Nikon D40 lens question

[Allstermac]

I have had the D40 a little more than a month & as a beginner (new to DSLR) like it very much!
It comes standard with an 18-55 lens. The guy at (a will refrain from naming) a very popular camera store had sold me a 55-200 lens telling me it is the ONLY other lens that works with this camera. I found out that Nikon makes a 18-200 lens.
My question?
Another photo store has told me that it will work on the D40. Is this true & if so is it a good lens to work with???
My thoughts are if it works good, I would have no need to change lens when I needed to..
Thanks!

 

[compuwar]

I have had the D40 a little more than a month & as a beginner (new to DSLR) like it very much!
It comes standard with an 18-55 lens. The guy at (a will refrain from naming) a very popular camera store had sold me a 55-200 lens telling me it is the ONLY other lens that works with this camera. I found out that Nikon makes a 18-200 lens.
My question?
Another photo store has told me that it will work on the D40. Is this true & if so is it a good lens to work with???
My thoughts are if it works good, I would have no need to change lens when I needed to..
Thanks!

Basically, you want ones with AF-S in the title if they're Nikkor lenses.

If you'd searched first, you'd have found this informative post:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/262638/

Sigma lists compatible lenses at:

http://www.sigmaphoto.com/news/news.asp?nID=3289

 

[bearbo]

I have had the D40 a little more than a month & as a beginner (new to DSLR) like it very much!
It comes standard with an 18-55 lens. The guy at (a will refrain from naming) a very popular camera store had sold me a 55-200 lens telling me it is the ONLY other lens that works with this camera. I found out that Nikon makes a 18-200 lens.
My question?
Another photo store has told me that it will work on the D40. Is this true & if so is it a good lens to work with???
My thoughts are if it works good, I would have no need to change lens when I needed to..
Thanks!

18-200 VRII will definitely work with D40 and it's a far better lens than any nikon lens for this purpose at this price point. if you're gonna only have one lens, 18-200 is the one to go. 55-200, if that's the one i was thinking, is not close.

 

[Clix Pix]

I have had the D40 a little more than a month & as a beginner (new to DSLR) like it very much!
It comes standard with an 18-55 lens. The guy at (a will refrain from naming) a very popular camera store had sold me a 55-200 lens telling me it is the ONLY other lens that works with this camera.

That is SOOOO untrue! The Nikon D40 works with any lens in the Nikon line.... the hitch is, though, that it does not have a motor in the camera body so therefore is dependent on AF-S lenses for motorized autofocusing. This does not mean, though, that you can't manually focus with other non- AF-S lenses or that you can't use third-party vendors' lenses. For instance, any of the Sigma lenses which have HSM will autofocus with the D40. That means you can slip a 30mm f/1.4 Sigma lens on there and get great results. You can also slip the tiny Nikkor 35mm f/2 lens on the D40 and manually focus and come home with great results, too.

The 18-55 kit lens and the 55-200mm lens that are often sold to users of the D40 are OK lenses, but they are not of the highest quality. The very successful 18-200mm VR is of better quality, as is the new 70-300mm VR. Much depends upon what you want to achieve with your photography. Do you want to just take snapshots, primarily outdoors, or do you want to strive for some interesting natural-light, no flash, portraits of family members indoors? Pick up a Nikon 50mm f/1.4 or f/1.8. Yes, you will have to manually focus, but you will be very pleasantly surprised at the results you can get with one of those lenses.

The D40 has fewer limitations than some people would have you think. Take a look in this very forum (Picture of the Day thread) at some of the wonderful images that have been created with this camera.....

 

[Yakamoto]

I'm in the same boat...
Got the D40 about a month ago, as a first dslr, and I love it.
The kit lens with it was/is very good, but I wanted more reach. So I got the Nikkor 55-200 which was/is good too (more like average). Anyways now I wish that it was just 1 lens that could function as the two, and the Nikkor18-200 vrII AF-S DX is just that. Even if it is a lot more expensive.
Good luck with whatever you purchase though.

 

[Abstract]

Don't worry, I know how confusing it can be when you first enter the DSLR world. Some people don't remember what it felt like to not really understand what all these terms and numbers truly mean, but I certainly do.

Firstly, ANY Nikon lens that says AF-S will be able to autofocus on a Nikon D40.

Secondly, any of the Sigma lenses that Compuwar linked to will work on a Nikon D40.


You have a lot of lens options, the 18-200 mm VR being one of them. For a lens that can go from 18-200 mm, it performs very very well. It also comes with vibration reduction (VR), so even if you have shaky hands when you shoot, you'll still be able to come out with sharper photos. So the long focal range + the VR feature makes this lens very popular.

