My husband bought me a D40X for Christmas. I've always wanted to do photography and am now just teaching myself through reading a little bit and playing with my camera. I've very new at this and do not quite grasp a lot of the concepts yet. I'm looking into a new lense that has a wider aperture..I take a lot of portraits (mostly my daughter) and landscapes. would a wide angle lens be a good fit for these interests?

Typically telephotos are used for portraits, to give a large image with out being up in the subject's face. Normal lenses usually work better for me for landscapes, because I feel they show about the same field of view as my eyes. I use wide angles for groups, parties and indoor family shots. I also use wide angles to emphasize fore ground objects (i.e. bolders, weather beaten cabins or barns, old wagons, etc.) I shoot with Nikons and Fuji Pros. If you are interested, I can share my lens collection and how I use them. I would not worry about large aperture lenses unless you are shooting 100's of photos at a time on a regular basis. They are larger, heavier and m u c h more expensive than their slower counter parts. They are much better built, but usually not that much sharper .Again, these are only my "narrow-minded" opinions, but maybe they will give you something to think about.

I completely forgot about this question! Yes I would love to hear about your lens collection. It would definitely give me an idea. I've been eyeing the 50mm f1.4 but its not an AF-S, which means no motor within the lens. My camera will only autofocus on an AF-S & AF-I. But I'm hearing rumors about Nikon coming up with a new 50mm f/1.4, so I'm waiting a bit. It seems to take very sharp photos in low light situations.

hi,
I'm also waiting to buy a 1.4 or 1.8 lens from nikon.
Sigma already made one; check...
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0803/08031801sigma50mm.asp
not cheap...

All AF-S Nikkor of Nikon are compatible to D40/D40x, I got the stock lens ( 18-55 G DX ED II ). But I would like to buy a SIGMA 70-300 mm F4-5.6 DG APO MACRO. He's not really cheap for the range . . Sorry for my bad English, i'm french !

eljapa,

I read through a lot of reviews before going for 50mm Nikon. I was in between 1.4 and 1.8, but as some users suggested @1.4 one would not get a beter shout thatn @1.8 and that the lens work equally @ around f/4. Therefore I got 50mm 1.8 while I was in the US last year (Nevada has low taxes!) and have not regretted the purchase. You might find 1.4 lens useful when having a low light conditions most of the time, otherwise I would reccomend going for 1.8. And, oh yes, the price for 1.8 is also about 1/2 of the cost of 1.4 lens.