New lens for Nikon N-70

[Jeffrey S. Winn]

Recently I've picked up a Nikon N-70 camera, as a backup to my Canon T-70 kit. My wife and I have been having fun shooting with this camera, and I'm ready to add a new lens to the 70-300mm zoom that I currently have. My goal is to add another zoom so I can cover a large range and only carry two lenses with this camera.

My reasoning for the zooms instead of primes, is because I'll be sharing this camera setup with my wife. She has been trying to find a new camera to use for taking photos while I'm on the road. These are just the usual photos of the kids at different events, nothing special except to us. Anyway, she is finally frustrated at the poor quality of her photos when she shoots indoors. The point and shoot camera that she uses just doesn't have the flash power, and too many photos are poorly lit and very grainy. Additionally, she likes the extra range of zooms coming from mainly shooting point and shoot cameras.

My goal is to add either a 28-105 AFD or a 35-105 AFD. I like the range of the 28-105 better, but the 35-105 is a little lighter, and a little cheaper on the used market. Is either lens significantly better then the other? My thoughts right now are to go for the 28-105.

Additionally, I'm looking into adding a speedlight. Is the SB-28 a good choice for this camera? I believe that it will enable us to use all of the features of the N-70, but I'm not 100% sure.

At the end of the day I want a camera that we both can use that will produce good photos. She won't touch my Canon T-70 as it is manual focus, and she can't be bothered with it. I have about four different primes that I enjoy using, and a few zooms as well. But, she will only use the Canon if I hand it to her to take a photo. My thoughts are that I can leave her the N-70 in program mode, and let her shoot away. For indoor school events, the built in flash will work in some cases, and the SB-28 will handle the situations where more power is needed.

Is this a good approach? Am I missing something?

Jeff

 

[Eric Rose]

I use a Nikkor 24-120 AFD and love it.

 

[Peter_H]

Jeff,

The 28-105 AF-D has been a part of my "new" kit since I switched from Canon manual focus five years ago. I bought both this lens, and a Nikkor 70-300 AF-D, to go with my N-80 body (F-80 here in the UK). It's a great lens, although a little prone to vignetting at 28mm if you routinely use a UV filter for protection and then decide to stack, say, a polariser on top. Using a Hoya Pro-1 (the thin one) would easily solve that and at 62mm diameter, it would still be affordable.

Highly recommended - it's on the camera most of the time when I'm just wandering about (although my "killer" lenses are both Tamrons: the 90mm macro - mainly used for people shots - and the marvellous 17-35 wide-angle zoom)

Hope this helps,
Peter

 

[Peter_H]

Jeff,

Within 24 hours of purchase, I realised that the built-in flash on my F-80 was the one weak spot on this otherwise excellent body and so rapidly acquired a decent flashgun. At the time, the SB-28 was beyond my means, so I bought a clone (Sigma EF-500 DG ST) and have been extremely happy with it ever since. It won't do rear-curtain flash, but that isn't an issue for me! I have no doubt that the SB-28 (or any dedicated unit which works with your body and has a decent guide number) would be an excellent choice. I've done a fair bit of outside-the-envelope stuff with my Sigma (including photos under very adverse lighting conditions which I never expected to work and for which a digital back would have been the best solution) and never had any problems which I couldn't resolve by scanning the film and post-processing: most of these shots worked straight off, even when using slide film.

Peter.

 

[lens_hacker]

Also look at the 28~70. it is a very compact lens.

 

[Jeffrey S. Winn]

Thanks everyone for the good information.

The 28-70 seems interesting, but I wonder if I will then wish we had the longer range of the 28-105. My thinking right now is that the 28-105 or the 35-105 will be a better fit for what I want in this Nikon System.

I'm sure that there are many primes out there that are excelent, but my focus here is for a usable system that produces good results. I guess this is driving the decision process.

Jeff

 

[John Koehrer]

The 28-105 is one of the best values around for the Nikon system. It'll focus down to about 1:2, Is relatively light & compact.
The 24-120 is nice but has a tendency to loosen up & "droop" over time.

 

[Jeffrey S. Winn]

Thanks for all of the help.

I've ordered the Nikon 28-105 lens for my camera. I think that this lens should provide me with the reach needed, and good quality as well. I've also ordered the SB28 flash. I didn't get any replies on this flash, but as far as I can tell it should work well.

Thanks again. I'll post again when I've used the lens and flash.

Jeff

 

[Jeffrey S. Winn]

The nikon 28-105 lens and the SB-28 arrived today. I'm in the process of running some film through the camera.

Two first impressions. First off the lens is a lot larger then I thought it would be. It isn't overly large, but just larger then I thought. Secondly, the SB-28 is smaller then I was expecting. I have a Canon 299T that is much larger in size, and I was expecting the SB-28 to be about the same size.

So far so good! Thanks again everyone for all of the help.

Jeff