Neilp Loc: Jersey, C.I.

I have just met up with a chap who has just been given by his wife a new D3100.

He is totally new to SLR's, and is still in the Green A+ mode all the time.

He was asking me about what lens he should buy for close up type work.

I mentioned to him first that he should get to grips with SLR photography first , and I will help him all I can.

Never having owned a Nikon or reviewed the specs for them and the lenses, I am not sure as to which of the Nikon range will be suitable for this small sensor camera.

I am off to a mainland second hand camera store later this week. I live on an island, and can't get off to this store very often, so want to go armed with as much info as I can. I know the store people will help, but want to have at least some idea of what will and will not be compatible.

They have an on line store too:
http://www.mifsuds.com/acatalog/Used_Nikon_AF_Lenses.html

and I see things like the following tagged on to the lens focal length and f stop
AFS DX VR (MK1)
DC
XR Di II (A14N)
AFS ED
EX DG HSM
Di VC USD

etc etc..

What should I be looking out for in the way of spec ..or more inportant what shoudl be avoided for the D3100?

http://imaging.nikon.com/lineup/dslr/d3100/compatibility02.htm

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

In Nikon lenses the one indicater he will NEED is "AF-S", that means it has the AF drive motor in the lens. In Sigma lenses he needs to buy the "HSM" version for the same reason. DX and FX (or DC and DG in Sigma) actually make no difference unless he plans to move up to a full frame body in the near future. DX 9or DC) are downsized lenses made for the DX bodies and will not work in full frame mode on FX bodies. FX (or DG) lenses will work fine on either body type. VR (or OS in Sigma) means that lens has built-in Vibration Control which is very nice to have in telephoto type lenses, but definitely adds to the lens cost. Some of your other notes involve Tokina and Tamron lenses which I stay away from due to lack of overall quality so I cannot speak of them.

Neilp Loc: Jersey, C.I.

Great , thanks.. That is exactly the info I needed

Thanks