djunited wrote
I got the 18-55mm kit lens and the 55-200mm lens, no VR though. I am also wanting to try out a prime that wont break the bank. I desperetly need a good laptop and lightroom as well. Any recommendations?
The software that comes with the camera will usually let you do the basics (exposure compensation, distortion correction, etc.). I have an Olympus camera and the software is OK but excruciatingly slow. I even considered buying a new laptop just for that! My main problem is that my laptop only has USB2 ports, and I save my photos on the external hard drive in Raw format - so USB2 is pretty slow. That and the software itself being very slow. Anyway I'm going to start saving Raw + JPEG directly on my camera, so that I have a JPEG version that I quickly use (for sharing or whatever) without going through the slow process of using the camera software every time I want to share a photo. So that might be a solution. I have also heard good things about the Nikon software.
I dont know what to recommend for the laptop. I've bought mine at $400 3-4 years ago (from Compuworld), it's an Acer laptop, and it's still doing OK, despite some limitations as the one I just mentioned. Anyway, what I meant is that good deals can be found, normally.
For the prime, I would've bought the 35mm. The 50mm is cheaper but with your sensor it would've been equivalent to 80mm (35mm equivalent) which is a bit narrow/tele. Great for portraits but to narrow for other situations. 35 would be more useful, I guess, but then it's up to you and your shooting style and what you want.
I also was looking at the Nikon 40mm Micro (macro lense). It can also be used as "normal" lense, but has macro on top, and really good optical quality, very sharp! It just would have a slower focus than the 35mm.
Another great lens is the sigma 18-35 f1.8 zoom. It's the only f1.8 zoom in the world, if I'm not mistaken. Sigma have also some other interesting lenses, and usually at good prices (for what they offer).
Anyway kit lenses are usually good, but with Nikon you have many options to buy "fast lenses" and make night photography or photos with very shallow depth of field.
I have also noticed that they sell Nikon and other cameras (and maybe lenses) at the Beirut airport departure lounge, and they have reasonable prices.
Nice car BTW :)