My Back Garden - At Night

[Dac]

Hey guys,

Just recently got me a Nikon D40 and a rather sturdy tripod (which cost £11 and is a damn sight better than some stuff they sell at jessops for triple that amount), so ive been taking alot of random photos of late.

This is one of my favorites, The view from my patio looking out onto Grays, and Tilbury Docks

Its a bit bright and fuzzy because of the exposure time, so forgive the moon being a bright lump, but the sky above it was, too the naked eye, devoid of any stars save for the one too the right of the moon, so I thought it was quite amazing it picked up any through the light.

Anyways, any comments would be appreciated

Also, the 2nd pic impressed me moreso, as I just pointed the camera at an open patch of sky and exposed it for 10 seconds, and got a load of stars showing up, nothing fancy, but I thought was quite dazzling, seeing as Im lucky to see more than 10 stars in the night sky round here...

[Samurai]

Nice swing.

Which lens are you shooting with? The standard Nikon 18-55mm job?

[Dac]

^^Yup, I've also been looking into getting a 55-200mm lens as i wouldn't mind a better zoom, and it looks to be the cheaper of the DX lenses.

[Samurai]

55-200mm is not a bad lens, but I'd also consider this one of you can:


Nikon (USA) 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 VRII

Nice looking lens, offers a longer focal length, VRII for an extra stops worth of compensation (4 stops versus 3 in the VRI equipped 55-200mm) and full-time manual override on the Autofocus, just like Canon's USM lenses.

That one should retail online for about £300, I'd expect the 55-200mm to be around £200, so its up to you how much money you have to spare for it, but on paper at least, the 70-300mm is the better specified lens. Only problem is that it leaves you a gap between 55 and 70mm, but thats not a huge issue.

[Dac]

Problem with that is, The 70-300 isnt a DX lens, which are the only type that work with the D40/D40x :S

And ive seen the 55-200 for £150 in Argos, which didn't seem like a bad deal too me

[Samurai]

Man, Nikon suck.

I thought a non-DX lens would work just fine on a Nikon DSLR- it's just not digitally optimised for the smaller-than-35mm sensor. Nikon can't seriously expect everyone who owns a Nikon 35mm SLR to just run out and buy a raft of new lenses. You absolutely sure it won't work? I'm sure I remember seeing in Nikon's press releases that any N-AF lens would work, but the Manual lenses wouldn't...

[edit]

Bit of digging on DPReview.com gave this quote from the Nikon PR:

Originally Posted by Nikon 70-300mm Press Release @ DPR.com

In conjunction with their announcement of the new D80 digital SLR Nikon has also revealed two new lenses, the first of which is the AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED (a mouthful if there ever was one). This lens features ED glass, Internal Focusing, a Silent Wave Motor and Vibration Reduction (II), it provides an equivalent field of view of 105 - 450 mm on a DX format digital SLR (such as the new D80) and has a maximum aperture of F4.5 at wide angle and F5.6 at telephoto. It will priced at $699 in the US and £399 in the UK and should be available in October.

Nikon AF-S 70-300 mm VR lens: Digital Photography Review

[/edit]

[Alec Trevelyan]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Man, Nikon suck.

I thought a non-DX lens would work just fine on a Nikon DSLR- it's just not digitally optimised for the smaller-than-35mm sensor. Nikon can't seriously expect everyone who owns a Nikon 35mm SLR to just run out and buy a raft of new lenses. You absolutely sure it won't work? I'm sure I remember seeing in Nikon's press releases that any N-AF lens would work, but the Manual lenses wouldn't...

Seriously, i've been saying it for a while... worst we Canon users have to deal with is the EF-S lenses, but those are all basically duplicated in one way or another in regular EF form

[Samurai]

Yup- for example, if I was to upgrade to the EOS 5D, I could chop in my (very nice) 17-85mm f4-5.6 for a 24-70mm f2.8 L. Now, how long to xmas...?