Nikon D40

[OBXarcher]

I have settled on a Nikon D40.

What lenses should I get that will allow me to take reasonable good pictures of deer out to 200 Yds.

Thanks

Mark

[LarryS]

THE 85-300 WITH  IMAGE STABLEIZER

[canshooter]

I have found that the 18-200 covers 98% of anything I want to shoot.

[Grant Sutherland]

Another route is to go with a 70-200 and a 1.4 teleconverter.

The 70-200 (get the VR) will allow you to do portraits, sight seeing photographs and the teleconverter will get you out to that range without losing too many stops.

If you get the 2.8 lens, you'll be at or better than the 85-300.  Plus, the 2.8 is throughout so you'll always have a fast lens.

Once you have the teleconverter, you can put it on  anything making it more useful.

Good luck

[flyboy61]

The D40 is a fine camera.  If you want light weight, the 55-200mm VR zoom will be very helpful. The 18-55mm VR lens will fill the spectrum of focal length needs. Both are good lenses!

Now:  although the 1.4X 'converter is a marvel, the above lenses' max. apertures  may make it slow to focus.  My camera manual says that, and I found that when I put "The Iron Duke", my 70-210 mm f/4-5.6 zoom on an extension tube.

If you can haul heavy around with you, the 80-200 f/2.8 VR is a beautiful lens. And it is expen$ive... about $2,300  If you have the budget, go for it! You wil probably be using it when 3 or 4 bodies have passed on. My 70-210 has outlasted 3 Nikon bodies!

For any critter at 200 yards, you will need more powah! A 200 mm lens gives only 4X magnification, so the image size will  look like it is at 50 yds. A 400 mm is 8X.

As in all things, get closer.(You're a bowhunter, right?) Unless you can afford the 3rd party "Big Guns" that start at ~ $1,5,000, they are good, but like anything bring a set of their own problems.  But, my buddy uses his 100-500 Sigma when we photograph racing cars at our local track, and he had  a real learning curve, but now does really well. I find my 200...300mm equivalent a little short about 10% of the time.

The alternative: visit places where the animals are habituated to people, so they will be closer.

Good luck. Photography is a magical pastime;
 have fun at it!
Woops! I shoulda read the post date. Oh well...

[Woodduck]

they quit making the D40 but I saw a deal on a lightly used one...thanks.(so many choices)

[jeff w]

200 yards is a long distance to photograph just about anything--you are shooting through alot of air-which contains dust and moisture.   You will probably find that to get good shots you will have to close the distance.

A couple other lenses you may be interested in: the Nikon 70-300 with vibration-reduction, it generally gets very high marks and is considered a very good buy for the money.   The other is the Nikon 80-400.  It also has VR, although an earlier version of it, gives you slightly more reach and is more expensive.