My friend has a Nikon D50 and LOVES it, and I love it as well. It seems like the camera for me.

Sounds like you have already made your choice. It might be a good idea to go down to a camera store or big electronics retailer and at least handle the other brands and see what the differences are (if you haven't already done so).
Don't forget that even though your friend loves his D50, he/she would probably love their Canon Rebel XTi, Sony Alpha 100, Pentax D10, Olympus 300D, etc, if that was what they owned. The Nikon D50 is a good camera, but there are lot of good cameras on the market and you might want to at least try to handle some of the others just to make sure you have examined all your choices.

I will be getting a 70-300 zoom lense with the camera, but was looking on some input as to what good macro lense I should get. I plan on photographing landscapes, wildlife including birds and reptiles, pets, plants and flowers (etc etc etc etc etc), friends (people).... - okay so basically everything, haha.

This is a tough call. Your best bet is a dedicated macro lens in the 90/100/105mm focal length range. There are a variety of great contenders here - Sigma 105mm Macro, Tamron 90mm Di Macro, Tokina 100mm Macro, or the Nikon 105mm Macro. All of these are excellent lenses although the nikon is a bit overpriced considering the others are optically as good (according to head to head comparisons I've seen).

However, going with this option means you would have a 75-300 lens and a 90/105mm lens and nothing wider for habitat/people shots. You might want to consider getting something like the Sigma 17-70 Macro lens. This lens gets rave reviews, whereas most 17-70/18-50/18-55 lenses get rather mediocre reviews. The Sigma 17-70 is also a reasonably competent macro lens as well unlike those "kit" lenses.

If you had the Sigma 17-70 and the 75-300 you are considering, you would be covered from wide angle to telephoto and would have a decent macro lens in a two lens package.

Chris
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

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