Camera Labs

Hi everybody!!

My name is Pedro, I'm 21 years old and currently studying medicine here in Chile.

Ive been a big fan of photography since I was a kid.....my first camera was my Dads Canon AE-1 with a couple of lenses (a 35-105 macro, a 200-300, some fisheye....) a couple of super macro and 2x multiplier and some other stuff I cant remember...I know the camera is lying around there with everything else....it still works just fine hahaha!

Well with that camera I learnt all the basis of photography (ISO, shutter speed, aperture, focal length, etc..) and a couple of development techniques.....I used to use B&W film and develop all by myself in school.....

After that my first digital camera was a Konica Minolta Dimage X50, one of the first point and shoot boasting 5MP jeje....

After that, whishing to recover the mayority of features lost in the transition to the digital world.....I searched on internet and found this site......read many many of the reviews over there and finally decided to buy tha Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28 which at that moment was one of the best long zoom non DSLR....

Any way.....Amazing camera....really good experiences.....been in some "extreme hikes" with no Ac chargers and I didnt need to use all 3 of my batteries (got a couple of Lenmar replacements which are awesome)....really good pictures and panoramas, decent macro and portraits and an amazing versatility and compositional flexibility considering it has an 27-486mm equivalent.

BUT....as many of you know...you still remain "short".....

I missed using a manual remote shutter trigger for long exposures, Full manual control and many of the other features....but mainly.....a fast way to go from Wide to Tele and viceversa, and the true colours, contrast, depth of field, and images real SLRs give.....plus ....I began working and learning the HDR technique, but the Panasonic lacked on this aspect since it would only bracket in +1 -1 EV....which was not enough....


As such I was searching for a new DSLR and the opportunity has arrived.....

My uncle has changed his Nikon D5000 for a newer camera and is willing to give me the camera body, as he will keep his lenses....

Searching around this and other web pages I been thinking of purchasing the relatively new
Nikon 18-200mm VR II f/3.5-5.6G AF-S DX ED Lens
which has a huge fame behind it......clearly one of the most popular lens on the market....

I was pretty decided to buy it since I understand will give aprox 28-300mm coverage on this camera right?? Which I think will suit my needs for a versatile Lens, taking into account I camp and travel a lot.....

Aftewards....digging a bit more.... I found the
Tamron 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 Di-II LD VC Aspherical (IF) Macro Lens (72mm) which Ive seen some pretty good pictures and reviews....and has a similar price....

The actual range this lens would cover would be 28-405mm approx.....which resembles a bit more what my actual Panasonic Lumix does.....

The question is....are those 105mm extra worth it? Or Do you sacrifice too much in Image Quality, Vibration reduction, aperture (6.3 instead of 5.6 at max tele) etc???

I think my normal camera use would prefer having a long zoom rather than two "better quality" shorters ones, as to avoid having to carry them around and regularly change them....also I take a lot of wildlife photo and thus would like a long zoom...

Another alternative would be to buy the nikon 18-200 VRII and afterwards buy the Tamron AF 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 SP Di VC USD XLD which Ive read some excellent reviews, even saying its VC (Vibration compensation) is even better than Nikon's VR....

Would it be a good choice even considering some big overlap ( The tamron would give 105-450mm coverage....) or would you recommend another zoom which starts at a higher focal range? Would that extra 150 be noticeable or it doesn't make such a difference.....what would you recommend??

I sincerely hope I haven´t bored you hahaha ....I know it came out pretty long.....but I'm looking forward to your replies and the learning experience this means......you can never stop learning in the infinite world of photography...

Greeting from the southern hemisphere!
Pedro

Hey Pedro, greetings here from the northern hemisphere here in Canada!

I'm glad that you've come here to Cameralabs, and I hope that you make lots of posts! Be sure to read our rules here before you start to make more posts!

I'm glad that we have a photographer here that isn't blindly buying into a DSLR like many people are doing now a days. You actually know about photography, as opposed to those who are just expecting to get good images.

Regarding your lens questions, perhaps you should make a topic in another section, this section is more for intros, but I'll still help you out!

Consider the 18-200, the VR ii is new, and it is better than VR i. It's ranked highly, and the optical quality is relatively good. Regarding the Tamron, you'll soon find out that I really like my Nikkors, and not much else making it hard for me to recommend any other brand of lens (Yes, I'm a real Nikon fanboy!). Although, even I must admit that it looks to be a good lens.

I'd go for the 18-200 myself, but that's just me. I don't really think that the extra coverage would make that much of a difference. Consider the 16-85mm VR ii, and then the 70-300 VR, both Nikkors from Nikon. They're good and cover a large range. Also consider Nikon's 50mm AF F1.8, or their 35mm AF-S F1.8. They're both very good and come at a good price too!

I hope that I haven't bored you with MY long post! I hope that I helped, and good luck finding a lens!

-Evan, a Cameralabs regular

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-Evan

Gear: 7 Nikon Nikkor AI-S and AF-S lenses, SB-700 flash, Nikon D7000, Nikon FM, variety of accessories

"There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs."
- Ansel Adams