Hello, I'm a new member, I hope I'm writing this correctly, as i am new to
this sort of thing! being now a Senior citizen,  always had a camera, will
be for about 40 yrs, and always Nikon, went into digital 4yrs ago with the
D70, have recently got the D80, with good results from both, the latter being even better and in seeing the screen and viewfinder.
Have mainly used Sigma lens, did try the nikon 24-120, not very sharp, colour rendition ok, next the nikon 18-200vr, well, it would'nt work at 18
mm on the D70, the auto focus that is, it was very very soft at all F stops
and focal lengths, zoom creep was a real pain, very heavy,  vr worked
ok,  colour rendition was poor, in fact not much I can say good about it.
Have been using the Sigma 18-200 non os for a while, is quite good,
and fairly sharp, have got other Sigma lenses, which are very good.
Recently tried the Sigma 17-70, not as sharp as i thought it should be,was very surprised when I tried the Nikon 18-70 and the 18-135 both
produced very good results, accross the full range, so I'm considering
1 of them. My nikon film cameras I used to use have alway been good
and reliable, so has the D70&80, as I have taken many pics since getting them, my main interest is taking steam trains, and have had some published. I hope my comments are helpful to someone.  
Jim Barr.

Hi Jim and welcome.

I have the 24-120mm lens and find it pretty good, also have the 18-70mm which was the kit lens with the D70 and always found that very sharp. I'm surprised at the Nikon 18-200mm VR, as all one here who use it say it's great, and it was also in short supply for many month due to the hugh demand. Was going to but this lens but choose the 70-200mm VR instead.

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SK
The Best Photographer in the world 4th November - 5th November 2006 & 17th-18 November 2007
Oldboy’s Gallery

I have a few Nikon bits for sale you might be interested in. All mint as new (less than 12 months old)

18-135mm   £135.00
50mm F1.8 £55.00
SB-400 Flashgun £60.00
I-TTL Cord for above (Jessops) £12.00


All of the above would suit your D80 perfectly, if you're on the south coast you are welcome to have a fiddle with them.

I'm rationalising my kit, I have a Sigma 18-50 F2.8 and a 55-200VR that I use on my D300 and the other bits are sitting dormant so I thought I'd get rid of them, buy an SB-600 and upgrade the PC

I'll put them in the classifieds on here when I get back off hols if they don't go.

Hello, and thanks for the offer of the lens etc, would like to go
for the nikon sb800 flash sometime

Jim Barr.

Hello Oldboy, May I say I think you made a good choice going for the 70-300.

Jim Barr.

Jim Barr:

Hello Oldboy, May I say I think you made a good choice going for the 70-300.

Jim Barr.

No, it was the 70-200mm 2.8 VR. I do have the old 70-300mm that was rubbished in reviews, but found to be a pretty good lens.

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SK
The Best Photographer in the world 4th November - 5th November 2006 & 17th-18 November 2007
Oldboy’s Gallery

Hello Old boy and friends,  Put the nikon 18-135 throught the
newspaper test, failed miserably, not as sharp as my Sigma 18-200, under the same conditions, maybe I got a poor copy,
anyhow it's going back tomorrow, goes back to my original
contention of nikon lenses not very good.
hope you have better luck than me.  I do the tests with the camera
on a tripod, a very heavy one.
Jim Barr.
 

That's very odd Jim.
 The 18-135 pretty much sells on it's sharpness, my copy at 50mm is as sharp at all apertures as my 50mm F1.8, the only slight fall off happens at the very edges at the focal extremes, even then stopping down a notch sorts it out.

 I'd try again if I were you, you must have a bad copy, 18-135 with that sharpness at that weight is a very useful lens.

Hello Stinkyfinger, I think you maybe right perhaps
the 18-135 was a bad one, I also took some shots of groups of 4-5 people, at 18mm  the centre person was resonably sharp I think i was set at F8, the ones to the
left and right were badly out of focus, as I moved further back and increased the focal length the image
improved a little, but fall off from centre was very clear to see.  I must say I'm very reluctant to try  anymore nikon lens, to my mind their  quality control
must be at rock bottom.   Jim Barr.

I don't think that you can rubbish Nikons quality control based on the fact that you believe that you have a bad lens.

Anyway, any chance that you could change the text size of your posts to 3 as it is rather large for those of us using smaller laptop screens

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Hi Jim,
Welcome to the community!

Could I suggest that you keep your post font to the default size - it can be a little dominating otherwise. If you're changing it so that you can see it more easily when writing, then you can always change it back once you've written your post.

Thanks!

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James De Vile
digitalcameramagazine.co.uk
Future Publishing

Hello all, sorry about the text size, hope I'll be forgiven as I'm new to all this, will keep
it at size 3.  Jim Barr.

Hello folks,  Been reading with interest comments regarding  the nikon sb800 speed light, I have been using the old
Metz with the battery pack one carries over ones shoulder, terrific flash. but rather cumbersome, if I used the SB800
on my D80, does it calculate for bounce flash as I always use that method to avoid red eye and harsh shadows,
if anyone has experience of the sb800 in that sort of use, would they be kind enough to tell me how they get along
with it, and what sort of range in distance it works well in.
all the best, Jim Barr.

G'day JD, this might sound silly, but would you be so kind as to email me direct and tell me how to find if I have a reply
to a letter that I have posted to the site.                                  my email is
jimbarr@dsl.pipex.com 

Many thanks in anticipation.  

Hello Martin, thought I would let you know I have just done a test with  a nikon 18-70 lens, once again camera on
heavy tripod, subect newspaper glued to heavy board, all focal lenghts and apertures, end result, not as sharp as my
sigma 18-200 non os, colour representation not as accurate on some colours as the sigma, sorry,  once again nikon
lens has failed,, camera body excellent, can't praise that enough,  very dissapointed up to now with nikon lenses.
Jim Barr.