Lenses?

I think im going to get the nikon D5000. is the kit lens that comes with it any good? or should i just get the body and buy a seperate, better lens? i really want to be able to take pictures with blurry backgrounds, and i thought it was mainly the camera that did this , but ive read that its more the lens.... is the kit lens on d5000 good for this? thanking youuuu

It is the settings that get the blurry background.
or 1.8
A low aperture like 1.4

The kit lens is very good for the money

Check out some photos taken with it here: http://www.yophotographer.com/tags.p...=nikon+18-55mm

If you want lush bokeh (blurry backgrounds) consider a 50mm 1.4 - I love that lens and want to get one!

There are more that one thing that will give you "blurry backgrounds" not just maximum aperture.

Focal length of the lens plays a large part as does focusing point.

Bokeh is not the same as blurry backgounds. Bokeh is the quality of out of focus items in the background, highlights etc. and in itself is dependent on different factors in the design of the lens, one of which is the number of blades the iris is made up of.

Kit lenses are good value if not the best but to get a lens as versatile as the kit lens but with a wider max aperture would cost you more than the camera body itself.

My advice would be don't try to run before you can walk, get the kit lens and when, and only when, the lens is inhibiting you, upgrade.

Steve

I agree with all of what Steve said, choose your camera, and learn on the kit lens, you can get really good results on a kit lens, and "blurry backgrounds", are achievable. Steve has explained it a lot better than I would, but learning how to use your camera is very important, and upgrade when you feel you have done all you can do with that piece of equipment.

This was shot on the cheapest kit zoom that Nikon do,okay, it may not have quite the same creaminess as my 50mm 1.4, but it was also a lot cheaper, and for my wildlife needs is perfectly adequate, so I won't upgrade.

thanks for answers, will go with the kit lens i think. I was just asking about it because i didn't want to be dissapointed again as i bought a compact camera a while ago expecting it to be able to do really good 'blurry background' pictures - and it could, but only very slight and only up close pictures, and i just wanted more i think. i think the kit lens will be fine for me, i can't wait to get camera!

Before you even think about getting a different lens, don't forget the camera comes WITHOUT a memory card and I would advise something like a Sandisk 4 gig Extreme 111 or if you can afford the Extreme 1V.
Why do I recommend these cards? several reasons

First they have a recovery disk (or the ones I bought did) incase you accidently delete pictures this will restore them providing you don't format the card beforehand

Second you may not have heard about rewrite speed . What can happen if you buy a cheap slow speed card,the camera can "freeze" until the card can catch up and carry on accepting the photos. This occurs often if you take lots of photos one after another in continuous shooting mode .

Third why a 4 gig card? well this should be sufficient for a days shoot depending on the camera settings of course. Using Jpeg fine would give around 500 photos and in Raw about 200 photos uncompressed

Bazza

Compact cameras have a smaller sensor and, without going into the technical side too much, will give you more depth of field and therefore less blurry background. In the same way a cropped sensor will give less blurry background than a full sensor if set to similar settings.

I think you are doing the right thing in considering the kit lens.

Steve

Enjoy your camera, you won't be disappointed, the more you learn how to use it properly, the better the results will be, it's like anything, it all takes time to learn and then practice xxx

Good luck!

xx