I would like to start off by saying hello and introducing myself. My name is Josh, i'm 34 and have always had an interest in photography but never the money or time to devote until now. I recently purchased a Sony A200 kit and was wondering if any of you would be so kind as to point out what lenses would be best suited for the different types of photography, mainly wildlife and landscapes. I would also be very appreciative of any tutorials you could point me toward to teach me the different aspects I need to learn... dumbing it down would be a plus to start. Thanks.

I'd start off with purchasing a book that was recommended to me by a number of people when I decided to get serious about landscape and nature photography. Its called 'John Shaw's Nature Photography Field Guide'

It covers gear, lenses, and film (its a bit older but if you wanna shoot full manual and not auto iso this section will help) as well as tons of techniques. I've really enjoyed reading it and keeping it on hand for quick refresh every year after I come out of my photography hibernation.

-Tyler

Not really familiar with this camera, as far as lenses go, you said you wanted to shoot landscapes and wildlife, probably need a wide angle lens for landscapes and a good long zoom for wildlife, depending on how close you are able to get to what you are shooting,, I have a Canon 50D and have a 17-35 a 28-105 and a 100-400 so have pretty much what I need,, DAve

Josh, I can help some as I shot Minolta for about 20 years and as you probably know Sony bought them out.

The Minolta 20/2.8 and 28/2.0 are both good lenses. The 28/2.8 is really not that good and the Minolta 24/2.8 I had was just ok. The 35/2.0 is excellent but that becomes more of a normal range on your cropped DLSR vs being a wide on a FF DLSR. The Minolta 50/1.7 is a bargain lens which produces really good shots. My main wildlife lens was a 300/4.0 which I used a lot with a Minolta 1.4x T-con. Longer telephoto primes for Minolta (A-mount) are hard to find now and quite expensive.

I'd suggest you check out dxyum.com for your equipment specific questions as that is a large A-mount society. There is also a very large database of A-mount lenses there.

I'll second the recommendation for John Shaw's book. Basic photography hasn't changed and they are a really great source. Also delve into the various articles posted here.

The good thing about digital is that it's almost free so shot and experiment as much as you can.

Jim

I'd like to say thanks to everyone for their help. I'm definitely gonna keep an eye out for the book. Being on a very tight budget, i'll be on the lookout for some good used lenses too. Thanks again