Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G VR IF-ED Lens

This is a spectacular lens but is it worth the extreme hype generated? Probably. Coming from digital with my 17-35mm 2.8, I needed something with a little more reach and a lighter lens for travel and general photography. With pro lenses in mind, I was skeptical of the 18-200 but this quickly vanished. I tested both the 17-35mm 2.8 and the 18-200mm VR on a tripod (with VR off) at different focal lengths and F-stops. Both lenses show very little if any difference in quality, perhaps a bit more contrast on the 17-35 and only slightly sharper when viewed at 100%. This is ignoring the obvious benefit of the 18-200 in its ability to use VR or nikon's vibration reduction. Again I was skeptical at just how good VR could be but the results were amazing.

VR is basically like having an electro-mechanical tripod operated by controls in the lens to stabilize the image when the shutter is pressed halfway. While you can't wildly swing your arms around and still expect to get a good shot, VR compensates for the normal 'tremors' present when holding a camera steady and/or wind effects so that you can stop the lens down to a smaller F stop such as F8 and still get a sharp photo. Anyone who tells you this lens will replace your fast, 1.4-2.8 lenses is not correct. Depth of field control and action shots in low light with this group is unparalleled. The 18-200 is just not cut out for either task, as VR will not compensate for blur when using a slow shutter speed.

While everyone likes to place the 18-200VR in the 'walk around' catagory because of its great versatility, I think that often this lens gets snubbed by pro's as being an amateur lens designed for prosumers. Nothing could be further from the truth. Fast lenses have their place, there's no substitute for the quality they possess. The funny thing is, a lot of pro's get the 18-200 to see just how good this lens is and test it against their fast lens arsenal. Is it a fair test? Definetely not, but the results are astonding considering the price points. My advice is wait for the hype to go away, which it already has started to do. This is a $699 lens and it is worth every penny.