dSLR questions...Barton and any other photographers, please help me.

Tom

the D 70s is a great choice. If you already have a aF Quantray stick with it but go for the 18-35 (i have the 17-35, 12-24, 28-100, 80-200, 300, 600 (all 2.8's)) the 18-35 is a great lens that gives lots of flexability. down the road look around and you can find a good lens like the 80-400 or 80-200 at a reseller in good shape.

The D is solid *Get the wireless remote release too* as the camera does not have a conventional cable release.

Haave Fun

 

First of all, I am not a huge fan of Quantaray, and think you should go for nikkor. The two lenses you talk about are pretty different, the 18-70 will give you wide angel/portraiture abilities, the other has the standard focal length as a starting point, up to 200, which is not really much of a telephoto. If you're comfortable getting close to people, get the first ine. If you plan to be somewhat more distant from your subjects, get the second.

My 2 cents worth. Good luck with the new equipment

 

Ok
If option 3 is do a ble do it

 

Agree

 

Congrats..........

I went the Canon 20D route, but I suggest getting the best quality fastest lenses you can afford.

 

Echoing the others, the D70s is a good choice. Aside from agreeing that you should get the best lenses that fit within your budget (hence lose the Quantaray), I'd suggest that since you shoot everything from landscapes to cars, that you look at a lens system that goes from wider to short telephoto. If by cars you mean racing, rather than concourse, then you'll need long telephoto but also fast aperture to be really satisfied (and/or be really good at panning) and those probably won't fit within your budget.

Your 35-80 will increase to an effective 52-120. The 18-70DX will be an effective 27-105, which makes a nice general purpose lens and could complement the 35-80, but the overlap is large, so you might want something wider at the bottom and more mid-focal length at the top. Also all the lenses you mentioned are f3.5 to f4.0 which is OK for general use, but you might think about about a 60 f2.8 macro as a faster/close lens of commendable sharpness. Another suggestion is to get the pro-grade 20-35 f2.8 used (these are great deals since the 17-35 f2.8 AFS replaced them). This would complement your 35-80 but get you something wider, faster and known high quality. Nikon glass will be best and have most resale, but Tamron & Sigma are doing pretty good stuff too these days.

 

I've had a D70 for about a year - and I LOVE it. DSLR is absolutely the way to go. I have the kit lens, and it's fantastic. I had a 70-300 nikon lens that I also use, but it's nowhere near as good as the newer lenses. I'm no lens expert, but I just thought I'd put my approval in for the D70s!!

 

I shoot Canon gear so I can't add much to the specifics on the Nikon stuff, but in general I can say that with a dSLR you will very easily notice shortcomings of the lenses that you do not notice with film. I had some lenses on my EOS Elan that I thought were great but I no longer like on my 20D. I notice flaws I didnt notice before, abberation, corner sharpness, etc, etc.

If I were restricted on a Canon camera on what I was going to spend, I would go with a high-quality wider lens (maybe something like the Canon 24-70) and match it with a 1.4x converter. With the 1.6x crop of my 20D, I would have 38-155 range with exceptional quality. I'm sure there is a similar high-quality Nikon lens that can give you good range and good quality for a reasonable price.