| sent on May 19, 2020
Pros: Small, solid and well-built, exceptional sharpness for a superzoom even at TA, fast focus and silent
Cons: It does not have full-time manual focus, not very effective stabilizer
Opinion: Zoom all-rounder very versatile and powerful. I find it well built, compact and light, slightly larger than a 18-55 kit, the barrels are well fried and does not suffer at all from "zoom creep". The sharpness is very high even enlarging the photos to 100%, excellent color rendering and good contrast. Closing it by a stop results exceptional results at all focal points, even at 200mm the yield is very satisfactory, you do not notice any drops of contrast or sharpness. The focus is fast and I thought it was quite precise, even with very little light (but here also comes the excellent AF module of my Nikon D7200). The stabilizer is not very powerful, and at least on my D7200 the effect of sight stabilization is not visible (in the photos you can see it). Like the 17-50 2.8, on Nikon I get the bug of previewing the photos that remain on the screen, unless I press any button. The vignette is evident a little to all the focal points, which can be solved by closing the diaphragm a little or with photo editing programs that with a click eliminate or minimize any optical defects. The chromatic aberrations are not obvious, my specimen has an excellent collimation, and blurring point objects not known coma or other type of anomalies that would suggest an untreated optical system. The bokeh is a bit "nervous", especially when it concerns subjects with tree-lined backgrounds and with many details. If you detach the plans more, however, you don't notice much. Obviously the price to pay to have a zoom of these features and compact is the brightness, at 200mm closes at f6.3. Anyway using it during the day or with flash you will not have any problems whatsoever. It does not have full-time manual focus, the AF dial spins during focus (which is silent and fast), however the front element does not move, so there are no problems in using filters such as polarizers or graduated. In conclusion, I was very impressed by the sharpness and the rendering of the colors, I did not think that an 18-200 could be so sharp and satisfying. It is light, well built, with a beautiful metal attachment and a very well made satin finish. It is also programmable with the special usb dock (great for updating the firmware and to correct any back/front focus issues at various focal points and distances). I'm very happy to have him (re)bought it, I don't know how the older brother goes 18-300, as far as this, a nice 9 deserves it. |