Right, ive decided to get a new lens for my camera. But dont really know what to get, whats others using ? or anyone on here into their cameras who can give some advice?

basicly im looking for something solely for shooting kitesurfing so will need to have a good zoom/focal length, it will need to be steady when shooting handheld at full zoom. also will probably go second hand as its only going to get full of sand.

anyone got a sigma 70-300 (nikon fit) ?

murray, help........

I am using the EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM on a Cannon 550d, You can use it hand held at full zoom as it has image stabilising you still get very crisp, clean shots. I think Nikon's equivalent lens is a VR class lens.
I had the Sigma 70-300 for about 2 or 3 years and got some great shots with it. It will struggle in low light at full zoom but stick it on a mono-pod/tripod and it will be OK.
If your after hand held then you need to go IS/VR lens but there not cheap as you probably already know.
The Sigma will be a 1/4 of the price or less than a IS/VR lens so makes a great budget lens.
Its a hard choice and I remember struggling to justify spending the extra money but i am very pleased I did the IS/VR lens are so much faster at focusing and work great in low light.
If you do get the Sigma I would invest in a good mono-pod, Ive had a few but the best by far is the Manfrotto its bomb prof and very light also makes a great club to keep large dogs at bay.

cheers murray, yeh will definatley be getting a monopod whatever lens I end up getting.

the sigmas 70-300 are going for about 70-80 quid on ebay so it seems a bit of a bargain and for that price I wont be bothered when it gets full of sand .
however Im going to be selling my sigma 105mm DG macro and they are going for 180-200 quid so whaterver I get for it I ca spend on my new lens, so potentially a 200 budget.........decisions decisions

The Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G VR Lens looks like a great buy £225 on amazon.
Alittle over budget but worth ever penny, its about the same spec as my lens and will be super sharp and very fast to focus.

Murray wrote:The Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G VR Lens looks like a great buy £225 on amazon.
Alittle over budget but worth ever penny, its about the same spec as my lens and will be super sharp and very fast to focus.

never saw that one, good buy.

what am I gaining/loosing by getting a 55 instead of a 70 ? apart from being able to shooting at 55

Nothing m8, I take it you will have a kit lens (18-55) so the 55-300 will match your kit lens well and the difference between 55-70 is very small.

But your camera will have a crop factor which will increase the focal length of the lens any way.
The way to work it out is the crop factor x the focal length = True focal length
So if your Camera has a crop factor of 1.6 as my 550d has you are paying for a 55-300mm lens but getting way more (88-480).

decision made , I think.......

found it for £200 delivered here
http://slrhut.co.uk/product/ID239C10/google

Nice one great price for that lens.

Murray wrote:Nice one great price for that lens.

looked on ebay and they are going for £200+ second hand, ebay is crazy sometimes. some people just like biding on ebay just because its ebay. Stupid!

came this morning

Nice one.
Just need some wind now to get some cracking shots of me doing a back loop kite loop face plant.