My poor 55-200 VR

jdorseydesign

Yesterday as I was trying to take a photo of the Venus transit, my Nikon D80 and 55-200 VR took a tumble off my tripod onto the driveway. :cry

It basically jammed the lens barrel and it won't rotate at all (and is slightly crooked). So much for cheap plastic lenses eh?

Anyway, I need to replace it, and I'm thinking about upgrading to something a bit better. I don't have tons of money though, I'd like to keep it under $500.

So, what lenses do you guys suggest? Should I go for another zoom or start collecting primes in that focal range? I'm certainly not opposed to buying used, as I'm mostly just a hobbyist.

guitstik

I recently bought a Tokina 35-300 4,5-6,7 (really) for $200 new from the camera store here and I have enjoyed it. It's not the fastest lens or the lightest, it's heavy, but it takes some fabulous shots in normal light. Great budget lens.

ziggy53

KEH has some Nikkor 80-200mm, f2.8 ED Macro lenses (not the "D" series) for a little over your budget. In particular is an LN- copy with hood and caps for $546USD:

http://www.keh.com/camera/Nikon-Autofocus-Zoom-Lenses/1/sku-NA07999029426J?r=FE

It is slow to autofocus and not suited to sports, action or BIF, but the optics are excellent on this model.

KEH also has some of the "D" series if you need faster AF (and if you stretch the budget even more). Either should work with the Nikon D80 body.

jdorseydesign

ziggy53 wrote: »

KEH has some Nikkor 80-200mm, f2.8 ED Macro lenses (not the "D" series) for a little over your budget. In particular is an LN- copy with hood and caps for $546USD:

http://www.keh.com/camera/Nikon-Autofocus-Zoom-Lenses/1/sku-NA07999029426J?r=FE

It is slow to autofocus and not suited to sports, action or BIF, but the optics are excellent on this model.

KEH also has some of the "D" series if you need faster AF (and if you stretch the budget even more). Either should work with the Nikon D80 body.

I think I'd definitely want the D series, I saw a video on youtube about how slow the non-D version focuses compared to the D version.

I have a bit of a reservation about the push-pull. My only experience with push-pull was with an old Sear Pentax 70-200 f/4 and it was just plain weird and the pushing and pulling was really slow and hard to move (maybe because it was a crappy lens).

Also, it seems the push/pulls don't have a tripod collar.. not sure how important that would be to me.

ront

PM sent.

Ron