Nikon D40 Lens Recs

im curious about the filter thing too actually.

one thing you will find is that (at least i did, when i asked nearly the same question) is that people (definatly some who will, but a lot who wont) will give you a suggestion based on how they shoot (example: i asked for a longer lense for skiing and half of the responses were that i am an amature photog so i would benifit from the 18-55 more so its not worth it. while i am an amature photographer, i took classes for 4 years in HS and know how to use a damn lense!) so my advice is find a photography forum to ask your question at. the answeres will probably be less biased and more helpful- just make sure to let them know what conditions you will be shooting under.

I suggest looking into a wide angle lens, definatly if your going to be shooting mountain scenery etc. I dont think you need anything longer than 55mm for skiing really, it just depends how you like to shoot.

Filters wide, a circular polasier wouldn't be bad for skiing, they increase saturation in the sky, so you get some really nice blue colours and whatnot. I've also heard that a lot of ski photographers shoot using ND filters, these reduce the amount of light that enters the lens, they do this because the sun bouncing off the snow can often overexpose pictures, but i wouldn't use anything over about ND2 which reduces the light into the lens by one stop.

Good luck shooting, and hope yo have a great time

ahh i forgot- whatever you do, you need to have an AF-S or AF-I lense to be able to autofocus because the autofocus motor is in the actual lense of the camera, and only AF-S and AF-I (i think) have that.  you can buy another lense, but it wont auto focus (you will have to manual focus)

nikons 18-200mm VR lens
great for one lens
and the VR on it is nice
and i only use a uv filter on my lens and its just for protection
circular polarizers can make pictures turn out nicer

Certainly if you where looking for one lens the 18-200VR is the one (have used it on a D300 and it was excellent).  Wide Angle for Nikon I'm not sure of but most are relatively expensive (see links - I know they are UK but the lens names should be similar).

http://www.calumetphoto.co.uk/item/399-030D/
http://www.calumetphoto.co.uk/item/355-348K/
http://www.calumetphoto.co.uk/item/399-269R/

And for lens reviews take a look here: http://slrlensreview.com/mos/Frontpage/













As for filter they are worthwhile and I have certainly found that my circular polariser enhanced the colours of many of my pictures (in bright sunlight) and in particular for sunsets they are great.