What zoom lens to get for Nikon D70?

[yan.and.ying]

Hi guys,

I am wondering if anybody has any recommendations for a zoom lens for portraiture.

I got a Nikon D70 recently (body only), so I am now looking for a lens to go with it. My only photography experience is with a film SLR ... the no battery and wind film kind... and I shot portraits then. I am pretty much a complete noob to digital SLRs. (I look at the D70 and I am like... why so many buttons one... T_T )

Anyway, I was wondering which zoom lens is suitable. (Prefer a manual lens ... Okie, dumb newbie question... can an auto lens be a manual lens as well?) It would be for portraiture (indoor and outdoor). Budget is about $400... (but hopefully, I can get a second hand one. ;p )

 

[giantcanopy]

Hi

Everything with your previous shooting with the film camera should be the same except u need to note that the D70 has a cropped sensor, so the equivalent lens u used on film will provide a narrower view on the DSLR - since the D70 sensor is smaller than film, the subject on the crop sensor is a smaller portion of the image using the same lens on your previous film camera, making it look magnified, giving the impression of a longer focal length.

Hence a 50mm on the film camera will now appear to be like a 75mm. ( crop factor for D70 is about 1.5 )

Since you are already shooting portraits previously, the choice for the range of zoom shouldn't be too difficult to make on the DSLR ?

The complicated buttons that u will have to slowly figure :bsmilie:

Ryan

 

[geraldkhoo]

A really good portrait zoom that you can get is the Nikon 35-70mm f/2.8D lens. A 2nd hand one does cost between $400-$500... but it is an excellent lens! I owned one and sold it because I was moving to use primes, but I do still like this lens because it gives a very good image quality.

With a crop factor of 1.5x, the 35-70mm would be 52.5-105mm, which is a perfect portrait range. It yields great contrast, saturation and very sharp.

The following are some reviews about the lens:

http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/nikon/nikkoresources/AFNikkor/AF3570mm/index2.htm

http://www.naturfotograf.com/lens_zoom_02.html#AF35-70D

http://www.nikonians.org/nikon/nikkor-70mm/review.html

You can try looking at the B&S section... or go to The Camera Workshop (I saw 2 copies there about 2 months back).