Nikon D3000 new all purpose lens required

[B'stard Child]

Have had a 18 - 70 lens AFS - DX for a long time as a general purpose lens - It's not happy and it's hit and miss if it's going to allow the camera to take a picture.

I initially thought it was the camera but I've tried all my other lenses (Original kit lenses 18 - 55 & 55 - 200 zoom, a longer 70 - 300 zoom and my 35 Prime all work perfectly) so I'm pretty sure it's the lens that is unhappy.

Having finished the holiday using the std kit lens I'm not as happy with my pictures taken after the 18 - 70 lens started giving me issues and I swaped to the original 18 - 55 kit lens

Seem to be quite a range of other AS-F DX lenses out there from 18 to 70, 105, 140 and up

Any recommendations?

Do I just

Replace like for like? (on the grounds that I've never felt limited by the lens - it doesn't make the camera feel too heavy and I've always been happy with it)

Or

Replace with one with a little more reach hoping the weight isn't going to increase too much?

Edited by B'stard Child on Monday 10th June 20:14

[B'stard Child]

GravelBen said:

I've had good results from the 18-140 as an all-rounder, a noticeable improvement over the 18-105 I had before it (and the 18-70 before that) and not too heavy/bulky.

Thank you - interesting that you been thro three progressively and found the larger zooms better for you.

I only bought the 18 - 70 because I bought the 70 - 300 to get tighter motorsports shots

Original kit lenses were 18 - 55 and 55 - 200 (seemed logical before I bought the prime to have no overlap)

[B'stard Child]

wildoliver said:

To be honest and it's not answering your question, I'd upgrade the body. It's a pretty old digital camera now the 3000, and old digital cameras don't age like old film cameras, we always thought of a film body as the box that held the lens, but a digital body has the brains that deal with how well the picture turns out on automatic modes, autofocusing and of course the "film" the sensor. I'd say from your comment of not being as happy with the pictures from your other lenses as you were from this one, the quality lift you will see from a body upgrade will make you very happy at minimal cost.

I got the D3000 "pre-owned" from another PH'r craigb84 at a great price back in 2012 after my previous DSLR (D40 which I got in 2006) was stolen

(I had some lenses already so made sense to stay with a DX format)

So bearing that in mind it's probably 14 years old

wildoliver said:

I suppose the main question though is why weren't you as happy with the pics from the other lenses? Because the 35 in particular is a lovely lens, the 18-55 is a bit meh, but could it be that you found you were missing the range and ability to get your composition rather than quality?

I buggered my leg up on holiday - if I'd been a bit more mobile I'd have slapped the prime on and got loads of exercise but as I was struggling I used the original kit 18 - 55 lens - And yes it's meh - I did miss the range but the quality of the photos just aren't as good as I would have expected from my 18 - 70

wildoliver said:

My go to camera for years now has been a d7100 with a 35mm lens on it. It's taken thousands of pictures for books and some general interest pics, I have lots of other lenses but genuinely enjoy the fast prime lens and just move closer or further away to set the shot up, only time I miss a zoom is the rare occasion I can't get closer, but for what I shoot it's not a problem in general. If it were I'd probably just buy a long Tele and a serious wide angle.

<snip>

Just musings.

Appreciate the musings - only time I use the DSLR is for motorsport, car shows or holidays (always cities rather than beaches) I have a pocket sized Nikon compact for everyday use

[B'stard Child]

GravelBen said:

<snip> An 18-140 and 70-300VR combo would be hard to beat for zoom lens performance on a budget, I find having overlap between zoom ranges is actually very useful as you often don't want to be stopping and swapping lenses all the time.

Sorry to snip this down but one point of interest (slightly OT) but I never use the VR function on any lenses I have - I found it really slowed down the rate of shots on burst function when taking motorsport pictures and I’ve never seen any benefit using it in other scenarios - I may be wrong in doing this??

[B'stard Child]

spookly said:

For all rounders on DX DSLR over time I had the 18-140, 18-200 and 18-300.
All comparable, but get more expensive and slightly larger with longer range.

All good lenses for general walkabout without lens swapping.

Thank you

[B'stard Child]

Simpo Two said:

B'stard Child said:

GravelBen said:

<snip> An 18-140 and 70-300VR combo would be hard to beat for zoom lens performance on a budget, I find having overlap between zoom ranges is actually very useful as you often don't want to be stopping and swapping lenses all the time.

Sorry to snip this down but one point of interest (slightly OT) but I never use the VR function on any lenses I have - I found it really slowed down the rate of shots on burst function when taking motorsport pictures and I’ve never seen any benefit using it in other scenarios - I may be wrong in doing this??

I didn't know VR slowed down fps - not sure why it would.

But if you're taking motorsport - which I assume is lots of panning, you don't need VR anyway. VR is for when you want to reduce camera movement - particularly useful on long lenses. For example when you can't get a fast enough shutter speed when the aperture and ISO are as far as you want them.

My two main lenses are 17-55mm f2.8 - which I got for weddings but it's now my default lens - and the 70-300VR (on a DX sensor)

I could be completely wrong but it's what I experienced and I've never used it since - next time I'm at Snet I'll have another play with it when I'm not panning

[B'stard Child]

To round this up - I hadn't actually realised how old my D3000 is (knocking on the door of 15 years old) Whilst it would be nice to upgrade the body for a newer version I'm really quite fond of my D3000 and I'm in the "it does everything I want and I don't feel I need newer - yet" camp (I did however get a bit of bonus at work earlier in the year that I've tucked away - I had briefly considered putting it towards a full frame DSLR but ruled it out as a frivolous expense and I'd need to replace at least 3 of my lenses. Maybe I should consider another cropped sensor DSLR so that I don't have the expense of new lenses?

On the buggered lens topic I've found a used 18 - 140 lens on the internet in stated as new condition and it should be with me in a few days

I look forward to trying it out and hopefully finding it ticks all my boxes and doesn't make the camera much heavier.

Thank you all who contributed - much appreciated

[B'stard Child]

Oh and for the first time since I got the camera I've checked the shutter count 58,126

Shutter count when I got it was under 2,000