Good and Cheap - Lens for my new D610

gotta type faster - take too long to compose - system logs me out - lose my post - Arrrg

Anyway, ....

Broke the piggy bank open and bought me a new D610.

My dearly beloved bought me a new 60mm Nikkor Micro for my impending 60th birthday next week, a 60 for my 60th - nice. And I love that lens.

I had high hopes that the D610 would give a new lease on life to two old film lenses I have. A Nikkor AF-S 18-55 DX VR Kit lens and Sigma 100-300 zoom. Tried the 300 out on a tripod and it was good. No VR on either of these. Both were from my F60 days. Bought about 2001.

BUT yesterday took the 28-80 to an event and shot about 60 images, not at all happy with the result. Half were out of focus. Most were soft. Only a few turned out nicely. I was shooting indoors, no flash, no tripod, ISO 2000, F 10.

Is it me? Or do I need a better lens?

My photo-budget is very low right now - the D610 took care of that.
So I'd like to spend under $200. Obviously older, used, eBay or other source.

Considering a "nifty fifty" prime, can be had for under $100 on eBay, lots on offer. OR is that lens too similar to the 60mm micro I just got?

I also could just use the DX 17-55 kit lens I have from my D5100. Or my 35mm DX prime. I've tried the prime, works fine, yes vignetting but I can crop that out if I want to. Image quality is good.

So is there a good and cheap old film lens that will be a worthwhile addition to my kit bag, or should I save up for a few months and get a better newer lens and just use my DX lenses until then - and take full advantage of all the 60mm Micro has to offer?

(ok - copy to clipboard before pressing submit least this board logged me out yet again).

In short the DX lenses will work, but with vignetting as you have noted - I believe the D610 has a DX mode, which basically uses the central part of the sensor and gets rid of the vignetting, with lower resolution as a trade-off.

As for your older lenses, are they AF lenses? It may be that they aren't lenses with a CPU therefore no focus or metering info is sent to the camera - They will work, but only fully manually. (I'm not sure but you may need to set the aperture ring to max aperture too) either that, or have they got a little fungus while not in use? How do they look if you peek inside them off the camera?

DX lenses will work fine on a D610. Just use the DX mode to do in camera cropping or crop the images in PP. Actually I don't believe the resolution actually changes, (really depends on how you are measuring "resolution") you are just using a smaller part of the sensor so you are working with less pixels if you want to blow the image up.

SteveH said:

In short the DX lenses will work, but with vignetting as you have noted - I believe the D610 has a DX mode, which basically uses the central part of the sensor and gets rid of the vignetting, with lower resolution as a trade-off.

As for your older lenses, are they AF lenses? It may be that they aren't lenses with a CPU therefore no focus or metering info is sent to the camera - They will work, but only fully manually. (I'm not sure but you may need to set the aperture ring to max aperture too) either that, or have they got a little fungus while not in use? How do they look if you peek inside them off the camera?

Click to expand...

Yes, saw the DX mode - the salesman showed me how to use that but explained that if I'm going to open in a photo editor (I use Corel Paintshop Pro 6) then I'd get a little larger image than the auto DX crop in the camera but very similar. And frankly the vignetting ain't that big of an issue.

And the old Nikkor 28-80 is a AF-D, at least that's what it says on the box, on the lens itself it only says "AF" no "D". ?? Either way it does autofocus, It was part of my F60 kit so initially a film lens. Maybe it does not AF fast enough for the burst shots (even on quiet burst, RAW + JPG fine which is about 1 fps - I'd guess based on the sounds of the clicks). I'll have to take some time and do some test shots comparing the images from the DX kit vs this old film kit lens and see which produces better images.

the 28-80 depending on the version has a largest aperture of 3.3 or 3.5, however if you are shooting f10, even at 2000iso this is testing the limits indoors. Take the lens out into good light and try it out, i think this is a bargain lens which gives a great bang for the buck. That being said, not sure if this is the right lens to get the most out of that full format sensor

So, up the ISO and take it to a smaller F stop.

Found this review of my old lens

Nikon 28-80mm AF-D

Where it is described as: "This crappy little plastic-mount $100 lens is a surprisingly excellent performer. In fact, this is the best example I've seen of a lens that stupider people will dismiss without even trying it, whereas in fact it is among the best midrange zooms I've used!"

I'll give it another chance.

Fortkentdad said:

So, up the ISO and take it to a smaller F stop.

Found this review of my old lens

Nikon 28-80mm AF-D

Where it is described as: "This crappy little plastic-mount $100 lens is a surprisingly excellent performer. In fact, this is the best example I've seen of a lens that stupider people will dismiss without even trying it, whereas in fact it is among the best midrange zooms I've used!"

I'll give it another chance.

Click to expand...

i know which site you got this info from. in this case I agree with the writer, but just for info, that writer is not that popular around here.

Englischdude said:

i know which site you got this info from. in this case I agree with the writer, but just for info, that writer is not that popular around here.

Click to expand...

Rock Kenwell?

thats the one

Best lenses for Nikon D600 | Nikon Rumors
i use this site to evaluate lens purchases. The 50-1,8g is rated very good and a smart buy for the money.

