lwang wrote:Is this lens one of those cheepie lenses with all plastic parts? Does it at least have a metal bayonet mount?
this is indeed a cheapie plastic mount lens.
i own both the d90 and d7000, and have put 75,000 exposures on my d90, and about 35,000 on my d7000 (professional photographer, including weddings and events).
i do have this cheapie lens, but only because it came free with another lens that i ebayed a while back. my wife and I have shot probably 5k exposures with it, just to try it out.
it's actually a very good focal range for a "walkabout" lens, as you can get plenty wide enough to take scenic snaps, but also get nice tight headshot portraits, or even some decent "zoo animal" type shots. it's pretty slow on the telephoto end, but with the image stabilizer plus decent light, you'll be fine for most outdoor shots.
i've only used it once on a paid gig, and ended up getting almost zero keepers from that lens/camera setup. i changed it out after a couple hundred exposures though, so no real harm done.
the camera itself is fantastic. I've used basically every decent DSLR nikon has made, plus most of canon's at some point. after shooting for a few years on older gear, i shot with the d90 for about a year before going pro, and it's still one of my favorite cameras ever. the only reason I added the d7000 to my gigging kit is to have second body (two different bodies with two different range or types of lenses, so you can switch quickly).
I still use the d90 as my primary for shots that absolutely positively HAVE to work, because I simply trust it more.
the d7000 is fantastic, and i use it for posed, strobe/flash lit portraits and such, but i have never quite gotten as confident about its focus accuracy as I am about the d90. the d90 is dead-on 90% of the time, and when it's not dead-on, it's WAY off and I can tell immediately and take another series of shots.
the d7000 is maybe dead-on 70% of the time, and most of the time that it misses, it's only a bit off. which is actually a lot worse for me because if I cannot tell immediately that the focus is off, i'm going to end up stuck with some subpar images. that's fine for family snaps maybe, but unacceptable for paid work.
all of which is basically irrelevant to anyone on here looking to buy this camera for themselves. what matters is that the d90 is fantastic, period. the d7000 has a few paper advantages, and some real-world advantages as well (mostly better high-iso performance, but not by much). but it's also got some real-world disadvantages, some of which may only matter to a picky shooter, but some of which would also matter to anyone (the shooting mode dial... why couldn't they stick with the nice easy button like the d90 has?)
if you are the market for a d5100/d7000 or canon t4i level of camera, do NOT hesitate to pick up a d90, whether on here or from anywhere else. the only word of caution is, if you buy used, be aware that the shutter is only rated for 100,000 exposures. look for 25K or fewer.
and if you do get one elsewhere, do yourself a favor. skip this kit lens, save some cash, and pick up the sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4 OS. absolutely fantastic walkabout lens for a real person, and i've even shot a few thousand pro photos with it. many "real" photographers will tell you to skip the kit lens and buy the little $100 50mm 1.8 prime lens, and it IS a fantastic bargain, but most real people want to be able to zoom at least a little bit, most of the time.
