I have been browsing some of the photos that others have taken and they are amazing. On another site I saw a picture that someone took from their balcony while in Paris. It captured the city perfectly and was breath taking. He has a canon and the lens he used is a sigma 17-70 f3.5-4.5. I would love to find a lens comparable to that one. I am also looking for a nice macro lens.

I have a Nikon D40x. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Belinda

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Chad~n~Belinda
265 Mixed Reef

Yay, I'm new to this site and to fish keeping but I do have photography experience. I have a Nikon D90 and I love my Sigma 17-70mm lens. It's great for macro, has a great range and will be fantastic for aquarium photography. It's not the cheapest lens but it is well worth the money and it will work on you D40x

Belinda, did you end up getting a new lens?

It is not just the lens that matters. It is the photographer behind the camera. I personally use macro lenses that I attach infront of my standard lens. I use a Nikon D60.

I use a Tamron 70-300mm lens on my Nikon d5000 and it works great

I have a D3s myself, and love my Nikon 105mm f/2.8 micro. If price is an issue, the Sigma offers a nice alternative.

If you wanted something similar to the Sigma 17-70mm f/3.5-4.5 I would strongly suggest you look at the Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 which has macro ability as well, but has the benefit of a constant f-stop through the zoom range, as well as being fast. It is about $100 difference, but well worth it, even at the lost of 20mm, with isn't very much really considering you have a crop sensor.

I'm a Canon user. Although I believe it's the same principle with Nikon, in using lenses. 70-300mm lens will really work. I have a lens similar, it's also 70-300mm, only it's Canon. It's good for shooting, especially for subjects like fishes, plants or other things around the environment. This lens is all-around, even for portraits, for events, for studio shoots, outdoor shoots, etc
For me, this kind of lens is a wise buy.

Remember, it's not all about the camera or the lens. 50% of the beauty of your photos are basically from the photographer itself.

I'm a Canon user myself. My favorite lens is my 100mm 2.8 macro. I would suggest the Nikon compatible. IMO you just can't get a sharper than you can with a fixed focal length lens. For photographing aquariums I would go with a dedicated macro lens that is fast. There are plenty of lenses out there with "macro capabilities" but there is such a drastic difference between those lenses and an actual Macro lens, and if you plan on getting shots without using a tripod, you will definitely want to invest in a lens with some type of Image Stabilization

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Namaste

in my experience, buying lenses from the company that makes your camera will always produce better results. visually compare a sigma to a canon or nikon through the camera and you'll see the difference right away. not only are they made to a higher quality in most cases, they are more compatible with the cameras. All lenses not made by the manufacturer have to be reverse engineered and have less tolerances for precision. So if you want the best quality lens, buy it from the company that made your camera.
Now as for types of lenses, i prefer to get macro zooms because they allow you to say far from the subject to image it. This reduces the stress on the subject and (in the case of venomous or poisonous animals) keeps you safer. In the case of aquariums, it gets a little buffer space from the water and the camera. Be sure to never get any salt water on your camera gear, it can rust it and degrade the optics substantially, very quickly.