nikon glass is better but also much more expensive. If you are not willing to spend $1300+ for the 70-200 2.8 then there are excellent lower priced options offered by Sigma, Tamron and Tokina.

:agree:agree totally......currently I use the Siggy 70-210 f2.8 (current model is a 70-200 f2.8)...EXCELLENT quality......remember that with a small amount of wariness one can buy off ebay.....you may even find a fantastic used copy at fraction of the cost of anywhere else.......I purchased mine used off ebay and have only done standard cleaning and lube maintainence of it and it has run smoothly for over 3 yrs of hard shooting in all types of weather.

Good luck

[swintonphoto]

If you want some great quality for a lower price, go for Sigma or Tamron. They both make a great standard zoom (18-50/17-50 and a great telephoto zoom 70-200). Thats what I would probably do. They are in a better price range than the Nikkors.

[Erbeman]

I just went through this same scenario and I purchased a used Nikkor 35-70 AF F/2.8 for $500 in mint condition. This lens has been discontinued but you can still find them. This lens was suggested from this site and I read alot of reviews on it and everyone just loves it. I haven't goten to shoot with it yet so I can't give my opinion on it yet. It also has macro button but I can't tell you anything about that yet.

[ElginetPhotos]

I have the 80-200 Nikkor 2.8 ED, and was lugging 2 cameras around all the time with that or one with the wide angle.

I recently bought the 18-200 VR lense and now it's the only thing I use. I'f I'm shooting nothing but zoom, the 80-200 gets thrown on there. In the daylight, at full zoom, the 80-200 still shoots better than the 18-200 with the VR. I don't feel the VR is really all that it's cracked up to be on the Nikon lenses.

My Sigma 100mm 2.8 Macro shoots the best of all of them though....but it's a fixed 100mm.

[InsuredDisaster]

Have you thought about either the Nikon 50's (1.8 or 1.4) or the Sigma 30 (1.4) or the Nikon 85 (1.4) ?

None of them are zoom, but if you want low light performance for cheap, then those would probably be good.

The Nikon 50 1.8 is the cheapest at about $100 or so (I'm in China so I'm not sure about the conversion rates) I don't have this one.

The Nikon 50 1.4 is even faster and I own one. It is something like 300 bucks I think. Of course, I beleive it won't focus on the D40's you have, since it needs the screw driver focus.

Sigma makes a 50 1.4 HSM at this time, but I couldn't get one in China yet so I can't comment on this. It will work on the D40 (but don't buy it for the "full time manual override focusing ability.) That feature won't work on your nikon bodies most likely.

Next up is the Sigma 30mm 1.4 Its about $380 or so. I find its sharp wide open, but at the same time, the QC of Sigma leaves me angry. I loved this lens but had to send it back due to focus issues. It front focused to start with on my D300, and often refused to lock focus on my D70 or a D80 we tried it on. Test this lense well. Its AFS HSM and will focus on the D40. The manual overide won't work though. Sigma won't tell you, but I read somewhere that Sigma's AF Overide doesn't function on Nikon bodies, and from what I've seen, this is true. You'll have to switch your D40's over to manual focus, or use the single servo and wait for the camera to lock focus before you can override the focus. With the D300, if you set your camera to only focus with the AF-On button, then just don't hit the button. (EDIT: I have discovered the copy I have doesn't work on the D70 or the D80 very well. It does work well on the D40 we tried it on in the store. If you have a D70 or a D80, test the lens first if possible.)

Next up is the Nikon 85,1.4. I'm not sure of the price but I'm guessing about a grand. I don't own this. . . yet. I'm probably not going to get it now, but I do want it.


I also own an Nikon 70-200 2.8 VR. Its heavy, its huge, its expensive and while faster than my Sigma 18-200, its still much slower than the 1.4's I have. I'll be adding a 2x TC to it in the future to increase its utility but for sheer usefullness, you can't beat the 18-200 zooms out there.


Personally, If you don't need the reach of 200 or can work around the need for zooming, I'd seriously look to the 85mm 1.4 and either the 30 or the 50 mm's (or both). Of course, since you need HSM motors with the D40 (no screw drive, IIRCC) you may find that this won't work for you. Right now, my D70 and D300 both have on board focus motors so I'd probably do right nicely with this setup. With your 3 cameras, you could just run two bodies with the 30mm on your D40 and the 85 or 50's on your D300

[kirbinster]

Ended up buying a barely used copy of the two ring 80-200 f/2.8 that was barely used for $600.

[Erbeman]

Ended up buying a barely used copy of the two ring 80-200 f/2.8 that was barely used for $600.

Holy crap that's a good deal!!!