Which Lens for a Nikon D70

[anthonyjc]

I picked up a nikon 60mm lens today brought it home and am very dissapointed with it. What lenses do you all use for your nikons? i am looking to spend less than 500 and get crisp clear shots. thanks. Also does taking pictures of corals behind a bowfront tank make it more difficult/ distort the images?
Thanks,
Anthony

 

[05xrunner]

a bowfront is going to be VERY hard..its already distorted before you even start...I dont think if you buy the best glass its going to help much with a bowfront.
As for what lens that is hard to answer..what do you want, Wide angle, standard, tele.
What is the 60mm a macro..If it is then you need to practice more cause none of the macros are bad.
If you wanna spend under 500 your choices for good glass is Sigma 17-70 f2.8-4, Tamron 28-75 f2.8, If you can find a nice used Sigma 70-200 f2.8 for around $500

 

[anthonyjc]

its a 60mm f2.8 macro lens, I want to be able to take nice close up shots of my corals and fish.

 

[05xrunner]

see thats what is killing you..when you get that close and you having a bowfront thats not going to work..the distortion in the glass is going to ruin it..Your going to need a tele lens to give yourself some distance from the glass so you lose some of the distortion. Id say only option would be shooting from the side. And remember that close your going to want your fstop around 9-11 cause the depth of field is going to be sooo small.

 

[anthonyjc]

so which is my best bet if I need to shoot through the bowed glass? Thanks for all the advice by the way. I added a full tank shot which shows why only shooting from the side will not work.

 

[05xrunner]

the Sigma 17-70 probably would work pretty good. Its just going to be really hard with the curved glass

 

[kg2qe]

Originally Posted by anthonyjc
I picked up a nikon 60mm lens today brought it home and am very dissapointed with it. What lenses do you all use for your nikons? i am looking to spend less than 500 and get crisp clear shots. thanks. Also does taking pictures of corals behind a bowfront tank make it more difficult/ distort the images?
Thanks,
Anthony
I all so use a D70. I have several manual lenses from the early 1980s. They all work. Not all lenses are compatible! You may be able to get an old lense cheap that will give you great pics.