I feel stupid for asknig this....

[dover6473]

But I have a Nikon D40 and I'm still so confused about lenses!!! The only lens I have at the moment is the one that comes with it. My sons awards ceremony was yesterday and got frustrated cause i couldn't really zoom in on him. Can anyone recommend a lens that would be good indoors and outdoors for that camera or help me understand lenses??? Thanks ladies!!!

[starxlr8]

The lens that came with your camera is probably the 18-55, which definitely won't let you zoom in much.

Here is an awesome tutorial on camera lenses that should help you better understand what your lens can and cannot do.

You want to look for a telephoto lens where the minimal focal length is > 55mm... up to around 300mm. The calculator in that tutorial is really helpful for understanding. I put in that your son was 15 m away from you, that he's 5' tall and you have a DSLR with a 1.6 crop factor. That means you need a focal length of 182mm... so you'd look for a telephoto lens that covers that range.

Here's the problem though, telephoto lens that ALSO perform very well in low light (like indoor award ceremonies) are going to get pretty pricey. For best results, you will likely use something like this coupled with a really high ISO.

I actually don't have a telephoto lens yet - because its not something I use very often. I photograph mostly portraits and landscapes - I absolutely love my Sigma 30mm f/1.4, my 50mm f/1.8 and my 10-20mm super wide lens. (I have a Canon.)

[Kara]

I also have the D40, and for this exact reason, I got the 55-200 mm lens. There are only a few lenses that autofocus with the D40, so you don't have a lot of options if autofocus is a must for you. The 55-200 isn't great in low light, though.

[Ethereal_sheep]

I've got the same camera. The 55-200mm is nice Make sure the lens you want to buy says AF-S or AF-I since those are the types that autofocus. I have 2 things that I purchased for my little D40 - the 55-200mm lens and the little SB 400 flash. The lens does a great job in good lighting outside and combined with the external flash I think it does pretty well inside too. My brother has the Nikon 70-300 and takes some phenomenal pictures, but that one was out of my price range! Ken Rockwell is quite obsessed with the D40 and has some tutorials and recommendations that I find helpful (including the "plain English" user guide to the D40).

[dover6473]

Thanks ladies!!! Y'all have helped me a ton...now I need to save some MONEY!!!!

[dover6473]

ok one more thing....i found this lens http://cgi.ebay.com/NIKON-AF-55-200m...item35a9b3f577

is that a good deal?

[Ethereal_sheep]

I don't know if that's a good deal or not, but it will not autofocus with your D40. I can't see well enough to manually focus so I rely on autofocus.

Good luck deciding!

[tuneskids]

I just got a Tamron AF70-300mm F/4-5.6, to use with my D60, and I love the results I have gotten this past week using it at soccer. Before, using my kit lens, I felt like I was so far away from the action of my kids on the field ... now I feel as though I am right in front of them when I am actually sitting on the sidelines!
I don't really know much about lenses either, but my husband found a good deal on the lens, compared to what it would cost for the Nikon equivalent, so we went ahead and got it since we know we will get good use out of it on our vacations.