Welcome. What part of NC? Several suggestions:
1. KEA, HTTP://www.keh.com/ sells good used stuff. You can get some nice lenses cheap and their stuff is typically rated honestly, i.e., don't hesitate to buy "bargain". 2. The expensive zooms are as good as the primes but they are expensive (hence the name) and heavy. My approach has been to buy cheaper zooms for snapshots and times when a zoom is convenient and then build up a collection of primes for when I have more time and want higher quality stuff. To be honest, I find the weight of the better zooms to be really annoying for walking around purposes. If you don't plan to enlarge bigger than 8x10 you'll be OK. With modern lenses, the biggest problems with cheaper zooms will be the slower speeds (3.5-5.6, typically) and some barrel or pincushion distortion. These aren't that noticeable unless you are shooting objects that make the distortion obvious, like buildings. They are also less sharp, especially in the corners, but this can be fixed by shooting at smaller apertures, f8. Of course, lenses do give a "look" to the pics and most of us on this list like the Pentax "look". An example of these less obvious properties is "bokeh" which is how the lens renders the out of focus part of the image. Nice bokeh is smooth and compliments the in-focus subject. 3. Get yourself a good support, i.e., tripod or monopod. This is more important for sharpness (for most people) than the lens quality. Get a good one, like Manfrotto, etc. These are pricey ($100-$200) so you might want to consider a good monopod instead. These are also easier to walk around with. Now sit back and enjoy as others on the list contradict what I just said ;-). Steven Desjardins Department of Chemistry Washington and Lee University Lexington, VA 24450 (540) 458-8873 FAX: (540) 458-8878 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
