Camera Lenses?

I'm online shopping for my new Nikon D40. What lense should I get? I found a site that offers different packages with different lenses. I'm only starting out so I don't need anything super fancy. So far I've seen a 28-80mm, 18-55mm, 28-200mm and 28-300mm. Any suggestions?

TIA

Re: Camera Lenses?

I'm assuming you're going to be taking lots of pictures of your kids so I would highly recommend a 50mm f/1.8 lens. They're really inexpensive (probably around $100). It's an amazing lens for portraits and by far my most used lens. With the f/1.8 you can get a very shallow depth of field, which blurs the background very nicely. Because of the aperture settings it also allows you to take pictures without the flash in situations where you'd normally need the flash. I think this is really important when you're taking pictures of children and babies. Pictures using just natural light are 1000x better. It's a fixed focal length so you can't zoom in and out, but I don't really find it necessary for portraits. Another advantage is the lens is very small so you can easily carry the camera around.

The other lens I mainly use when I'm not using the 50mm is a 17-40mm f/4 lens. It's a good multipurpose lens.

I can post some pics I've taken if you want to see the kind of pictures the lenses take.

Re: Camera Lenses?

Here's a few from the 50mm. Almost all of my "good" pictures were taken with this lens. As you can see, I mostly take pics of my DS!

Message edited 5/19/2007 3:22:29 PM.

Re: Camera Lenses?

I don't use the 17-40mm as often, but here's a few from last weekend when I know I used it.

Re: Camera Lenses?

I have 2 for my camera (I have a D50).

28-80 mm ( I use when I am indoors)
and
70-300 mm (I use when outdoors, when there is more room)

Re: Camera Lenses?

The pics you liked were taken with 18-55mm lens.

Re: Camera Lenses?

We have a 18-55mm, a 28-80mm and a 70-300mm. I love the 70-300mm zoom lens.

Message edited 5/19/2007 5:04:10 PM.

Re: Camera Lenses?