"Appropriate" Lenses For My D40

Now that the D40 (Plastic-Fantastic 2.0) has been acquired, what's the next step? Get rid of that wart of a lens, of course! You might have been able to tell by my previous post(s) that I don't have much use for that 18-55mm kit zoom that came with my "new" camera. And in my situation, I really don't. It's not just that it's an ugly lens either! So, it's about to hit eBay/Craigs List to return $75 or so back to the lens buying coffers. So, what am I going to do with that $75 and the occasional $25-30 that I can scrape together? Well, it's my intention to put together a lens "kit" that "fits" compact dimensions of the D40......plus it needs to also fit the intended purpose of the camera.

In a perfect world, one or of these modern pancakes and it's Voigtlander brethren such as the 28mm f/2.8 Color-Skopar, maybe even the 40mm f/2.0 Ultron would be headed toward my house via Amazon as we speak! Mounted on the D40, this 20mm would be an fairly wide 30mm, 28mm would be seen as a 42mm, and the 40mm Ultron would be a nice tight 60mm. Alas, such is not to be since every single one of these guys costs somewhere between $475 and $600. This is nowhere near where a frugal anyone goes. 

Where should be start then? Well, let's look at what that D40 will be expected to do....other than being the backup to the D300. That, it already does by being able to take decent pictures and coming equipped with the same lens Nikon F mount. What I really want it for is as a light/fast, "street photography" instrument. I also want it to become my secondary rig that I'm happy to grab and take random places like an amusement park or just about anywhere, where I'm not expecting to shoot anything, but be ready if something does come up. It appears that "small", "light" and easy to handle (quick) keeps popping up. Therefore, it's pretty obvious that I don't want to destroy these innate characteristics of the D40 by attaching some monstrosity of a lens! Then based on my needs, I'll want to have coverage from wide-of-normal, to short-telephoto, all in a nice compact size. In 35mm terms, that's somewhere in the 30's (millimeters, that is), up to something around 100. Since the D40 has an APS-C (DX in Nikon speak) sensor which is roughly 50% smaller than a 35mm fame of film, that translates to mean 20mm to about 70mm, giving an equivalent of 30mm to 105mm. When working with the standard focal lengths that are out there, we're talking 20mm (30mm eq.), 24mm (36mm eq.), 28mm (42mm eq.), 50mm (75mm eq.) and zooms up to 70-80mm (105-120mm).  Why zooms? It's because primes in the 80/85mm range tend to be specialized "portrait" or "macro" lenses (read expensive), while zooms that go up to that range tend to be common (read cheap). Anything else to think about? Yup. We want small, remember? Small can happen in several different ways: close to "normal" for that film/sensor size requires the least glass (so 28-50mm), slow as in lets through less light (we don't want this if we can help it), manual focus (no gears or motors= smaller/lighter). So, we are working  both ends against the middle. We want as fast (more light) of a lens as possible, while keeping the other dimensions small. We are already getting it relatively small by staying close to the "normal" focal length so there's only one more thing we can do. That's right; lose the auto-focus. Really, don't worry, you may or may not have as much experience as I've had doing this over the years, but you'll get the hang of it! Trust me!

Whaaaaat is this!?! Well....it's a picture from a Tamron ad circa late 70's. Now that you've been freed from the shackles of auto-focus, there's a whole world of cheap and great glass out there. It resides on eBay, Craigs List, Pawn Shops, Thrift Stores, musty old 2nd Hand Shops, and your grandparent's closets. Unfortunately, most people think they are useless, but fortunately, they seem too expensive (originally they were) to throw out. It's not just Tamron either, there's Tokina, Sigma, Asanuma, 5-Star; the list is long, distinguished but a little sad since most of those names are now gone.

Forgive my nostalgic wandering; I'm better now. Back to what I'm looking for in relation to System D40: small, fast (if possible, meaning affordable), and slightly wide to slightly long....right. Let's start here then. The Tamron (Adaptall 2 version) of their 28mm, f/2.5. Why Tamron Adaptall? It's because they are literally adapt-all, meaning you can just buy lenses willy-nilly and then worry about getting the correct mount later. That's if you have a camera that takes a classic mount, that is...... You do have one of those right.....? Nikon, Pentax K? OK, well, everybody else will just have to lose some communications but can use an adapter though. But hey, I'm only worried about me and I have a Nikon with an F-Mount. This lens is easy to find on eBay, often selling in the $20's, plus it's small (49mm filter ring, 1.3" long). That's "pancake" territory; oh, OK, maybe "biscuit" territory. Yeah; I'm gettin' me one of those! If I can figure out how to put a Dandelion programmable "chip" on it, then that'd be a bonus!

Then there's the 35-80mm, f/2.8-3.8 Adaptall 2 SP, which often sells at around $40. At an eq. of 52-120mm on the D40, this could be a decent walk-around lens, if I kept a 24 or even a 28mm in a pocket.

......And this, little stumpy thing? A 28-50mm, f/3.5-4.5 Adaptall 2. Not an SP (Super Performance), and it doesn't start at the fairly bright 2.8 f-stop, but these often sell for around $40 as well and is the eq. of 42-75mm that I think I'd love as a walk-around combo on the D40. Plus it's 1.8" long, completely retracted! With a filter ring diameter of 58mm, in my mind, this is an almost perfect physical match for the D40. I would have loved for it to be a fixed f/2.8 and for it to start at 24mm or go out to 55mm, but then, it wouldn't be this small physical size. Let's go with "muffin" sized. Anything else?

Sure there is! This may be sitting on my porch "as we speak". One of my famous cost less than the price of shipping eBay finds, it's an original Adaptall, 300mm, f/5.6. Sure, it's slow, but it's so small (for it's focal length), that it takes a 58mm filter! Has a built-in lens hood too!

Of course, you can't go all-Tamron without talking about the famed SP 90mm Macro lens. I could imagine myself adding this if the price was right (meaning sub-$50) since it'd be an eq. of 135mm on the D40 giving it very close to 1:1 magnification w/o tubes. Also, I've previously mentioned the equally famous 500mm f/8.0 SP mirror lens, but I'm not certain that I'd be willing to go over the $150 mark that they tend to sell at. But all in all, it's a good way to go. I'm bettin' that I can pick up at least 3 of these lenses for less than $100 total after shipping. Given the price, size, and speed, I think they'll be appropriate for my System D40.

Great Deal (Part 2): Lenses

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.