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  • lense question

    After travelling to Tenerife with my D100 and the Tamron 28-300 Di, I noticed that the lense is quite ok for general photography but lacks sharpness and brilliance to be good for spotting. The pics need too muich postprocessing for my liking to get them barely acceptable.

    And as we now have become 2 spotters, which means that my girlfriend wants her own DSLR even during the holidays, I am now looking at taking my D200 with me on holiday trips as well. As those are mainly holiday trips and not mainly spotting trips, bringing my Nikon lense collection (all 2.8 and heavy) with me is out of question, so I need a compact but reasonable travel lense for my D200.

    I am considering the following :

    Nikon AF-S 18-200 VR DX
    Nikon AF 55-200 G , taking the 2.8 20mm with me too
    Nikon AF-S 70-300 VR (but that seems too bulky and leaves me too uncovered on the wide angel side, even with the 20 2.8 )

    Any adivce and other ideas are welcome.

  • #2
    I would suggest staying clear of lenses with a high top end focal length and a very low end focal length e.g. 18-200mm I have always had the opinion that these ranges lead to poor quality in sharpeness etc...

    I would suggest going with a lens like 70-300 unless you want to splash out on one of Nikon's high end lenses. I am by no means anywhere near a Nikon expert but Im just saying.

    Can you get Canon lens with Nikon fits or Sigma with Nikon fits?

    Cheers Dom

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    • #3
      I believe the 70-300 VR would be your best bet, though I havn't tried it yet, but it seems like a good lens. Bottum line you've put some good money into that D200, I'm sure you can find a nice, yet some what compact piece of glass to put on that bad boy.



      "Sorry Goose, but it's time to buzz the tower!"


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      • #4
        But the 70-300 means I have to take at least 2 lenses with me on holidays and it i quite heavy and large. Remember the lense would be mainly for holidays, I have a complete line of elnses for spotting, but it too heavy to take on holidays.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by LHR-Domi
          I would suggest staying clear of lenses with a high top end focal length and a very low end focal length e.g. 18-200mm I have always had the opinion that these ranges lead to poor quality in sharpeness etc...

          I would suggest going with a lens like 70-300 unless you want to splash out on one of Nikon's high end lenses. I am by no means anywhere near a Nikon expert but Im just saying.

          Can you get Canon lens with Nikon fits or Sigma with Nikon fits?

          Cheers Dom
          on the topic of the 18-200VR, I was talking with a photographer that was using it on a D200 to do my schools yearbook photos and he told me that of all the lenses of its type (i.e. high top end, low bottom end) the Nikon 18-200VR was by far the best and that he so far had been very happy with it.

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          • #6
            Sorry 'bout that seahawk, I thought yu were talking about "spotting" holidays. In that case the 18-200 seems like a perfect match, for vacations and stuff.



            "Sorry Goose, but it's time to buzz the tower!"


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            • #7
              I was advised by Grays of Westminster that the 18-200VR was unsuitable for the D200 as the top end came out fuzzy.

              I would go for something like the 24-120 VR with maybe a 70-200 or 80-400.

              Andy

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              • #8
                OOO I forgot about the 24-120 VR...thats the next lens on my list.



                "Sorry Goose, but it's time to buzz the tower!"


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                • #9
                  Originally posted by Chris@YYZ
                  on the topic of the 18-200VR, I was talking with a photographer that was using it on a D200 to do my schools yearbook photos and he told me that of all the lenses of its type (i.e. high top end, low bottom end) the Nikon 18-200VR was by far the best and that he so far had been very happy with it.
                  Ah ok kl, as I said I was just thinking about the strange focal range... For general photography I imagine it is good but for spotting I can't see it producing the goods?

                  Cheers Dom

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by LHR-Domi
                    Ah ok kl, as I said I was just thinking about the strange focal range... For general photography I imagine it is good but for spotting I can't see it producing the goods?

                    Cheers Dom
                    ah, I wouldnt use it for spotting, I'd get the 80-400 or 80-200 for that but I'm not a nikonian so I cant really say 24-120 might be better then the 18-200 anyways, I cant say for sure because I've only talked to nikonians, never been one myself lol

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                    • #11
                      I always struggle with the same question. What lens(es) to bring? Often if I have room for some aviation photography on the side of a work or family trip, I take my D200 with the 80-400 in a top-loader bag that fits the camera with lens attached. I can take the 18-70 or 17-55 in a pouch in my suitcase.

                      The 80-400 is not as sharp as my 80-200 2.8D or my 200-400, but it covers the whole range and does the job.

                      Pete

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                      • #12
                        I think I give the 18-200 a try, it makes the most sense considerng my current lense set-up.

                        Nikon 20mm 2.8
                        Nikon 35-70 2.8 D
                        Nikon 80-200 2.8D
                        Nikon AF-S 300 2.8
                        Sigma 135-400
                        Tamron 90mm 2.8 Macro

                        I want VR in the new lense, and I could use a wide angel zoom for static work too. So even if it lacks at 200mm it should be an ok lense for some holiday spotting, considering that light will be no problem during the holidays, as I prefer to go to sunny places

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                        • #13
                          I've just replaced my two lenses (18-70 and 70-210) with an 18-200. It cetainly delivers the goods with normal photography - re what it does in aviation photography - well, I have two photos queued up, we'll see the results!

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                          • #14
                            Ok, I was able to get a 18-200 for a few hours to try it out. Well it is a great lense for walking around, but it is surely not the best for aviation photography.

                            As my girlfriend is using the D100 normaly and is using the Tamron 28-300 Di at the moment, you can imagine that those results are less then satisfying, as I found out when using this combination on Tenerife myself. If you want to use it for spotting, it is ok for holidayy snaps.

                            We also agredd that if we need two DSLR for holidays, we also need the good lenses.

                            So we decided to get the AF-S 70-300 VR for the D100 as travel spotting lense. So for holidaays we would take a Coolpix 5700 for my girlfriend and the D100 with the 28-300 for walking around and the 70-300 for spotting. The 70-300 will also become the standard spotting lense for the D100.

                            I think that makes sense.

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