nikon 18-200mm vr?

[Showzo]

So I was looking into getting the nikon 18-200mm vr ii lens..because im looking for an all around good lens that is..basically..a general lens.. after this lens i wont be able to get another lens ina while...but i read that that big of a range on a lens is a little much..might effect optics...so 700$ budget..new or used i dont care...i need a general walk around lens that will stay on camera most of the time

 

[tirediron]

The 18-200 certainly meets the criteria of a 'walk-around' lens, but like any tool that has a lot of functions, it's execution of them is less than stellar. It's got an excellent focal range, but it's slow, and suffers from significant barrel distortion at the wide end, and moderate pin-cushion distortion at the long end. The build-quality isn't great either. It becomes a question of whether you prefer the reduced IQ of an 'all in one' lens in favour of the convenience of not having to switch lenses.

 

[Marc-Etienne]

I personally bought the 18-200mm VR II as a first lens because of that it covers a nice range of focal length. Is it a sharp lens? Not really, you will have trouble to get perfectly sharp picture, but it gives satisfying results to an starting amateur (which I was). I use it very often. You should read this review. It shows you at what f-stop the lens is the sharpest at certain focal length. Very convenient to know to try to get the best out of it. To let you know, when you pass focal length of 100mm, they recommend to stop it down to almost f11!! to get the best image quality. You need a lot of light for that. Works well outside, inside...:thumbdown: unless you have a flash.
In brief, it is a very convenient lens, but don't expect crazy sharp pictures.
Here are some post that I used that lens
Portraits
landscape
and more landscape

Hope this helps a bit

 

[KmH]

It's a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none lens.

To acheive the 11x+ zoom range a series of design compromises had to be made, and the lens has image quality issues at the extremes of it adjustments - zoom, aperture, and focus distance.

Nikon sell a lot of them, and both Tamron and Sigma offer 18-250 mm superzooms to cash in on that don't-want-to-have-to-change-lenses approach many amateurs take to dSLR photography.

 

[ScotA]

I find this interesting "don't-want-to-have-to-change-lenses approach many amateurs take to dSLR photography. " I to have the 18-200 Nikon lens. I had never thought of it this way but it is true. It definetly makes me reconsider what I should look at in a lens

 

[djacobox372]

I wouldn't buy it... it's quite expensive; $400-500 used. Instead I'd recommend a sigma 24-70mm f2.8 or tamron 28-75mm f2.8. Both are the same or cheaper then the 18-200mm, but much sharper.

 

[Showzo]

Well i have a 50mm 1.8, and looking to have a second lens....these 2 lens willl be my only 2 lens' for a while..so i need it to be versatile. I dont need a telephoto, just a basic zoom lens would be perfect..i got around 600 to spend on it..which one would best suite my needs

 

[KmH]

In that case I would recommend a good used Nikon 24-85mm f/2.8-4.0D IF AF Zoom Nikkor Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras

That lens also has a nice 1:2 macro feature (close focusing) feature from 35 mm to 85 mm.

That lens won't auto focus on a D40/D40x/D60/D3000/D3100/D5000.