The Learning Curve ?

Thank you for that input Jur & John (sounds like a double act) haha, will pop down the road at the soonest, assuming they have one, will play with it ?
Nice thing about warehouse express being local, can take my camera, borrow some of their demo lens, pop out, take a few shots, save them in camera and play on the pc with the results ! how nice is that ? keith.

I have an AFS 70-300mm VR and for the price it churns out some brilliant sharp pics, I second the recommendation.

John.

Keith,

For your D40x I would advise to really consider the Nikkor AFS 70-300mm f 4.5-5.6VR, which has received very good reviews. It is much better in every aspect than the Nikkor 55-200 and also has better “reach” for ground-to-air shots. I would steer away from the 18-200 zooms, which are too much of a compromise.

Thanks for your reply JUR, yes I can just understand this difference, thats the reason I would like an oppinion on the newer, all AF-S lenses, I will patiently await results ………. Keith.

Recently purchased, in Dubai, a Nikon D40X complete with all the bits and pieces necessary to get going, this kit included the standard lens “18 – 55 f 1.35 – 5.6 G11 AF-S ED” plus apparently “thrown in” free, a lens “70 – 300 1:4 – 5.6G” this later lens I understand is manual focus only, the standard lens has the SWM motor built in, therefore autofocus.

Keith,
Congratulations on your Nikon D40x kit. However your “free” Nikkor 70 – 300 1:4 – 5.6G in principle is an autofocus lens and not a manual one. The difference with the newer Nikkor AFS 70-300VR is that your lens doesn’t have a SWM (AFS) on board and therefore is “screwdriver autofocus” only on most Nikon bodies. This kind of autofocus is slower than the AFS variety. However, as the D40 and D40x only support AFS autofocus, with your specific camera you need to focus manually. But if you would put this lens on another Nikon body, like D50, D70(s), D100, D80, etc. you would be able to use autofocus.

Incoming !!! Wow, yes that worked, would like to place them across the page, but that can wait for now.
My request is :- Recently purchased, in Dubai, a Nikon D40X complete with all the bits and pieces necessary to get going, this kit included the standard lens “18 – 55 f 1.35 – 5.6 G11 AF-S ED” plus apparently “thrown in” free, a
lens “70 – 300 1:4 – 5.6G” this later lens I understand is manual focus only,
the standard lens has the SWM motor built in, therefore autofocus.
So far I have played with the thing as “point and shoot” only (must stress this is my first digital and my first slr ! ).
This year I would like to shoot some flying aircraft etc, and am assuming I will need a better lens ? will also look forward to playing with all the other settings available to me ! and hopefully learn something ?
I have looked at the following :-
Nikon 55 – 200 f 4 – 5.6 AF-S VR DX. (£179)
Sigma 18 – 200 f 3.6 – 6.3 DC OS HSM (£299) recently launched
One advantage I have is the “express warehouse” is local, and they have a showroom where I can have a go !
Am I on completely the wrong tracks ? Your advice will be welcomed. Keith.

Keith, they do indeed work. And please… Bombard away! 🙂

Paul