Life without the Nikon 18-200

Geoffc

Senior Member
Just before Christmas I moved from DX to FX. This meant a review of my lenses. I ended up with the 24-120 as my general purpose lens and sold the 18-200 to support its purchase. I have been a fan of the 18-200 for years and thought I would miss the range, but surprisingly I haven't.

In FX terms I've effectively gone from a 28-300 equivalent to 24-120. I think I find the extra bit at the wide end (24mm FX behaves like 16mm DX) is proving more useful for me. I think the other factor is going from my 12mp D300 to the 36mp D800 as those extra pixels provide more cropping ability. If you shoot a D7000 you would not get this advantage as your DX image is around the same size as the D800 crop.

I think the image quality is a bit better on the 24-120 but I'm using a different body and sensor so it may not be a fair comparison. I was always very happy with the 18-200 in that respect, especially in bright conditions.

For anyone after a general purpose DX lens I would still strongly recommend the 18-200 as a great option. My wife still has hers and I think she would find the loss of zoom more of an issue.
 
horses for courses Geoff ... I could not do without that 200mm end for those ring finger close ups at weddings ,,but if you dont do that or similar with wildlife then you dont need it ..

If it makes you happy its right.
 

Geoffc

Senior Member
horses for courses Geoff ... I could not do without that 200mm end for those ring finger close ups at weddings ,,but if you dont do that or similar with wildlife then you dont need it ..

If it makes you happy its right.

Absolutely, it just surprised me as I thought it would be a constant frustration not having the extra reach, but I guess I mustn't have been using it for what I shoot.

I still think the 18-200 is a fantastic lens and it's lighter and more compact than the 24-120. I don't think my wife will ever giver hers up.
 
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