Lenses usually cost a couple of hundred dollars, so you must be careful when purchasing a new one.

For this reason

I decided to write this ultimate Nikon D80 lens buying guide that will teach you everything you need to know if your goal is to choose the best lens for a specific budget and photography type.

There are the five most essential lens types:

• Macro lenses
• Wide-Angle lenses
• Prime lenses
• All-In-One lenses
• Telephoto lenses

The right lens type depends on the photography you are most into.

Here we go:

Best for Low-Light photography

This 35mm f/1.8G lens is perfect for low-light shooting. You’ll be surprised at how well it performs compared to its cost because, unlike many other high-performing lenses, this one is super affordable.

This is the most rational choice if you want an all-in-one lens, including your budget.

It has a lightweight but undoubtedly high-quality build. Its bright f/1.8 aperture makes this lens great for shooting in dim light with a high shutter speed.

It produces a perfect bokeh effect, but only if you are close enough to the subject. Don’t think of zooming in or out with a prime lens! 

This lens is an excellent start for beginners with its easy-to-use features that may help them quickly learn their work. You could take amazing photos even if you bought the lens just yesterday.

If your camera does not have a focus motor, you do not even need it with this lens, as it has a built-in focus motor that is silent and does not create any annoying sounds when focusing.

You can set the camera to autofocus or do it yourself manually. It’s entirely up to you.

The one that needs improvement is the barrel distortion. It might not be so severe, but it is still noticeable.

Best for Macro photography

This lens is best for macro photography and works quite well for portraits.

The lens is a little heavy to carry, so you must be careful when planning to use it outdoors. It is long enough to capture tiny subjects without hunting or disturbing them. So, you’ll be pleased with the scene-capturing possibilities it offers.

The autofocus is super-fast but not consistently accurate, and you’ll have to adjust the focus manually in most situations. It also offers a non-macro focusing feature for faster non-macro shots.

The images it captures are crisp and bright, even in low light. Its ‘vibration reduction’ feature is quite efficient, which lets you shoot sharp and clear hand-held images even on a cloudy day. This 105mm F/2.8G produces clean and creamy bokeh at wider apertures and lets you get clear low-light shots.

You can openly use it in sunlight without having any lens flare or ghosting issues. You’ll also notice slight distortion, which is not an issue because it appears at high contrast points.

Best for Sports Videography

The Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 is the perfect Nikon D80 lens for sports videography and indoor low-light shoots. It is also an excellent choice for close-ups, landscapes, portraits, and even casual photography, making it an all-in-one lens.

The high-quality build of the lens enables it to withstand severe weather conditions without affecting performance. This lens does not offer image stabilization or vibration reduction, but it is still suitable for hand-held images and has a high shutter speed.

You can use a tripod if your hands shake a lot, though you’ll have to be careful about the tripod you choose for it because of its heavy body. Yes! The sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 is not light.

Its zoom and focus rings are pretty sleek and easy to operate, but they work opposite directions.

The zoom ring moves clockwise like any other Nikon DX lens, but the focus ring moves anti-clockwise, which you might find hard to get used to unless you have used Canon lenses before. The lens’s focus motor is a little noisy, even on auto-focus.

Its wide aperture creates sharp, stunning images and perfect bokeh within a distance of 2-10 feet. You will not notice even the slightest barrel distortion with this lens. All in all, this lens offers the best value for money.

Best for Close-Up photography

Kit lenses are usually the least demanded ones due to their inefficient performance, but this kit lens is a good option for close-up photography.

This compact and lightweight lens can be your perfect travel partner. The lens has a button that allows it to pull in and take little space to easily keep it in your bag when attached to the camera.

This saves you from the hassle of mounting and dismounting the lens before and after every shot.

Its compactness does not affect its build, which is solid and durable. The vibration reduction of this lens makes it suitable for beginners who haven’t yet gotten a pro grip on the camera and may have shaky hands when capturing.

The Nikon 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G does not have a vast zooming range but offers enough for a compact lens. The fast auto-focus enables you to focus up to 6 inches.

The lens is super affordable. It produces sharp and clear images but has a little barrel distortion and slight chromatic aberration when viewed on a bigger screen.

Overall it produces sharp images and is an excellent choice for people on a limited budget.

Best for Interior photography

The Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G is a great all-rounder lens though it is mainly known for interior photography.

It creates crisp and clear images with a real quick auto-focus. Its ‘vibration reduction’ feature eliminates any blurriness caused by shaking your hand. So you can confidently capture almost every sight.

You’ll notice excellent resolution at the center but slight softness on the edges at full aperture.

The 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G is similar in size to the Nikon 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G, which makes it compact and easy to carry.

But:

If you plan to use it on a sunny day, you might be disappointed by the flare and ghosting issues. 

This lens has an extensive zoom range of up to 200mm. So you can easily capture sharp images of even distant objects. However, you’ll notice slight vignetting at specific focal lengths. It also does not create a fantastic bokeh.

The barrel distortion is more at a lower focal length and almost becomes invisible at 40mm. The chromatic aberration has to be corrected through software.

Best for Sports and Travel photography

The Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8E is a versatile lens for sports and travel photography. Its focus range makes it suitable for street photography and group shots.   

The lens creates super sharp images at the center, but the corners are usually soft. The vibration reduction is very efficient, and the auto-focus is quick, going from infinity to close in a few seconds.

You can confidently use it for hand-held photography and videography. The lens can capture sharp and clear images even in dim light. It renders beautiful bokeh with vital out-of-focus areas.

