Camera Labs

Thanks for the review. However, I got trouble here. I got a Nikkor 18-200mm VR lens on Nikon D200. It doesn't give a 27-300mm equivalent range. When I set it at 200mm it is even less than my old AF 35-135mm at 135. Is there anything I need to do to achieve the 27-300mm range? Thanks.

Hello, and welcome to Cameralabs.

Your question certainly has us perplexed.

When you say the 18-200 at 200mm is less than your 35-135 at 135mm, do you mean the 135mm gives the smaller field of view? That clearly shouldn't be happening!

As you'll see on our lens reviews, it's not uncommon for one type of, say, 200mm lens to deliver a fractionally different field of view to another 200mm lens, but the difference between 200mm and 135mm on the same body should be considerable. The 200mm should deliver a field of view 1.5 times smaller (more magnified) than the 135mm when fitted on the same body.

Your D200, like other DX-based Nikon bodies, effectively multiplies all focal lengths by 1.5 times, so the 18-200mm and 35-135mm lenses would deliver effective focal ranges of 27-300mm and 53-202mm respectively. There should certainly be a very noticeable difference between the two lenses when zoomed-in and fitted to the same body.

If there isn't, then we can only suggest there's something wrong with your 18-200mm. Could you take both lenses and your D200 into a photographic store and compare them with some other lenses?

Let us know how you get on...

Gordon

Thanks. To clear up my question on VR 18-200mm , please check out this:
http://www.math-cs.cmsu.edu/~hchen/temp/vr18-200g

Hmm, that is interesting. Were these your own images? It may be better to continue this discussion by email until it is resolved.

Could you email contact@cameralabs.com

Thanks,

Gordon

Update: we discussed this further with hc8907 and contacted Nikon UK who explained it was due to an optical issue exhibited by zooms with very long focal ranges.

We've prepared a page explaining this with sample images by hc8907 at:

http://www.cameralabs.com/features/18200_issue/

It's well worth reading if you're considering an 18-200mm lens.

Gordon Laing

You can easily see the effect, when looking through the lens while focussing on something about half a meter away: Zooming from 135 to 200 does almost nothing to the fov...

_________________
Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Zoom out to 200mm, focus in on 50cm and the lens behaves like a 70mm lens. So you get only a reproduction ratio of 1:4 ond not the 1:1.5 that you could normally expect from a 200mm lens at 50cm distance...

_________________
Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Take a look at this explanation by Ken Rockwell. It may explain what you are experiencing. At closer distances the 18-200 does not achieve 200mm due to its internal focusing and close-up ability.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/18200/ ... length.htm

_________________
Frank

Hi Frank, not sure if you saw the earlier posts, but we spoke with Nikon directly about this and produced a page with examples from hc8907 which illustrate and explain the phenomena he was experiencing:

http://www.cameralabs.com/features/18200_issue/

Cheers!

Gordon

I missed the earlier posts. Nice job of demonstrating this phenomenon and getting the explanation from Nikon.

_________________
Frank

So if you have the 18-200 like me, it's surely recommended to back this up with a decent macro- (or "micro-", as they would have us call it at Nikon-HQ) -lens if you like to get closer to "things".
A close-up lens of +4 diopters does certainly not give Nikonian quality level pictures...

_________________
Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses