Knowing not a lot about photography (other than a lifetime of whacking the camera into ‘Auto’ and pressing the button), I’d spoken to a few friends and done some net research http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/nikkor.htm about what lens to get. I decided on the Nikon 18-200mm which seems to do it all.
I’d had a few tamron 28-200mm in the past. The big heavy early ones did a degree of macro, and the later one was ok, but unsatisfactory for its minimum distance to shoot (about 1 metre meaning a lot of lost shots). I’d also been unhappy with the color & sharpness of the pics on my D70, and put it down to the D70.
The Nikon 18-200mm was a revelation. Nice pics, easy and quiet focusing, vibration reduction. Just for fun I whacked it on the D70 and magically, the D70 started to sing! It is true what they say about getting a decent SLR body but getting the best lens you can afford.
Now to find some camera/photography classes.