Shel B

I have just moved up to full frame photography. I purchased a Nikon d700. Yes, I know it's old but only has about 41,000 shots on it. I bought some older lenses for it and so far I like the results. These are older AE lenses with no auto focus...which is fine with me. I shoot mostly landscapes. We will be leaving shortly to photograph the Oregon coast, Death Valley, and Arizona sunsets. The lenses I have are all fixed focal length...28mm, 50mm, and 135mm...not much originality there. Question: Is there a really good quality zoom that I should look at. Seems to me, I have it covered but just wondering what you guys think. I'm not looking to bust the bank buying a zoom.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

I'm sure you'll get many suggestions. But for full frame those three are the "essentials". The first three lenses I bought for my Pentax KM (film) camera starting in 1978 were 50mm, 28mm, 135mm.

If you would like to stick to using vintage Nikkor lenses, that sounds great. You might add a 85mm and 20mm or 24mm to your set. I use a mixture of "digital" and "film" lenses for my Pentax digitals. Wish I could afford a full frame K-1, perhaps used someday. Did you mean AI lenses in your original post? Death Valley is amazing, but one would need many days to cover it adequately. Have fun.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Shel, the D700 is a great camera. I've been using one since 2010. I also use a D800e. Depending on the primary subjects you wish to photograph, I'd suggest a 20mm f/2.8 for landscape and a 70~200 or 70~300 for sports, etc.
--Bob

Mark Loc: SC

I have the D800 and the 70-300mm is my go to lens. It's a must have for me

JPL

Of course there are many zoom lenses you could get without high spending.
One that I like very much and often use on a D600 camera is the old 28-80 G lens. This one here http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/28-80mm-g.htm
It is plastic and lightweight, costs very little, you can probably get it for around $50. It focuses fast and is very sharp. I highly recommend it. Only thing to keep in mind is not to slam it into walls or drop it on the floor. This is the perfect bargain lens because it is as good as any brand new lens, only important difference beeing the price. This is a perfect lens to keep on the camera when you play tourist. Even better if you can find the 28-200 version.
Check Ebay.

And by the way, congrats on your D700. It is a great camera. !!

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

I have an old 60mm Macro Nikor that I love for landscape work. When I am driving or walking around an area and spot a scene that I would like to photograph, I find that a lens that is slightly longer that normal for the format in use will yield the perspective exactly as the eye sees it. The macro feature is also handy for detail shots of flowers, insects and other small objects along the way. Of course, there is nothing wrong with a 50mm lens or the different fields of view and perspectives of wide angle and telephoto lenses but for classical landscape work, I like that 60. There is a current model of this lens that will fully integrate with your camera's auto focus and metering system or you may find one of the older ones, on the used market, that you can use as you do with you other older lenses. My older lens is designed with the front element recessed well into the outer barrel- it's like having a super efficient lens shade and this makes for less potential flare and better contrast. It is surprisingly sharp at both closeup and far working distances for a lens of that age. I imagine the new ones are even better. I use it on an old D-700 that I held onto for use with that lens and a perspective control shift model that I find useful for architectural work.

If you opt for a zoom lens, you can select any of the intermediate focal lengths including 60mm and it can serve as a backup lens when you are traveling.

Enjoy your adventure!

PixelStan77 Loc: Vermont/Chicago

Shel, I would stick with what you got which are great prime lenses.

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

Here's another opinion: The Nikon 28-300 is what I used when in Death Valley for most of my landscape shots with a D810. I just hate changing lenses in extremely dusty conditions like DV. Last March, most of my images took a long time with the spot removal tool in Lightroom to remove the dust on the surface of the lens.

Depending on the weather, go to the Badwater lake access, and walk out 3 miles into the salt. It's otherworldly. And, for Star Wars (A New Hope) fans the following locations:

Dante's View is where Obi Wan warned Luke about the Mos Isley spaceport.
Slot Canyon is where R2D2 was captured by the Jawas
Mesquite Dunes is where the 2 Droids landed in the escape pod.

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

Agree. No need to get the zooms.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

You can get a great deal on a used 80-200 F2.8 - typically around $500. It is still in production.

For broad sweeping landscapes I prefer to do pano stitching, which I can shoot with a tripod or not, depending on what other "stuff" I am carrying. If I am in close quarters, I will use a wider lens, but looking at my Lightroom catalog, I seldom use lenses wider than 45mm for pano. Wide lenses are prone to extension distortion - where distant objects look as they are in the next state over, and closer objects are magnified unnaturally, dominating the composition. This is ok for some images, but I think it is a bit of a cliché these days.

Here are some recent samples the first one taken with a 45mm (15 shots), the next two taken with a 150mm lens (3 shots each). With these last two images, if I wanted a wider view, I would have taken another shot or two, but the composition would not have been improved.

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jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

The 28-700mm is a nice lens at a reasonable price.

ELNikkor

The reason to get a zoom is so you are not artistically hindered at getting the exact focal length suited to the scene. The added benefits are so you don't have to change lenses all the time you see a new scene, want another perspective on the same scene, or do a lot of cropping in post. That said, the 24-120 would cover the 3 lenses you've got now. The 28-300 would be larger, but could also satisfy the longer end of any composition you need.

Pegasus Loc: Texas Gulf Coast

That's one heck of a lens.

Do you not have a link to it?

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

If I was going to be doing what you will be doing, I would be looking hard at a Sigma 24-35mm f2.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

For many years while shooting film (i.e. "full frame", same as your D700) I carried:

20 or 21mm
24mm
35mm
85mm or 90mm (macro)
135mm
300mm with 1.5X teleconverter.

Those pretty much did everything I needed from landscape to wildlife to sports to portraiture and macro.

Personal preference... I'm just not a fan of 28mm or 50mm on full frame/film. (But I like and use both on APS-C crop cameras.)