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Hi everyone,

I have come to the decision i need a faster lense, especially for the winter months here in Tassie.

I am new and believe i will only ever be a hobbiest to the dslr game. I take shots most weekends and mostly do wildlife at the moment as composing lanscapes or anything just doesnt come easy.

I currently have,

nikkor 18-55 kit lens f 3.5/5.6
nikkor 55-200 kit lens f 4/5.6
Sigma 70-300 f 4/5.6
Tamron 90 f 2.8 -this lens will be mainly for macro as it doesnt auto focus on D40

Now i want something faster but dont know where to go, fixed or zoom, should i sell (or not)a couple and get a good fast zoom or get a fixed 50 mm.

Any advise welcome, share your knoweledge please.

A very open ended question - do you want a wide fast lens or a telephoto fast lens?

More specifically, what focal lengths of your kit do you want to be faster - you have 18-300mm covered at the moment - to get all of that fast would be big $.


You will also be limited by the D40 to some extent with fast lenses as you need the AFS types for auto focus.

All the longer lenses I have are only AF and need the drive motor on the camera body (80-200 f2.8 being the most likely contender).

Ditto most long primes - they aren't AFS....... So you are a bit restricted.

as per above comments. hard to figure what you need without knowing what you want to shoot and also what your budget is. for wildlife, my first thought is the 300/4 af-s. its a superb budget tele that will AF on the d40.

tamron and sigma are also releasing new zooms compatible with the d40. and sigma has the 50/1.4 HSM which will AF and is i think out next month.

Yes just looking on ebay and the bigger zooms are spendy, mabey i should look at something to take over from the 18-55.

The sigma 50/1.4 sounds like a contender,i havent used a fixed lense, i do use the zoom on the 18 - 55 a bit so maybe a fixed is not for me ?

I hear the ole zoom with your feet ,thats okay on level going.

cheaper fast zooms in that range i suppose is the tamron 17-50 f2.8 and sigma 18-50 f2.8. there are d40 compatible versions of both.

My first option for shooting wildlife would be to sell the nikon 55-200mm and sigma 70-300mm and get the nikon 300 f4 AF-S
but other lens to look for are the Sigma HSM telephoto zooms (some of which have OS) too

50-150mm f2.8 HSM
70-200mm f2.8 HSM
Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 HSM
100-300mm f4 HSM
120-400mm F4.5-5.6 DG OS HSM
APO 150-500mm F5-6.3 DG OS HSM
50-500mm HSM

Choose the one which best fits your budget and intended use. Or you could get the 50mm f1.4 HSM and brush up on your "ninja" skills for shy wildlife

cheers,
Ken

If you are thinking of replacing the 18-55mm then have a look at the Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 (they have just started to ship the new version with the micro motor) or the Sigma 30mm f/1.4, a quick standard lens that will complement your current kit.

thanks everyone currently reserching these few.

Sigma 50mm f/1.4 EX DG HSM

Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 EX DC HSM Macro

Tamron SP AF17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di II LD Aspherical (IF) Zoom Lens

Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4.5 DC HSM

Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC HSM

All seem to be good lens's,

50mm primes are surprisingly versatile despite their lack of zoom. A 50mm 1.8 was the only lens I owned when I was a student and it served me well. On a cropped sensor you might consider a 20 or 30mm prime though, especially for landscape photography.

Leaning towards this one at the moment Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC HSM.

Anyone had experience with this lens ?

Dave-D40 wrote:Anyone had experience with this lens ?

Yes.

gstark wrote:

Dave-D40 wrote:Anyone had experience with this lens ?

Yes.

And is it any good or not

30mm is wide for wildlife shots, unless you are feeding them

All my fast long glass would be MF for you (80-200 f2. or just plain long glass (80-400VR 4.5-5.6)

I do have a 28-70 f2.8 Nikkor you could give a test drive (although the lens would dwarf the D40)

Primes -- you really have to be sure you want to use that focal length -- I must admit, my Nikkor 50mm f1.8 doesn't get out much and I am more likely to use the SB800 to blind than use it with ambient light at night.