The Nikon 18-200mm

When I first purchased my D70s one and a half years ago, this was THE lens I had my eye on. This was the lens I knew I would have to get someday, but it was so expensive and hard to get I couldn't justify it till now. Well, here it is. This is the first "zoom" lens I've owned. I've had it for about an hour and it's pretty dang incredible. I know that 3rd party lenses are good (Tamron, Tokina, Sigma, etc), but in my humble opinion, there is nothing out there built like a Nikon. The quality, precision, speed, sharpness, and overall build is just in a league of it's own. There is nothing like it.

Took these from my chair...

(@ 18mm)

(@ 200mm)

(100% magnification @ 200mm)

Besides covering the entire standard range of focus in one lens, it also has Vibration Reduction (VR). Nikon says this gives you 2 extra stops in low-light situations. On my first impression, I found it to be better than that. The following shot was taken at 200mm. The general rule of thumb is that you should shoot with anything slower than the inverse of the focal length (i.e. if you're zoomed in at 200mm, 1/200sec is as slow as you should use). If I gain 2 stops of light (through VR), at 200mm I should be able to shoot at 1/50sec (one stop: 200/2=100, two stop: 100/2=50). This next shot is at 200mm. The shutter speed: 1/13sec.

(@ 200mm, 1/13sec)

(100% magnification @ 200mm)

I mean, it's not the sharpest shot ever, but it's pretty incredible. 1/13sec at 200mm is ludicrous to attempt, but here we are. You can feel the VR almost "floating" the image around through the viewfinder. It's insane. I can't imagine the electronics involved within this beast.

Well that's it for now. Tomorrow I get my Tripod (with a capital "T" because it's so awesome). Actually, I'm just going to refer to it as "Tripod" from now on (ex. "Has anyone seen Tripod around?")

(I've got so much backlog for my blog. I've got backblog. I hope I can get to it soon.)



On a completely unrelated note: I knew one of these was going to hit too close to home...

#93 Music Piracy

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