Dismayed with my 18-200vr after buying prime =(

[jdwright]

Last summer I bought a D80 and 18-200vr combo. A couple months later, I bought the prime 50 1.8 so I could try some more artsy looking photos and maybe do some portraits.

Well, the 50 now resides almost full time on my camera and it pains me to shoot with the 18-200 since I can't get the sharpness I can with the prime. I guess it might be that its winter time and I'm not outside in good light shooting soccer or tennis, but I find myself looking for alternatives. I will probably hold on to the vr, and if anyone has good tips for this lens, I'd be happy to hear them.

I'm a cheap bastard, and a noob photographer - so keep that in mind =). I've been looking at a 150 sigma 2.8 that is apparently well thought of (specifically for sharpness) and a 180mm 2.8.

If you have any input that you'd like to add (I don't even mind the "You shmuck! That's a good lens because..." variety. Might get me more use out of the thing.) I'm open to it!

TIA

J

 

[ElFenix]

there is a reason those lenses are called travel zooms

 

[jpeyton]

Do you have real life examples, or is it just apparent when looking at 100% crops?

The point of the 18-200 is two-fold:

1) you don't have to lug around a bag full of primes to cover the important focal lengths between 18mm and 200mm.
2) built-in VR helps greatly for available light photography.

Things like chromatic aberration and distortion can be corrected easily in Photoshop. Softness can be sharpened, but shouldn't really be noticeable at all when printing 10MP photos at standard sizes (or viewing web-sized copies).

If you don't care about the two main advantages of the 18-200 listed above, sell it and buy some primes instead. Pick up something in the 20-35mm range, something in the 85-135mm range, and something between 150-200mm.

Your D80 can accept Nikon AI/AI-S manual focus lenses in stop-down manual metering mode. On eBay, you can pick up 3-4 great Nikon AI/AI-S prime lenses for under $200 total, which should put you ahead $300 once you've sold the 18-200.

 

[Jawo]

Who doesn't want a 10-1000mm f/1.0 lens that weighs only a pound! I love my Tamron 17-50...but wish it was longer. You can't have everything!

 

[soydios]

look at your technique first. I'm able to get plenty sharp results in the center with my 18-200mm VR on my D50 wide-open from 24mm to 200mm, and stopped down to f/5.6 at 18mm. if you're looking for corner-to-corner performance, then yeah, use the 50mm prime at f/4.

 

[aphex]

I had the 18-200vr, but was much happier using the Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 so I sold the 18-200vr

 

[dug777]

Originally posted by: aphex
I had the 18-200vr, but was much happier using the Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 so I sold the 18-200vr

Each to his own

I shoot throughout the range of my 18-135mm Nikkor, and I'm sure I'd relish the opportunity to do so with the 18-200mm.

 

[tdawg]

The nice thing with this lens is it still seems to be in demand. If you don't really use it or don't enjoy using it, sell it and buy something you really want, or trade for a lens you really want to try. You shouldn't have too difficult a time unloading it. Just don't sell it to a camera shop, because they'll pay you at most half what they can resell it for. Try craigslist, or check out nikonians.org and fredmiranda.com (both have a $25 membership fee to sell stuff, but the communities are big). The beauty of first party lenses are that they hold their value well, as long as their rep is good. The 18-200 vr gets good reviews from users, so selling it shouldn't be that hard.

 

[aphex]

Originally posted by: tdawg
The nice thing with this lens is it still seems to be in demand. If you don't really use it or don't enjoy using it, sell it and buy something you really want, or trade for a lens you really want to try. You shouldn't have too difficult a time unloading it. Just don't sell it to a camera shop, because they'll pay you at most half what they can resell it for. Try craigslist, or check out nikonians.org and fredmiranda.com (both have a $25 membership fee to sell stuff, but the communities are big). The beauty of first party lenses are that they hold their value well, as long as their rep is good. The 18-200 vr gets good reviews from users, so selling it shouldn't be that hard.

Yep, I sold my 18-200vr for $150 more than I paid quite a few months after I bought it.