You can buy a refurbished lens for about $200. If you wish you can buy a third party warranty through B&H or Adorama. The new lens is $396. The Walmart price has to be grey market or refurbished as Nikon USA controls the price. This lens while of good quality has to be considered a throw away at the refurbished price. Have you thought that you could buy two refurbished for the price of a new one. I would buy from B&H and Adorama both give excellent service. If you have a problem they will make it right.

It is possible to purchase an warranty through Adorama for multiple years. Choice is yours.

Exposure meters give the correct exposure for a scene of 18% reflectence. If you meter a black card, white card and a gray card (18%) and take a BW photo all the photos will be same shade of gray. To make the white card appear white then Plus EV (+3EV or so) would be used. To make black card appear black then minus EV would be used (-3 EV or so).

For regular photography photographing a snow scene would require + EV compensation to make the snow appear white. Photographing a black horse or some chunks of coal would require -EV compensation. Your camera is trying to make everything medium gray on average.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/134746128@N05/33078208792/

Check the link above. It looks like the new Tamron wins over the Nikor.

I am sure bobbyp wants to know about the following lens. Tamron 10-24mm f3.5-4.5 DI-II VC HLD Zoom Lens f/Canon Nikon DSLRs . This is a new lens. Last I looked the Cannon version is not yet available.
On youtube the Angry photographer says that this new lens is sharper than the Nikon. You decide if he is right, This appears to be the only at least semi technical review on the web at this time. The lenses mention by robert above are older lenses and the Nikon is better than them. The old sigma 10-20 f 4-5.6 would be cheap and is OK. I too would be very interested in a comparison of the Nikon to the new Tamron. Photos Please!!

looks like a bit of xn rated action. HI HI.

I use aperture priority quite often. It is essential for HDR and focus stacking. It is also necessary for controlling DOF or using the sweet spot of the lens. Shutter priority is used when shutter speed (either slow or fast) is absolutely essential.

I have a MeFoto Road trip that is only 12 in tall at minimum height. 61 in is the maximum. There are other smaller models also. The Road trip holds 17 lbs.

I use PSP X9 . It has some nice features not found in photo shop and visa versa. I like the simulation of old photo processes - Platinum printing etc. tritone and duotone for BW printing is not found in X9. Gradient fill is better in photoshop. Regular stuff is about the same.

You should use the camera that is appropriate for the task. I have taken nice photos with a pinhole in a box. Old fashioned roll film cameras can be fun too. They often take great photos. Point and shoot a rangefinder cameras are wonderful with high aperture lenses (f1.x). Use what works!

Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona Daoibh!

Color photography has been possible for a long time. There were many reasons to choose B&W however. The biggest reason is perhaps permanence. A well processed B&W negative stored carefully is said to last 500 years. Photographic processes that use dyes, color prints, slides and color negatives are FAR LESS permanent. The dyes decompose over time. Kodachrome and Agfachrome were the best dye based media. Giclee prints produced from digital sources are considered to be of archival. Giclee uses pigments and not dyes. Pigments are finely ground minerals similar to those used in oil paints. Technicolor used 3 B&W negatives photographed through R G and B filters. The Dye transfer process was use to make positive film prints. Dye transfer still photos are truly magnificent but expensive and time consuming to produce.

Early three color work can be viewed at http://mashable.com/2014/09/30/russian-revolution-in-color/

A search for Autochrome photos ( ~1900) will also be interesting.

Here are some thoughts after many years (40+) of computer use. The windows and MS-DOS operating have largely maintained software backward compatibility much like Nikon has done with the F mount. This has not been the case with macs. There is much more software available for windows. I have another hobby where Mac software is not available. 3rd party internal cards are available for PC's not for Macs. That's why laboratories do not have macs. I am a professor and my students have more problems with macs that PCs. This is enough of a problem where my institution does not provide service to macs. PCs are generally cheaper.

the question is really depth of field and perspective. If the magnification of the subject on the sensor is the same the depth of field is almost independent on lens focal length. Greater magnifications have less depth of field. A head shot on an 8 x 10 in camera is almost a 1:1 macro and as the magnification on the film is large depth of field is small. Lenses of different focal lengths should be used to change perspective. (Personal safety could be another reason). If one wishes the background to fall off quickly then choose wide angle. A great experiment is to take a portrait of a person with several focal lengths. In each of the photos the subjects head should be the same size on the sensor/viewfinder. Use one aperture . Background objects at different distances will also be helpful. On might choose 10mm, 20, 35mm, 70mm, 150mm and 300mm on a Dx camera. The subject to camera distance will vary considerably. You should find the depth of field to be the same but the perspective rather different.

Macro lenses, extension tubes , close up lenses all have their uses. I was never much for reversing lenses. I have used an enlarger lens on extension tubes a bellows with good success. Enlarger lenses have a Leica screw mount and there used to be adapters available.

Indeed Macro lenses, extension tubes and close up lenses can all be used at the same time to achieve higher magnification. Close-up lenses are an option for wide angle close ups. Macro lenses are usually very sharp and have a flat field suitable for copy work.

Read books on Macrophotography (there also some useful youtube videos) and just try different things a set ups.