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| sent on 15 Luglio 2015
Pros: Focal length range, reasonable max speed of f5.6 at 200mm
Cons: General Performance, Distortion, Handling, Manual focussing
Opinion: If this Nikon superzoom is about the best available and about the only one that can deliver any sort of quality, then help the rest, ie, the independents! It does have a reasonable reputation though and if this is the only lens you have with you, for instance, when travelling, it can turn in OK results. I always need to add a sharpness mask to all images though, not because they are necessarily 'soft', but that they become more alive and look better, without looking too artificially sharp. There are no terrible stages either, you'll get something reasonable at 200mm f5.6, which would be a real challenge to all such lenses. Distortion is fairly dire at 18mm, more pronounced barrel distortion than my Nikkor 10-24mm, at 10mm!! At the other end, the pincushion distortion is obvious. I am comparing this lens (probably unfairly) with the results that I get daily with my usual combination that (more than) covers this range, both about the best available, for their price - Nikkor 16-85mm f3.5-5.6 VR & Tamron SP 70-300mm f4-5.6 VC. The sharpness and contrast difference is obvious between these two and the 18-200mm, but of course, the very idea for a superzoom is that it's one lens to carry about, and use. I don't regret buying the 18-200mm, and won't sell it - I actually use it for community event photography, as the official photographer, where getting the shot is a must and where changing/carrying other lenses is not possible. As I said, with some time and care taken in Photoshop, images can look very reasonable and as most images only end up as a thumbnail on the organiser's website, absolute sharpness is not the most important thing. Again, compared to the shorter range and better built 16-85mm VR, the 18-200 is not nice to handle, with a definite resistance at about 70-100mm when zooming, which takes your mind off the subject and shot. Polarisers are a very fair 72mm and a non rotating front helps. Focus isn't quick but does the job, but at least is very quiet. The VR is quietly effective, too. Weight and balance on my D7000 is a little front heavy, especially when zoomed all the way out. Manual focus is not nice and not easy. As far as I understand, the replacement VRII has the same optics and thus performance, but with some minor cosmetic improvements, including the upgraded VR. These old 18-200mm's are now cheap secondhand and plentiful and they can get a bit tatty. I'm not sure that I'd spend the extra on the newer model, which has a much higher price. I've never tried any of the new generation 18-300mm's, but my experiences with superzooms so far, that range is just pushing the physical and optical limits too far, but no doubt, one day I will be proven wrong. So, in the meantime, I'm carrying my usual 3 lens kit for DX (Nikkor 10-24, 16-85mm & Tamron SP 70-300mm) when and where I can, but will reach for this 18-200mm if I have to. 6.5/10 |
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