sorry guys, this topic has been covered so many, many, many,...., many times. there is no difference between primes and zooms for d90, d3100, d5000, d3x, d3s or any other nikon camera on the market. please continue in one of the old topics.

Welcome.

I shoot D90. I have the 20mm f/2.8 and I love it. The AF is a hair slow but it's fairly sharp at f/2.8 and it's really good stopped down a little. I cannot speak to the 24mm f/2.8. I tried both the 35mm f/1.8G and f/2: I am by no means a pro photographer but I actually found the 1.8G to be slightly superior in sharpness and had better bokeh than the 2. That the 1.8G is also cheaper than the 2 is one of life's mysteries.

As to the zoom, I don't own one. I'm trying to build a primes collection (long sad story). But out of the ones I've tried in your price range, the 18-to-whatever seemed fine but I had more fun with the 28-300 and especially the 80-200. I fought some distortion at the top end of the 28-300 but I'm always ready to blame myself that I wasn't quite experienced enough to wield it just right, who knows. If you're willing to start a little higher, the 80-200 gave me great results and the ability to play at wider aperture really helped me. Take those two for a spin if you can before you buy, esp the 80-200.

I would say 35/1.8 is a good bet, as it is a great lens in many ways. Even if you get something else, you will probably end up with it one way or another.

As for zoom options, most of the 18-whatever lenses are reasonably good- you pay more for getting a longer zoom range mostly. The 16-85 is also another possibility, which some people say performs better than the 18-xxx lenses.

Welcome to NR briandunlea,

Here is your answer: 35mm1.8 is a must for all DX owners...so get it and be done with it. The next is the 18-200 VR II (make sure the VR is in Gold not Red color should you get it second hand).

Cheers....

Hi all. I've searched for the answer to my question. Got some good ideas but I'd still like some feedback if possible. I'll try to be as specific as possible.

I'm a musician and do a tiny bit of web design. I wanted to buy a good compact to make my own images for web so I bought a Fuji X10 to get me going. Now I've been totally bitten by photography and would like to take it a step further. I'll keep my X10 as it's easy to carry around everywhere and has helped me learn so much.

I'm going to buy a D7000. I'd like to get body only and buy 2 lenses, a prime and a zoom. I seem to like 28-36mm a lot. Over 50% of my shots are in this range.

I'd like to get a 20/24mm prime to do some street shots. Something small and light.

With that I'd like a versatile zoom. I don't need it to be super long but good quality would be nice.

My budget for both lenses would be about 1200euro aboslute tops......maybe a tad more ;)

Here's what I'm thinking about. A 24mm prime would give me about 36mm equivalent on a DX as far as I know. The 35mm might be a bit tight on a DX based on the pictures I've been taking.

What I'm looking at:

Prime:
Nikon 20mm AF f/2.8D
Nikon 24mm AF f/2.8D
Nikon 35mm AF f2D
Nikon 35mm AF-S DX f/1.8G

Zoom:
Nikon 18-55mm AF-S DX f/3.5-5.6G VR
Nikon 18-200mm AF-S DX f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II

You can see what I've been shooting here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/briandunlea/

I don't know if I'm on the right track here. Any suggestions or comments or links would be very welcome folks.

Cheers,
Brian.