Nikon D80.. best lenses.. anyone know?

Question

I know nothing about digital slr cameras. My cousin is all about photography and will be graduating from high school in a few days. The whole family is going to pitch in to buy him a good camera and some good lenses.

We all agree to buy him the D80, but we would like to know which lenses to buy him.

We've heard him talk about macro lenses, portrait lenses, and photojournalism lenses. He takes pretty good pictures with his old camera, he actually shot his friend's sister's wedding with it and they turned out very nice... kind of professional looking.

Can anyone please suggest which lenses to buy him if he likes those types of photography? (Photojournalism, macro, wedding, portrait) Thank you very much!

Answer 1

The macro lens and the portrait lens that Uhm mentioned are very good, but neither the 17-35mm or the 12-24mm have enough zoom range for photojournalism - these are landscape lenses. The 17-35mm f/2.8 has the perfect zoom range for landscapes on Nikon film bodies. Nikon's digital bodies magnify lenses by a factor 1.5, so Nikon introduced the 12-24mm zoom to replace the 17-35mm for digital (12-24mm multiplied by 1.5 effectively yields a zoom range of 18-36mm).
For photojournalism with a D80 or any other Nikon dSLR, the Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8 is the best you can get. It costs about the same as the 17-35mm, but it lets you zoom in a bit tighter and it was designed to be used with the aperture set wide open (as you would with photojournalism). At f/2.8, the 17-55mm is sharper than the 17-35mm. The 17-35mm becomes the sharper lens when you stop them down to f/8 and beyond (as you would for landscapes).
This is probably all academic however, because the 17-35mm and the 17-55mm both cost about $1250. For 'just' $450, the Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 provides roughly 90% of the image quality of the Nikon 17-55mm. This huge price difference is explained by differences in build quality and auto-focus speed. The Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 combines a standard build quality and AF-speed with professional grade image quality, whereras the Nikon 17-55mm is a professional lens in every respect (I use one myself and I've often wished that it was lighter and less conspicuous).
In low light situations, the Tamon 17-50mm will blow the 18-135mm kit lens for the D80 out of the water. The 18-55mm kit lens that Lenslender mentioned comes with the cheaper Nikon D40. The Tamron 17-50mm also enables a shallow depth of field that kit lenses simply can't provide. You want this for photojournalism, so that you can isolate your subject by throwing the background out of focus.
The Tamron 17-50 is even a passable portrait lens, so I wouldn't invest in a dedicated additional lens quite yet. See if your cousin really needs one first. If he does, the Nikon 85mm f/1.4 that Uhm mentioned is superb. The Nikon 85mm f/1.8 is about 80% as good as the f/1.4 version at a fraction of the price. Another way to go, and a more versatile solution, would be to forget about fixed focal length lenses like the 85mm f/1.4 and add a 70-200mm f/2.8 zoom lens at a later stage.
Macro lenses (called micro lenses in Nikon lingo) are specialty items. If you're running low on cash after the pj lens, and if your cousin doesn't take a large percentage of his shots of flowers/ insects/ circuit boards or other stuff that really requires a macro lens, you could put this on hold too until a later date.
Finally, Lenslender is correct that old Nikon lenses will work fine on the D80. Just so long as they are auto-focus lenses. As I mentioned however, the D80 does magnify lenses compared to a Nikon film body, so this might limit the usefulness of their zoom ranges. (All brands have this effect, not just Nikon.) If your cousin has some Nikon lenses that he's happy with, I'd take Lenslender's advice and see if they work out on the D80 before spending hundreds more.

Answer 2

You say he, "takes pretty good pictures with his old camera." Is his old camera a Nikon SLR too? If so, his old lenses can be used on his new Nikon D80.

If this is your cousin's first SLR camera and he doesn't own any Nikon lenses, you can go far with the kit lenses that are included as package bundles. Consider buying the D80 with the Nikon 18-55 kit lens. You can go far with that simple lens.

You didn't specifiy a budget - and lenses can cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand depending on what you want.

For the types of photography you mentioned, you won't want anything longer than 100mm.

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Disclosure: I am the owner of www.lenslenders.com lens rentals in Canada.

Answer 3

I just want to add a vote in favor of previous suggestions.

I own and love the Nikon 60 mm f/2.8 Macro lens as mentioned by uhm101. It is a great "classic" portrait length when used on a digital body and it is an extremely sharp macro lens. This is a "kill two birds with one stone" purchase for $400.

I own and love the Nikon 17-55 f/2.8 as mentioned by OMG and highly endorse its purchase. It's not cheap, though, at $1,200.

I'd say, all things considered, get the D80 with the 18-135 kit lens for versatility, a 60 mm macro lens as mentioned, and the 17-55 mm for real pro quality and feel, and your cousin will be in hog heaven. If you are going to spend that much money for a high school graduation.

D80 + 18-135 = $1,730
60 mm macro = $400
17-55 f/2.8 = $1,200
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Total = one heck of a nice graduation gift

Answer 4

IMO best in each category:

Photojournalism - 17-35mm f/2.8 AF-S (Has been the standard pro photojournalist lens for years) or 12-24mm f/4 AF-S DX

Macro - 105mm f/2.8 VR AF-S Micro (I have the previous-generation AF-D version of this lens and its my favorite) or 105mm f/2.8 Ai-S Micro (manual focus).

Portrait - 85mm f/1.4 AF-D (may be a little too long taking the 1.5x APS-C conversion factor into account but the 85/1.4 is a legendary portrait lens on film bodies), the plain old 50mm f/1.4 AF-D, or kill two birds with one stone and the 60mm f/2.8 Micro AF-D could function for both macro and portraiture.