MikeG

[mikeg1218]

It's been quite some time since I've had the time to devote to some serious photography. long enough that even if I still had it my old Canon AE would probably be classified as an antique.

I'm presently researching various DSLRs with one eye on picture quality and the other on the budget. So far the leader of the pack that seems to meet my needs is the Nikon D5300. Unless I find a really good deal somewhere I'll probably go with the stock 18-55mm and move up from there as I get more comfortable with the camera, it's capabilities and mine. One review I read, cnet I believe, seemed to indicate a 18 - 200 mm lense covered all bases nicely. If I remember my old film days that seems kind of contra intuitive. Comments anyone?

I am really looking forward to these new no film days, no slides, no over and under film developing, picture editing on my PC woohoo.

MikeG

[davidedric]

Hi Mike and welcome to CiC.

Just in reply to your lens question. I went through the same thinking a couple of years ago with a Canon crop frame and bought a Tamron 18-200 thinking I could live with the compromises but found I couldn't and it sits on the shelf. It will go on eBay when I work out how to do it. Others may have different opinions of course.

Dave

[Dave Humphries]

~

I'm presently researching various DSLRs with one eye on picture quality and the other on the budget. So far the leader of the pack that seems to meet my needs is the Nikon D5300. Unless I find a really good deal somewhere I'll probably go with the stock 18-55mm and move up from there as I get more comfortable with the camera, it's capabilities and mine. One review I read, cnet I believe, seemed to indicate a 18 - 200 mm lense covered all bases nicely. If I remember my old film days that seems kind of contra intuitive. Comments anyone?

Hi Mike,

Welcome to the CiC forums.

I got the Nikon 18-200mm with my D5000 back in 2009.
I did so because coming from a bridge camera with the same range of focal lengths, I found the standard kit lens far too restrictive, so I bought body only and added the bigger zoom. Nowadays there are even wider ones (18-300mm), but I think that might push the compromise too far.

Sure, even with the 18-200mm zoom range, it is a compromise, but when I used it regularly*, I was usually surprised how good it was.

The one downside I found, is that it suffers zoom creep - when you carry it around 'nose down', the lens barrel will extend by gravity and you need to hold the zoom ring to prevent this. As the lens becomes older, the zoom can even retract if you angle upwards to take a shot, which is very annoying.

However, optically, I find it perfectly adequate.

* the main reason I don't use it regularly now is because I shoot mainly wildlife, with the Nikon 70-300mm, but you can see the other lenses I own in my signature below.

HTH, Dave

[John 2]

Hi Mike, welcome back to photography and to the forum. My 18-200mm Nikkor is my carry around lens on my D7100. It was originally bought after reading a similar comment that you quote but by Ken Rockwell (no, let's not start another discussion on the merits of that gentleman). Like Dave, I have been continually surprised at the IQ it produces. The lens creep has never been a problem to me although it does happen. I use the Nikon mainly for wild life these days and use a Fuji for every day photography but I am very often aware of how much quicker and more convenient life was when I used the 18-200mm compared to changing lenses on the Fuji. Fuji don't have an equivalent. I wish they did.