One of the main draws of using single lens reflex cameras is that the vast majority of them were designed to have interchangeable lenses. Over their existence, the array of these lenses has been astounding, not just in terms of varied focal lengths, but types as well. However, they all still required a person to focus the image which could be difficult at times. By the late 70's, manufactures were seriously developing a number of systems that would autofocus the lens. These ranged from the Konica C35 "point and shoot" to the Polaroid SX-70 that used a variation of sonar! In 1981 Pentax was the first "out the gate" with a system for 35mm SLRs which used a built-in IR rangefinder fitted to an adapted ME, and called it the ME-F. Nikon followed in 1983 with the F3AF, but this, like the Pentax was a lens based system, slow, bulky and just not very workable.
In 1985 though, Minolta came out with an "integrated" system where the electronics and mechanism were largely in the body of the camera. This was the Maxxum 7000 (Dynax in some markets), and it completely changed the SLR industry. Nikon followed quickly with its own body integrated system and in 1992 Canon brought out a lens motorized system on a new mount called the EOS.
At that point, the changeover to autofocus for SLRs was pretty much complete. So for most manufacturers, there have been autofocus lenses in the market for the better part of 25 years. That adds up to a lot of glass floating around out there in the used market. For the first 15 of those 25 years, it was autofocus lenses made for 35mm film cameras. The bulk of digital camera makers made their sensor sizes right around APS-C with gives the equivalent focal length about a 50% boost. Of course, this is a double edge sword in that it's great on the long end of things, but is a wide angle killer on the other end! All those 80-200mm zooms are suddenly now 120-300mm, but then those 28mm lenses are basically 42mm "normal" lens!
Then how do you take advantage of all that old glass out there? Well, you start with the new! The best deal in the market is the kit zoom that most camera are packaged! Every single camera maker has an inexpensive, yet eminently competent lens that they often include as a starter for their basic offerings. Overwhelmingly, they tend to be 18-55mm, but on occasion you'll come across one that's 18-70mm. That's equivalent to about a 28-82mm or 28-105mm, and it's a good starting point. True, these things typically aren't optically stellar, and their build quality is; shall we say....utilitarian? However, they are commonly thrown in to the deal, and even if you have to buy one, you can't beat the price since they usually sell for less than $100.
OK, let's just say that you're able to score a really good deal and are able to land one of these kit zooms along with your $200-300, 6 Mp camera. Where do you go from here? To me, a great first purchase would be either a 55-200mm or a 70-300mm, so let's examine them.
The 55-200mm (or there-abouts) is a common focal length that manufacturers like to sell as a matching "first upgrade" lens. Virtually all major manufacturers have them and they are even sold at Wal-mart if that tells you anything. On the used market, they can often be found not much above $100 since they typically sold for less than $200-250 new. The APS-C conversion puts them at a 35mm eq. of 300mm on the long end which makes for a pretty nice soccer lens. They are generally also very compact and designed to have the same filter ring size as the kit zoom. So between the two lenses and a camera, you can go from an eq. of 28mm out to 300mm for less than $400.
However, when you delve into the older "non-digital" glass, that's when sharp-eyed buyers can get really nice deals. We'll start with the 70-300mm zoom, which were very common back 20-25 years ago. They were not only made by the OEMs, but by virtually every third-party lens company as well. On top of that, they were commonly rebranded by importers such as Promaster, Vivitar as well the Ritz camera store chain as their house brand, Quantaray. The Tamron 70-300/f4.5-5.6 was so common that it could be considered a generic of the type. I've seen them sell for less than $50, but more typically between $60 and $80. This is a lens that will give an equivilent zoom range that begins at 105mm and goes out to a whopping 450mm!
While those sound great and in fact are excellent deals, there's another often overlooked lens that can put a budding photographer in another class. And that's the old "normal" lens. REALLY!!! 25 years ago, camera manufacturers were still in the old 35mm mindset and along with that was the old "normal" lens standby that was virtually thrown in to every deal. So there's a lot of 50mm/f1.8s floating around out there and if you are OK to do you own focusing you can get them even cheaper than the $100 it'll costs to buy one of the autofocus versions.
Beyond, this there's a whole world of manual focus lenses that nobody wants (as long as you stay away from collector's lenses). They also have the tendency to perform better than anyone has the right to expect given the price since the smaller sensor'd cameras only use the middle of the glass and thus eliminating the age-old bugaboo of budget glass....edge performance. We're talking about lenses going back to the '60s! Sure, you'll have to manually focus, check to make sure that it'll mount on your camera w/o damage, and maybe even calculate exposure manually, but then what's that compared to what you can find out there for a few dollars. The literally thousands of 400/500mm Japanese "pre-set" lens that are available for less than $50. Throw a cheap 2x convertor on these and you have a converted focal length upwards of 1500mm! Take you kid outside and shoot some cool moon-phase pictures. Cut down an old broken gunstock, build a mount and go shoot pictures of wild animals. There are also lots of faster (f2.8) 20/24mm wide-angles that although convert to 30/36mm, are much faster than the kit zooms. They can make great party or indoor "event" photography lenses. For the use of old lenses like these, Nikon and Pentax are probably the most well known, but lots of people use the Sony/Konica-Minolta and even Canon with an adapter since they abandoned their old mount when shifting to auto-focus.
So, lets say that you this sounds interesting and bite on this idea. What do the dollar figures look like? Let's make some middle of the road assumptions and say that you paid $250 for the older DSLR camera with a "kit" lens thrown in, then pick up a 70-300mm zoom for about $75, then a 50mm "normal" for another $100. This all adds up to a pretty complete system for $425 that covers a 35mm converted focal length of 28mm out to 450mm, AND a low light f1.8 lens that the camera sees as 75mm that's perfect for available light portraiture. That's pretty amazing! Especially since that total won't even buy a the lowest-end camera with the kit lens, new from Wal-mart or Target. I've seen compact-sensor, point and shoot cameras that cost this much.
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