Englischdude said:

i know which site you got this info from. in this case I agree with the writer, but just for info, that writer is not that popular around here.

Click to expand...

He must get a lot of hits on the internet as his site pops up frequently when I search for reviews of various lenses I see on eBay and other places. He does have a "sure of himself" style of writing which I suspect others may describe differently. It is obvious he is not beholding to anyone as he can be very critical of some lenses.

But thanks for the tip. Keep that in mind. I know some sites like this one and Nikonians are just a little biased towards the Nikon brand. Just a little

oldhippy said:

Best lenses for Nikon D600 | Nikon Rumors
i use this site to evaluate lens purchases. The 50-1,8g is rated very good and a smart buy for the money.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the link - that will be helpful.

It sounds like the 24-85mm kit lens fits the bill.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Some comparisons between my old Kit - AF 28-80 and my newer DX kit

Both images shot on a tripod - window was behind me and off to the left there is another window.







Both images are cropped - there was some vignetting on the DX lens but nothing to worry about.

Took several other shots, indoors, outside, with flash, without, range of f stops and focal lengths. Not sure why I changed the ISO - a better comparison would have been to keep them both at the same ISO.

I think the DX is a bit more forgiving - maybe the VR which I suppose I could have turned off. But I had more out of focus shots with the old Kit than the DX - but those that did turn out there was not much difference. The old lens has a longer reach but starts at 24 not 17. But under 28 the DX lens has serious vignetting and by 20 and under it has the old "port hole effect" of a circular picture.

The old lens is much more compact and lighter. I'll have to see if I can find a hood for it on eBay as I don't have one. I'll leave the DX lens with the D5100 - they belong together and I don't think it adds enough to my FX kit bag.
I also tried out the 35mm 1.8 DX prime lens I have. Love it on my D5100, especially low light situations.




Again, not much to distinguish the images.

I don't know if you can zoom in on these images in this post. They are in Google + photo album, these photo's I set to share publicly.




This one is with the flash -

For now I have a new camera and three FX lenses to play with. I'll keep my eye open for a good cheap lens to add to my kit but there is no rush.

By expanding my budget from under $200 to under $400 I radically increase the number of alternatives.

Have not given up totally on a niffy fifty prime - but I now don't think it would add a lot to my range beyond my new 60mm prime. Maybe further ahead with a 100+ prime macro. But lots to learn with what I got.

The 50mm F1.8d is one of the least expensive lenses for FF. It is sharp and F1.8 will help in low light. If you are not averse to manual focus, a lot of excellent AIS lenses are available for reasonable amount. For wide angle the 28mm F2.8 AIS is one of the best 28mm Nikon has produced.

I would avoid older zooms, as the current zooms are much more advanced and in general are much sharper. Given that zooms; at least those that are reasonable cost; are slow compared to primes, the sharper they are the better. If you shoot in low light, then VR would definitely help you.

There is not much point using DX lenses on FF sensor. You are better off cropping later.

I know some may not be a fan of this guy but I like his thinking .... and this page rung a bell for me: FX Cheapskate lenses

Nikon Cheapskate Lenses The 50mm F1.8 and the 28 mm F2.8 AIS are on this list

What do you think of the Nikon AF Nikkor 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6 G IF ED?



Currently $77 on eBay but two days left.

If it stays under $100 I might buy it.

Not sure about the silver colour but I guess that's the vintage look.

It gets pretty good reviews:

FM Reviews - Nikon 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED-IF AF

(our friend Ken also likes it a lot Nikon 28-200mm G Review but looked for other opinions on it.)

It has some shortcomings but it is not $500 either. Any thoughts?

Looked at the 24-85 - it seems to run over $200, this one is half the price and has a much longer reach. Already have a 28-80 not sure the 24-85 would add enough.

If it's anything like my 28-105, I say grab it! And it's not just the reach of a lens you want to pay attention too...it's the aperture that's important, too. For instance, the one you're looking at buying has a max aperture of f/3.5. Not too bad for that kind of lens. The smaller the number, the better, right?

The 28-200 is an OK lens. Probably it's weakness is the built quality. It's a plastic mount and is probably very light, but maybe not as sturdy as other more expensive Nikon lenses. This was considered a kit lens that came with bottom end film Nikons just before the digital trend got going. For IQ, it's probably on par with the 28-80 3.3-5.6 that you got or were thinking of getting.

Marcel I do have the 28-80 and it was a kit lens I got with my F-60 film camera around 2000.

Looked at several on-line reviews that were very complimentary to the 28-200 G lens, and if I can pick one up for under $100 I'll grab it. If the IQ is similar to my current 28-80 then at least I've more than doubled my reach, but I'd not put out too much more than that (still bidding on eBay). If the reviews are indicative I'm hoping the IQ will be better.

I would expect that today's lenses will be much better and for $500 and up and up and up they better be better or I'd want my money back. I paid $500 for my 60mm Micro and am amazed by what this lens can do.

What I'd really like is a more affordable lens under 24mm - say something in the 17-20 range. There are a few primes but I don't have the budget for one like that right now, maybe later.

I'll probably add a 50mm prime sometime in the not too distant future.