D50 Lens Questions

robertgilbert86 · 25 Jul 2006 at 17:39

Hi all, I'm thinking about getting a DSLR, I'd rather have the D50 over the 350D (this isn't another thread about that debate!). I still need to go into a shop and try them both though.

In an ideal world I'd like to own a 300mm-ish zoom, macro and wide angle lens'.
However the cost of these is well beond my reach, also even if I had the money I'm not sure I could justify spending so much on each of these.

So what this thread is about is if it would be a good idea to buy old manual focus lenses (and mount adapters). Would I still get good quality images and is there anything else I should know about old lens'?

My research has shown the D50 has an F mount, I have looked around and found a few F>M42 adapters. So that means I could buy any M42 lens?

reddeathdrinker · 25 Jul 2006 at 18:23

The D50 should take any Nikkor lense made after 1977 (?), and many before that, if you're looking for older lenses.

A good start is the D50 kit with the 18-55mm, and 55-200mm Nikkor lenses, or get a Sigma or Tamron 70-300mm Tele-macro instead. They are nowhere near as good as the Nikon equivalent, but thenagain, nowhere near as expensive, and you can still get great results, if you are aware of the limitaitons.

I own the kit 18-55mm (fairly wide angle), a Tamron 70-300mm AF Tele-Macro, and a 50mm f/1.8 Nikkor Prime lense. The Tamron came at half-price, as I bought it with the D50 (so £99), and the 50mm Prime was £97. Few lenses, not a lot of cash. Certainly do me whilst learning DSLR......

jhmaeng · 25 Jul 2006 at 23:22

Something to be aware of, regarding manual lenses:

1. You get no metering. Metering with non-CPU lenses is only available with the D200, D2-series and D1-series. In practice, what this will mean is that you will need to manually adjust the aperture and dial in the shutter time every time you take a shot.

For landscape shots that you have all the time in the world, this may not be a problem. But if you're trying to take pictures of people or generally anything moving, they will most likely be all gone by the time you've finished adjusting the aperture, manually focused and dialled in the shutter time.

Personally, it would have to be one heck of a lens to be worthwhile to go through all that every time I take a picture.

2. You will have to focus manually. Having to focus manually is nowhere near as big a pain as it is to meter manually, but still it's yet another extra step you need before being able to actually press the shutter.

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The way I see it is that you can find plenty of keenly priced lenses that will allow you to cover most of the focal length range without resorting to manual lenses, much less anything like using M42 adapters.

For example, recently I saw the AF-S Nikkor 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G (the D70 kit lens) boxed, new with a 2 year warranty in a shop for £180. This lens will more or less keep you going for the first year with no complaints, in my opinion.

robertgilbert86 · 26 Jul 2006 at 20:17

Thanks for the advice guys, for me, it seems getting manual lenses may be a bad idea for now.

Does £513 sound ok for this?

NIKON D50 black + AF-S DX 18-55 mm ED + AF-S DX 55-200 mm ED (<google it<)

That seems to get me a zoom lens for an extra £130 on top of the kit, can I get a better 200mm lens for that money?

By the way I'm just considering buying a DSLR so don't worry about me spending money for a while. Also, to me £180 is a very large amount of money for one lens, but I guess you get for what you pay for.

Just a random link: http://www.lensbabies.com/ these look kind of fun, about £80 I think, anyone have experience of them?

bigredshark · 27 Jul 2006 at 15:57

umm, the 55-200 is capable but nothing special in my opinion, i'd save the £130 and get something like the sigma 70-300 APO DG (it's a great lens for the money). new it'll be about £170 but I'm about to sell mine for about £130 so i imagine it should be easy to get one for this kind of money. I'm not very impressed with the 55-200 though, but i've never really used it much!

robertgilbert86 · 28 Jul 2006 at 12:20

bigredshark said:
umm, the 55-200 is capable but nothing special in my opinion, i'd save the £130 and get something like the sigma 70-300 APO DG (it's a great lens for the money). new it'll be about £170 but I'm about to sell mine for about £130 so i imagine it should be easy to get one for this kind of money. I'm not very impressed with the 55-200 though, but i've never really used it much!

Ok thanks, I'll bear this in mind, I always hear good things about sigma lens' on here, sounds decent value too, £50 more for +100mm and quality like you say.

I would offer to buy your lens but I won't be buying untill at least October.