Nikon D610 lens suggestions

I recently upgraded to a Nikon D610 and have been using my legacy Nikkor glass which is all AIs and in mint condition. So far the results have been excellent but I would like at least one FX zoom designed for a modern digital like the D610. I have read the DxOMark reports on the lenses tested for the D610 but wold like some hands on users to help me.

I have been a member here since 2011 but mostly lurk. I am very active on RFF with the same screen name.

Thanks!!

Ray

What focal range zoom are you looking for? And for what purpose?

I use a D800E, but lenses that work well on that should work well on the D610. I have the 24-85 kit lens (picked up for cheap). It's not a great lens, but it works OK for a general purpose travel lens. My only other zoom is the 16-35mm f/4. I was surprised when I got this lens at how much I actually liked it. I intended to use it mostly as a landscape lens, frequently stopped down to f/5.6 to f/11. However I find I use it a lot as a walk around lens too. The VR is nice, and the slow speed doesn't get in the way as much as i would have thought. It's also nice and sharp and covers a very useful range, even if there's a lot of distortion at the wider end.

The only other zoom that interests me is the 70-200 f/4. I had the first generation 70-200 f/2.8 and it was great on a DX camera for sports, but it's much less good on FX. And it's too large for my uses to carry all the time. The new f/4 version looks like a good compromise.

Surprisingly a lot of the old AI and AIs glass still works very well. I really like the 200mm f/4 for the small size and decent quality.

ray*j*gun said:

I recently upgraded to a Nikon D610 and have been using my legacy Nikkor glass which is all AIs and in mint condition. So far the results have been excellent but I would like at least one FX zoom designed for a modern digital like the D610. I have read the DxOMark reports on the lenses tested for the D610 but wold like some hands on users to help me.

I have been a member here since 2011 but mostly lurk. I am very active on RFF with the same screen name.

Thanks!!

Ray

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I use an old cheap and light-weight35-70mmzoom lens. I like it because,it's small and light.it's optical quality sucks, but if you keep it at f/8-11 it is more than acceptable.It costs me only $100 in the mid 1980sOf course a 36 Mpixel camera shows all lens quality limits

Thank you for the replies...... I have been pleasantly surprised at the performance of my legacy lenses on the D610. I was thinking about a "walk around lens" so I should have specified the 24-85 range as a good target but I didn't want to suppress comments. I actually have an old 24-85 from my old N6006 that was/is a plastic bodied number and that even looks good...anyway looking for something that is a sort of home run, auto-focus given that DXOmark had id'ed the "best for this camera".

ray*j*gun said:

Thank you for the replies...... I have been pleasantly surprised at the performance of my legacy lenses on the D610. I was thinking about a "walk around lens" so I should have specified the 24-85 range as a good target but I didn't want to suppress comments. I actually have an old 24-85 from my old N6006 that was/is a plastic bodied number and that even looks good...anyway looking for something that is a sort of home run, auto-focus given that DXOmark had id'ed the "best for this camera".

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I think for lenses in the 24-85mm range you are looking at either large and fast or slow and smaller (but not small). The 24-70mm f/2.8 AFS looks like the best optically, but it's large, expensive, lacks VR and probably doesn't make for a good "walk around lens". That's why I haven't bought one. I got the smaller 24-85 that was bundled with the D600. Picked it up for $300 (unused), so it was cheap enough. It's also small enough that I can use it as a walk around lens if I only want to take one lens and think I'll want wide and tele ends of the zoom range. However if you pixel peep it's obvious it's not up to the quality of good prime lenses in that range, and probably the 24-70 which I haven't used. For what I paid for it I'm very happy, even if I rarely use it.

Your best bet is to look at DXO mark to get a rough idea on the lenses out there and then search flicker or smugmug for as many shots taken with them as possible. My guess is you can make excellent photos with any of them. In your shoes I would probably just keep the old 24-85mm you already own.

Thanks Larry! I think I will take your advice with a twist. I am going to order a prime 50mm per DXO Mark so I have autofocus and just use my old 24-85 from the N6006 package. In combo with my legacy lenses (of which I have many) I should have all the glass power I will need. I am not a pixel peep although I do favor sharp with high contrast so the new 50mm prime will get a work out.

Again Thanks.

Ray

that makes sense.I never liked Nikkor zooms much.asmall set of good legacyprimes(24,50,85)@f/8gives you much better quality.you have to change lensesbutthat's why I wanted aDSLR in the first place.otherwise,I would have gotten a range-finder

Yep.... exactly ...thanks Ralp

ray*j*gun said:

I recently upgraded to a Nikon D610 and have been using my legacy Nikkor glass which is all AIs and in mint condition. So far the results have been excellent but I would like at least one FX zoom designed for a modern digital like the D610. I have read the DxOMark reports on the lenses tested for the D610 but wold like some hands on users to help me.

I have been a member here since 2011 but mostly lurk. I am very active on RFF with the same screen name.

Thanks!!

Ray

Click to expand...

I suggest to take a look at Ken Rockwell's site.I always got great advise from reading his advise and he certainly knows what the best Nikkorlenses are.

ray*j*gun said:

I recently upgraded to a Nikon D610 and have been using my legacy Nikkor glass which is all AIs and in mint condition. So far the results have been excellent but I would like at least one FX zoom designed for a modern digital like the D610. I have read the DxOMark reports on the lenses tested for the D610 but wold like some hands on users to help me.

I have been a member here since 2011 but mostly lurk. I am very active on RFF with the same screen name.

Thanks!!

Ray

Click to expand...

Hi Ray, I'm not a big fan of Nikon zooms and have only gotten mediocre results so far.the best zoom I use on my D800 is my 24-85mm if set to f/8.