I use the Nikon D60 with the stock lens (18-55mm) what's a good (cheapish) upgrade!

rmann

i saw the nikon 55-200mm seems like a viable option, that sort of pricing would be good (£139 for the one i saw)

so just a step up, i like portraiture, some landscape and macro, all sorts really. Thanks guys!

ziggy53

You might consider some prime lenses as the best combination of image quality vs cost. On the Nikon D60 that means giving up AF in many cases, but I believe that you would have manual focus confirmation.

In zoom lenses the Tamron SP 17-50mm, f2.8 XR Di II LD IF in Nikon mount with the built-in-motor is a great upgrade to your existing kit lens and it's not horribly expensive. It is not capable of "macro" magnifications but it has pretty good close focus capabilities.

The Nikkor 55-200mm, f4-5.6G IF-ED AF-S DX VR is an excellent compliment to your 18-55mm zoom, and pretty good image quality too. It's not excellent image quality and it's a relatively slow lens and not great in low light, but it's an excellent value.

ThatCanonGuy

Nikon just updated the 55-200 to 55-300. I don't recommend either; they're slow and you can get better IQ with some of these:
Tamron 17-50 2.8 (nice fast aperture ;~)
Nikon 50 1.8 (cheap)
Sigma 50 1.4 (little more expensive)
And others that I can't think of right now ;~)

ThatCanonGuy

Oh yeah and the 35 1.8. Sure wish Canon would make one of those... no cheap relatively-wide option for FF users...

r3t1awr3yd

+1 for the 50mm f/1.8 . I still recommend that lens to people who ask me what to buy. $120 new and absolute fun in medium to low lighting conditions.

rmann

Thanks guys, i think i'm going to go with the nikon 50mm f1.8 looks like a 'no brainer' according to everyone! i enjoy the use of manuel focus, so thats not a problem, i had to use it on my D60 for a long time as thought the AF wasn't working i got all my macro shots and the water shots with manual, one handed in the dark gotta love photography

time2smile

dont forget about the 35mm F1.8 Dx it will AF on the D60 and with the crop factor is 50mm, and it sells for under $200.

Bruce I

35 1.8 mm (great indoors for my grandkids)
50 1.8mm ( can be a little long indoors but great portraits with this one and it's cheap!)

Used 35-70mm ... the 24-70mm (the beast) was it's replacement but it take fantastic pictures

Have fun hunting !

printergirl

As long as you don't mind manual focus the 50/1.8 is a nice lens. I thought it wouldn't bother me on the D40, but found I really hated manually focusing, so got the 35/1.8...beautiful lens. It stays on my D40, the 50 works great on my D90.