Need a Nikon walking around lens....

[KevinM]

Folks,

I bought a new Nikon D40x last fall and have only been out shooting 3 times so far. I shoot steam and that's pretty scarce in the winter. I have the 18-55mm kit lens and a 55-200mm VR lens, but I've discovered I'm changing lenses wayyyyy too often. I thought about just ditching what I have and getting the 18-200mm VR zoom, but I probably couldn't get much for my current lenses even though they're nearly new. I was thinking of perhaps going with the 18-135mm kit lens to give me more overlap with my existing VR zoom. Trouble is, I've heard bad things about the autofocus on the 18-135.

Does anyone have any experience with the Nikon 18-135mm zoom? It can be had for less than half the price of the 18-200 VR. Is the 18-200 VR really the beat-all-end-all? At a recent Nevada Northern shoot, I noticed that most of the Nikonians there had the latter....perhaps there's a message there.

Thoughts?

Kevin

[a231pacific]

Kevin, for a one lens set up, the 18-200 VR is hard to beat, but it does have some irritating features. There is almost no zoom damping, so if you tilt the camera down, even a little bit, it starts creeping out to full extension.

Before I got the 18-200 I had been using the 24-120 VR that I had been using on my film camera. That works out to be a 35-180 when used on the Nikon 1.5 factor digital. It's discontinued but you should be able to find it fairly cheaply. I'm kind of sorry now that I let mine go. It looks just like the 18-200 but does not creep!

Michael Allen

[ddavies]

Get a second body. I keep a 18-70 on one, and a 70-200 VR on the other.

[Cyclonetrain]

I picked up an 18-135mm lens after I smashed the hell out of my 18-55mm (long story). Picture quality is top notch. On most pictures 8x10 and smaller, and on most computer applications, I cant tell the difference between it and my 50mm. Build quality is average, I wouldn't expect it to survive a 6 foot fall (just like my kit lens didn't) and I always use a clear filter. Lens hood is worthless, clunky and cheap, and just gets in the way. If you're on a budget, get it, but if you have $700, I'd go for the 18-200mm VR.

P.S. All my pictures on my RP.net account taken since May 07 have been with it, except for maybe one with the Nikon 70-300mm AF-G.