Good wide angle lens for Nikon D7000 for under $200.00 ?
 

I was told for alot of my photo work, like scenes, sunsets, etc, would be wide angle lens work,
& I was linked to this; http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc..._AT_X_124.html

it looks nice, but this is way out of my budget, there must be some other good ones out there that go for less?

No, there won't be anything for under $400 -- at least not in a zoom.

The fact that a Tokina lens went for under $500 was amazing to start with, as wide lenses have traditionally been closer to double (or more) that price. It was about $415-450 when it came out a few years ago, and now goes for about $395-415 new. Best of all, it was able to outperform the Canon 12-24 L glass and Nikkor 12-24 ED glass, which was simply amazing, as those lenses were well more than double the price. The Nikkor 12-24 still sells for $925+

The only sub-$200 lens you'll find is an old used Nikon-mount lens from a pawn shop, used camera store or eBay, from the film days. Honestly, I would not pay that much money for those lenses, as you gain an incredible amount of optics quality and range from simply doubling the price to $400.

If you're still on the budget path for under $2K, the D7000 will have taken about $1200 away, leaving you with $800 for lenses. Take $100 for 50mm, another $400 for the Tokina, $150 for the Sigma 70-300, and there's $150 left for other supplies (cheap monopod/tripod, backpack, etc). It's a setup that won't leaving you wanting for more.

Nikon D7000 - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...SIN=B0042X9LC4
Nikkor 50mm, used $105 shipped or new $120 - http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.ht...reative=390957
Tokina 12-24 for $399 - http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc..._AT_X_124.html
Sigma 70-300 for $149 - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...SIN=B0012X43P2

I forget the exact price for D7000 now -- was it $1199 or $1299 ?
When it's out of stock, you can't see the price for it at Amazon. Most stores are that way.

Well I actually went a little over my budget, instead of a d7000 at $1,200, I could not find one new directly from amazon at this price, as I was advised on here to only get a new Nikon d7000 directly from amazon, and since it has been hard to get, based on this advice I the choices I saw were either get from Amazon directly a new body only for $1,999, or get the one with the kit lens at $1,499, I went for the kit lens as I got a lens ready to go until I could get the lenses advised here, & it was or has been cheaper than a new body only directly from Amazon. I figured the camera was the same, so I did not see any reason to pay more for a body only.

Which lens came in the kit?

I got the one with a kit; http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...8P2CN58233Q674

The 18-105mm will give you 18mm at the wide end -- that's comparable to 28mm on a film body. It's a decent "beginner" wide angle of view. The 12-24 Tokina mentioned above would have given you a traditional 17-35 type of range.

The Amazon direct body would have been $1,199 -- it's the other third-party sellers that had the idiotic rip-off prices of $1,999 showing. But it was Amazon that had the kit for $1,499, so you did buy from Amazon directly. You paid a $300 difference for a lens that's usually about $300, so you did not overpay -- it's a fair deal. It will probably be many months before the D7000 is easily available, so this probably was your best shot at getting it in 2010.

You can always make the 18-105mm work for you. And then just add that 70-300 for now. The 50mm may be a good idea for getting the sharpest images possible of your artwork. Or you can see how that 18-105 works at 50mm length (shooting it at f/8).

what would be the film equivalent of the zoom end of the 105mm of this lens?

APS-C (the "C" stands for "crop") sensors from Nikon are 1.5x "zoom" into the interior of the lens. (DX lenses only have glass that covers this 1.5x zoomed range -- hence the cheaper pricing of DX lenses vs FX/film lenses.) But all lenses still use traditional 35mm measurements, to keep it easy for us "old" shooters.

So a 100mm lens is 150mm. Easy math -- 100 x 1.5 = 150.

Technically speaking, it's about 165mm.
But realize most lenses are NOT exactly the numbers they profess on the labels. The 18-105 lens is probably something closer to 18.5 to 103mm, or something to that effect. So you're still looking at around 28-150mm range.

It's a nice AF-S lens, should make for a good "walkabout lens" for those bike rides you talked about. And then it will be great for shooting videos. I'm thinking you'll like it.

I can think of reasons to not buy that lens. But if I already owned it, I could not think of any good reasons to get rid of it. I'd probably keep it in my bag for those random trips where I didn't know what I'd need.