Nikon's New D40 - reviews available, list of compatible lenses available

[taylorwilsdon]

If you will notice, I have only just joined this forum, so I obviously did not realize it was an old post. I do thank you for your assistance, however, in the future you could possibly phrase your answers in a more kind manner. As I stated before, I did not mean to offend anyone, and I certainly did not mean to post in the wrong area, so you'll have to please forgive my ignorance in such dealings.

Thanks again for your advice as it was extremely helpful and I wish you all the best.

No worries! No offense at all, I just meant that you are more then welcome to make your own thread where it is more visible and you will get better answers

 

[ChrisA]

I am interested in purchasing a 55-200mm f/4-5.6G ED AF-S BR DX Zoom Nikkor Autofocus Lens. What I need to know is if it is, in fact, compatible with my Nikon D40 DSLR camera, and if so, how well it performs. I am interested in mainly macro photography and portrait photography, and the 85mm lens that was recommended for this type of photography is not compatible with my camera. Well, it could be if I wanted to use it in the manual mode, but I am not comfortable with that. Can anyone tell me if this particular lens will render good macro photography, good portrait photography, and will it blur the background slightly when taking portraits? I will gladly accept any advice.

We can't have it both ways can we -- "telling people to sear the archive" and asking then not to resurrect old threads. He did well to search before asking.

For portraits you really do want a faster lens. f/5.6 will or course work but you will have to choose your backgrounds carefully because with such a slow lens you will not be able to blur out the background. So as they say "use your feet" and move to where the background is best.

the 50-200 is not the best macro lens. In fact it is not a macro lens at all. I don't know what kinds of macro shots yo want. Are these indoor in controled settings. If so then this is technically "studio photography" and you may as well pick up and older manual focus lens. It will not meter or AF but you don't need that for macro work. Most people turn the AF off for macros.

You could look for a used D50 to replace the D40.