 

[ChrisA]

I have had the D40 a little more than a month & as a beginner (new to DSLR) like it very much!
It comes standard with an 18-55 lens. The guy at (a will refrain from naming) a very popular camera store had sold me a 55-200 lens telling me it is the ONLY other lens that works with this camera. I found out that Nikon makes a 18-200 lens.
My question?
Another photo store has told me that it will work on the D40. Is this true & if so is it a good lens to work with???
My thoughts are if it works good, I would have no need to change lens when I needed to..
Thanks!

Nikon makes two different kinds of autofocus lenses. One type has a motor built into the lens the other type depends on a motor inside the body. The D40 body lacks a motor and so you want a lens that has a motor. Lenses that have motors are labeled as "AF-S". Any Nikon AF-S lens will work. non-af-s lenses will work to but you will need to turn the focus ring by hand.

If you don't mind rotating a focus ring you could even use a very old Nikon manual focus lens. All of these were of very high quality and now sell used dirt cheap. Prices for most of these range from $50 to $100.

bottom line: All AF-S lenses will work. Other Nikon lenses dating back to the 1970's will work to varying degrees

Next question is what do you need. That depends on your interests and budget One good way to figure out what you should get is to ask yourself how the 18-55 mm kit lens is limiting you. Is it not wide enough? to slow? Are you unable to get close enough to your subject

 

[Allstermac]

Next question is what do you need. That depends on your interests and budget One good way to figure out what you should get is to ask yourself how the 18-55 mm kit lens is limiting you. Is it not wide enough? to slow? Are you unable to get close enough to your subject

Thanks everyone for the replies!
I have the 18-55 & seems to work fine as well as the 55-200.
The problem I have is that on our last trip... When I needed to zoom...ie wildlife etc... there was no time to switch lenses and snap the picture...

I spoke with the store that sold me the 55-200 today and he told me at the time I bought(late December) the info they had was in fact only those 2 Len's would work and that since they found as you all have mentioned... many more work
He will exchange the 55-200 towards the 18-200... the only issue now is manufacture supply. He has 4300 back ordered and estimates for me to get one will be late spring I called several online suppliers today who showed stock and they to have back orders!

 

[schandra175]

D 40

I bought my D 40 with kit lense 2 weeks ago and am absolutely thrilled with it.

I have moved from a Coolpix 8800 to a DLSR (first DLSR tho i have used film SLRS such as pentax Pz-1 before).

You can get a whole bunch of info on this camera at http://www.kenrockwell.com

best regards

sanjeev

 

[nightsky]

Just Ordered Mine Today

My first mac arrived today too. Mac G, its beautiful. I ordered a D40 and hav 28mm-80mm AF for my gd ole 35mm. I ordered 17mm-55mm w/D40. LOL I need a 50mm 1.8 lol
Can someone help me order some memory cards and card reader. I am like totally new to digital cameras and am having trouble w/Foxfire on my PC something to do w/flash and media. Browser doesn't let me evern open links on Digital Camera Lessons Should have never upgraded to Firefox2. Thanks

 

[IscariotJ]

I've had a D40 since not long after they came out. I was a bit wary of buying, in light of all the adverse comments ( glorifired P&S, not a real dSLR, no in-body motor, etc , but it's FAB.

I currently have the 18-135 attached to it, while my 18-200VR is on order. The 18-135 might be listed as the kit lens for the D80, but the image quality is superb. My wife has taken to "borrowing" the D40, so I'm thinking of trying to get hold a D40 body for her to use with the 18-135.

I've also had the 70-300VR attached to it, though a nice lens, the weight of the it makes it a bit unwieldy.

 

[ChrisA]

My first mac arrived today too. Mac G, its beautiful. I ordered a D40 and hav 28mm-80mm AF for my gd ole 35mm. I ordered 17mm-55mm w/D40. LOL I need a 50mm 1.8 lol
Can someone help me order some memory cards and card reader. I am like totally new to digital cameras and am having trouble w/Foxfire on my PC something to do w/flash and media. Browser doesn't let me evern open links on Digital Camera Lessons Should have never upgraded to Firefox2. Thanks

Will the 28-80mmand 50mm autofocus on the D40? I don't think either is AF-S. You may need to rotate the focus rings on the lenses manually. I always tell people to look for the lenses they want FIRST and only then buy an SLR body. If you want an AF-D lens the D40 is not the body to get.

I'm typing this using Firefox 2 under Linux. Works fine. I use Safari on the Mac.

 

[Clix Pix]

The "pro" 17-55mm lens is indeed AF-S, and so is the consumer 18-55mm that comes as the kit lens with the D40 (I suspect that this is the lens Nightsky means). I don't think the 28-80mm is an AF-S lens, though.

I would be cautious about using large and heavy lenses on that D40; it's a pretty small body and not meant for the rigors of extensive shooting under extreme circumstances.

Camera shops and electronics shops and places like Best Buy have memory cards and other accessories. The D40, like the D50, uses SD memory cards and those are readily available.