D40 lens recommendation (good all around)

[Fran101]

The only one i have now is the one that came with the camera lol I would just like something good for all around picture taking of friends, me and romeo

I would like to keep it less than $200 if possible

something that will give everything airbrushed look would be lovely! lol if that even exists

[InLimbo87]

Airbrushed look?

What are you looking to accomplish with this new lens? Is zooming a necessity or are you open to prime (fixed length) lenses.

On that note, if I had to suggest one lens for you it would be the 35mm f/1.8 AF-S. It is AF-S so you will have no issues with AF on your camera, and it is significantly faster (not to mention great colors and contrast) than your kit lens (I'm assuming 18-55?). Also, it is the "normal" focal length for the DX sensor, which would make a great starter "prime" lens.

[Fran101]

Originally Posted by InLimbo87

Airbrushed look?

What are you looking to accomplish with this new lens? Is zooming a necessity or are you open to prime (fixed length) lenses.

On that note, if I had to suggest one lens for you it would be the 35mm f/1.8 AF-S. It is AF-S so you will have no issues with AF on your camera, and it is significantly faster (not to mention great colors and contrast) than your kit lens (I'm assuming 18-55?). Also, it is the "normal" focal length for the DX sensor, which would make a great starter "prime" lens.

35mm f/1.8 AF-S, ill look it up!
and ya, the kid lens is 18-55

thanksss, and ya, zooming is a necessity for me

[Fran101]

this it?
Nikon | AF-S Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G DX Lens | 2183 | B&H Photo Video

[~Jessie~]

Originally Posted by Fransheska101

this it?
Nikon | AF-S Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G DX Lens | 2183 | B&H Photo Video

Yep

Also, do you have Photoshop? You can get a copy of Elements for pretty cheap, and it will do everything you need when it comes to photo editing. Adobe Lightroom is also a really good program, and they're running specials on it right now for Lightroom 2.

[Fran101]

Originally Posted by ~Jessie~

Yep

Also, do you have Photoshop? You can get a copy of Elements for pretty cheap, and it will do everything you need when it comes to photo editing. Adobe Lightroom is also a really good program, and they're running specials on it right now for Lightroom 2.

Lol I dont have anything, I have Iphoto.

any links to where i can find them? I would love to get a program to help me edit pictures, are they easy to use?

[elegy]

Originally Posted by InLimbo87

On that note, if I had to suggest one lens for you it would be the 35mm f/1.8 AF-S.

i got this one for christmas and i freaking LOVE it.

[2pups622]

35 is my next one!

adobe lightroom is awesome btw.

[AndrewF]

Originally Posted by Fransheska101

Lol I dont have anything, I have Iphoto.

any links to where i can find them? I would love to get a program to help me edit pictures, are they easy to use?

An alternative to Lightroom would be Apple's Aperture 3. I'm running the trial of it to see if it's worth upgrading from Aperture 2.

The real difference between the two versions of Aperture is with Aperture 3, you have brushes for dodging, burning, saturation, etc... for local enhancements/corrections.

Aperture and Lightroom are primarily organizational tools, kind of like iPhoto. However, they can handle much larger libraries than iPhoto can, they allow more editing and more control over edits and are both much more robust programs.

Personally, I prefer Aperture to iPhoto for the sheer amount of control it gives me on the raw conversions and editing. It's about $200 US and well worth it.

If you're looking for a strait forward photo editor, there's a few alternatives to Photoshop that I'd recommend you try out, to see if you like what they offer.

First is Pixelmator. It's very similar to elements, a fair bit cheaper and has pretty much the same feature set, give/take a couple of items. It has very similar tools and layout, so if you try one, you'll be comfortable using the other.

Next is LightZone. It's a very good program for doing a lot of edits that would take a fair bit longer to achieve in Photoshop. I personally like the control layout it offers when you want to really play around with the contrast of a photo without messing around with 'levels' or 'curves'. It does lack text though and while it does everything in layers, PS and LZ have different means of selecting portions for editing and each one has it's own advantages. If you do decide to go with LightZone, I'd suggest getting the basic version instead of the pro version which offers Digital Asset Management, simply because you already have iPhoto to do that and it will play nicely with iPhoto or Aperture, when you set either one to use LZ as the external editor (it behaves similar to a plug-in). Also, I wasn't too impressed with it's DAM capabilities compared to Aperture or even iPhoto.

I'd suggest downloading the trial versions of Aperture and LightRoom first, to see if they offer what you want. Then I'd suggest downloading the trial versions of Pixelmator and Elements and compare those two programs. Lastly, I'd suggest doing the free trial of LightZone. Play around with each of these and decide what suits you best.