You’ll notice vignetting at the widest aperture of 2.8 at the corners. About the barrel distortion, you’ll see it significantly when zooming up to 70mm. Although this lens is not for macro photography, you can capture good close-ups.

Best for Portrait photography

This 50mm Nikon lens is very light in weight but quite solid and durable. Its compact size makes it suitable to carry when traveling.

The lens produces sharp images with its ability to gather more light. It renders creamy and smooth bokeh, focusing on the subject. 

It does not have an image stabilizer so you can expect blurred images. The focus motor is nearly silent and quick in light, but it takes some time to set the focus in dim light.     

The coating on the lens reduces flare and ghosting, enabling you to shoot confidently in sunlight.

However:

It does not have a weather-friendly seal, so you’ll have to be careful about the environment where you use it. There is no noticeable barrel distortion.

Best for Night photography

The Nikon 35mm F/1.4G is for professionals looking for a premium lens for night shoots, travel, or wedding photoshoots.

It has a solid plastic body. This lens captures amazingly sharp and clear images at night. It produces smooth bokeh, beautifully enhancing the subject and blurring the background. It can quickly narrow down to specific topics.

The silent auto-focus will amaze you with its super-fast performance every time. With a wider aperture, you’ll notice some chromatic aberration, but it reduces as you decrease the aperture size. 

To keep the lens has a nano-coating to reduce flare, but it’s still there. You’ll notice heavy vignetting at f/1.4, but you can eliminate it by moving to f/2.8.

Best for Architectural photography

The Nikon 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G is the widest zoom lens.

It is light in weight with a good quality plastic body. The lens produces sharp and bright images. The resolution in the center is best at 10mm, but between 16mm to 24 mm, it offers a constant solution from the center to the edges.

It creates smooth and rounded bokeh with focus areas sharpest at 24mm. The coating of the lens prevents ghosting and flare and lets you shoot freely in the sunlight.

This lens is excellent for capturing landscapes and detailed images but cannot be used for snapshots. Its focus motor is almost silent and does not make loud focusing noise.

One prominent drawback of the lens is that it gathers dust on zooming in and out.

Moreover:

This Nikon 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G does not feature vibration reduction and might require a tripod if you are a beginner and face hand-shaking issues.

There is noticeable distortion at the edges, which you’ll have to edit later. A wide zoom lens has more vignetting issues that have to be corrected by software. There might also be some chromatic aberration.

Best for Landscape photography

This wide-angle zoom lens, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, is an excellent value for your money. It is perfect for real estate photography, landscapes, storm photography, and wide-angle photography.

The lens has a solid build and is slightly heavy. It does not feature image stabilization, but that does not seem to be a problem with its 10-20mm focal length. The lens is made to reduce flare and ghosting in sunlight.

Its wide aperture enables great low-light shots with a fast shutter speed. The auto-focus of the Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5 is rapid and silent. The focus ring is sleek and does not rotate the lens when adjusted so that you can conveniently use filters with your lens.

The bokeh of this lens is a bit tricky. It is hard to get a blurred background unless you have focused on something very close. You’ll notice this, especially at 10mm.

The lens takes super sharp and bright shots, but you’ll notice some distortion at the corners, so try to have the subject in the center. This is one of the best Nikon D80 lenses for landscape photography.

Tips for Choosing the Best Lens for Your Nikon D80

• Consider the types of photography you want to do. Nikon D80 works great for portraits, landscapes, sports, macro and more. Choose lenses accordingly.
• For portraits and blurred backgrounds, go for fast primes like 50mm f/1.8 or 85mm f/1.8. These give beautiful bokeh.
• For landscapes, look at wide angles like 10-24mm to capture sweeping vistas.
• For sports and wildlife, telephoto zooms like 70-300mm allow you to get close to the action.
• For macro photography, specialized macro lenses like 105mm let you magnify tiny details.
• Look for lenses with vibration reduction (VR) for handheld shooting. This helps reduce blur from camera shake.
• For maximum sharpness, choose lenses with fast autofocus and fixed aperture (non-zoom lenses). Primes and high-end zooms perform best.
• Research image quality – some budget lenses can lack sharpness or have distortion. Check reviews and sample images.
• Consider weather sealing if shooting outdoors in inclement weather. Lenses like 24-70mm f/2.8 have sealing.
• Weigh size/weight considerations for travel. Compact primes like 35mm f/1.8 are excellent walkaround options.
• Invest in high-quality Nikkor glass for longevity. Well-built lenses retain value should you upgrade camera bodies.
• Utilize lens filters for extra creativity. Graduated ND’s are great for landscapes, polarizers reduce glare.
• Optimize lens choice for your specific needs and style. There’s no one perfect lens – the right one depends on you!

Nikon D80 Lenses – Wrapping Up

Hopefully, this guide helped you choose and buy the best lens for the Nikon D80 camera.

Check out this model if you still have doubts about choosing the right lens.

Also, feel free to comment below; I will do my best to help you find the right lens.

Feel free to check our other guides on this website, such as the Nikon D3100 lenses guide and the Nikon D90 lens article. Or read our tutorials to increase your photography skills and take better photos rapidly.

Good luck!

More Nikon Dxx Series guides:

• Nikon D40 lenses
• Nikon D40x lenses
• Nikon D50 lenses
• Nikon D60 lenses
• Nikon D70 lenses
• Nikon D80 lenses
• Nikon D90 lenses
• Nikon D100 lenses
• Nikon D200 lenses
• Nikon D300 lenses