Why Buy a Manual Focus Nikon Camera ?
This is a question most people who are beginning a hobby in photography might ask themselves. The "brand wars" among advocates of various photography systems seems to rage interminably across the ether of the World Wide Web. Arguments on all sides are biased by personal decisions the proponents have made for themselves. Let's take a look at it.
If you ask someone "What is the most important thing to you when you think about taking pictures." Most will answer "The quality of my pictures. I want the best quality picture I can get." Suppose you handed an accomplished photographer an adaptable box, placed them in front of an interesting subject, provided 6 rolls of identical film and then laid out six different camera lenses by six different manufacturers. Suppose you instructed the photographer to take the same pictures, using the same camera (box) settings for each roll of film but told them to change lenses on the box for each roll. If there was a difference in the quality of the pictures at the end of the day, then clearly you would believe the lens made the difference. This is true in real life as well. At the basic level, a camera is nothing more than a box which holds the film and provides a place to mount a lens - at a higher level, the camera can furnish functionality that makes the picture-taking process easier an d more rewarding. Even proponents of competing photography systems will concede that Nikon has the most complete and comprehensive line of lenses.
What does this mean to you? After all, the odds are you are probably not a professional photographer. It means that if you buy into the Nikon photography system, you are buying into the most comprehensive photography system available. It means that if you stick with the hobby and at some time decide to upgrade your system, you won't have to trade in your existing equipment because it is obsolete. It means there is a larger pool of new and used lenses out there for Nikon than for any other manufacturer, and used translates to cost savings. The trick then is to find a camera that will allow you to take advantage of this lens stockpile.
Manual focus Nikon cameras will let you take advantage of more OEM and after-market lenses than any other body style. To see what bodies (both MF and AF) take what lenses, click here.
If you need help determining what type a lens is, this tutorial on Nikon lens nomenclature may help.
A few words on teleconverters and a lens angle chart may also help.
Going Macro ? Need to know what focusing screen/lens combinations work ?
Doing some DOF or other photography calculations ?
Then you can worry about buying a Nikon Speedlight
The lens you buy new today will fit the camera you bought in 1962 if you bought a Nikon.
After market lenses are made to fit various camera bodies. Sigma, Tamron and Tokina are perhaps the best known of these and probably sell more lenses than any other such firms. What can you expect from these lenses in the line of quality? The answer is that some lenses from these firms offer good quality for the money and they also offer some bad quality lenses - the same is true for Nikon to a lesser degree. So how do you separate the wheat from the chaff? Use the information available to you - check out the lens test sites. No one should be discouraged from buying a third party lens for their camera simply because of the name on the lens, it just takes care in selection. The point here is risk - you can lower your risk by doing your homework, by investigating your purchase carefully, and by weighing consequence vs. benefit.
Why buy Nikon ? Your pictures and your pocketbook demand it.