Very Impressed with the Nikon 18-200 VR

I had my Nikon D50 for around 3 weeks now, I also had the Nikon 18-200 VR,.

I am amazed by the quality of this lens, heared alot about it, it is even better than what I have expected. I don't have experience with any other Nikon lenses apart from the 18-55 Kit Lens but I am very happy with this lens, highly recommended.

I have attatched two photos that I took yesterday in Mooney's Bay, ottawa. Setting is P Mode, Jpeg Fine, large, ISO 200, these are direct out of camera images, no post-processing, just resized.

http://www.geocities.com/romancebmw/Girl
http://www.geocities.com/romancebmw/Bird

Sorry for the missing link in Photos, Exceeded my limit in geocities,

here they are again, hope they would work

http://romancebmw.741.com/bird

http://romancebmw.741.com/girl

Still having difficulties finiding a place to upload the photos.

Try http://www.dgrin.com

Cheers - Herman

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My motto: To learn more today, than I did yesterday!

Nikon D50; Nikkor AF 50mm f/1.8D; Sigma 50-500mm f/4-6.3 EX APO DG HSM;
On order: Nikkor 18-200VR (since April 24)

Sony DSC-S85; VCL-ES06; HVL-F1000; EagleEye OpticZoom; Pentax 50mm SMC f/1.4 (RL)

Try this site: http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/AlbumList?u=4222395
I'm curious to see your 18-200 VR photos. I might go crazy and buy one tomorrow!
Regards
R.G.

I saw them. Before you spend too much time trying to post them, I'll suggest (before someone else does) that you be careful about posting photos with very tilted horizons. Some people hate that. Ideally, you should try to keep the camera level when you take the picture, but if you couldn't when you took the picture, then consider using PP to fix that. (The girl is pretty though.)

The bird is nice, but the background is a little distracting. It is a harsher kind of bokeh that this lens seems to have. In the beginning you will be happy to get foregrounds sharp and in focus (like you did) but after a while you might also get just as critical about the backgrounds.

Congratulations about getting the lens, but I will warn about posting here. The more you post, the more ideas you will hear. These ideas might affect your taste in photos and that might force you to buy more lenses when in fact you were hoping to save money by buying an all-in-one lens. There are things it can do and things that it can't do.

Guy Moscoso

I got this lens last week and am already amazed. Here's a link to my post w/pics

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1034&thread=19126869

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...but then again, fish do tend to eat one another. I often wonder ... do fish get awfully tired of seafood? What are your thoughts, Hobson?

...Nikkor 18-200 VR is THE lens ! Which camera you have ?
Regards
R.G.

Guy Moscoso, thanks for the comments, the girl in the picture is the life-guard for the bay, they are all pretty, thanks for the hint regarding straightening the horizon. My intention for posting some pictures is to show other users an example of what can this lens do rather than C+C.

RafaelG, I can email you photos taken with this lens, I have taken 1000 photos last week in Niagra falls. you can send me an email on [email protected]

thanks

bokeh can be real bad, and vignetting a problem. The vignetting can be easily fixed in post processing, but bokeh is another matter. Personally, I regret buying the lens.

I have noticed "weird" bokeh on this lens (from pictures on the web). IMO it occurs when VR is on. The "out of focus effect" is amplified by the movement of the compensation element. As it brings focussed objects's image to the place it should be on the CCD plane, the out of focus object's image is furthermore shifted and blured once again - within the "correction" range and specific direction. As the lens has round shaped aperture blades, I don't see reason not having nice bokeh when VR is off and light passes through the lens as normal. Interesting to see same bokeh scene taken VR- on and VR- off.
Just my understanding and knowledge about optics.
R.G.

Rafael G. said:

I have noticed "weird" bokeh on this lens (from pictures on the
web). IMO it occurs when VR is on. The "out of focus effect" is
amplified by the movement of the compensation element. As it brings
focussed objects's image to the place it should be on the CCD
plane, the out of focus object's image is furthermore shifted and
blured once again - within the "correction" range and specific
direction. As the lens has round shaped aperture blades, I don't
see reason not having nice bokeh when VR is off and light passes
through the lens as normal. Interesting to see same bokeh scene
taken VR- on and VR- off.
Just my understanding and knowledge about optics.
R.G.

Click to expand...

Will give it try tomorow.

Thanks

I'm going crazy trying to find one to buy!

Take another look at the girl picture. You have her dead centered. Notice that she is looking towards the left side of the picture. The area to the right is dead, adding nothing to the picture content & taking away from the subject. Take your hand and cover up the right side so as to crop off about 30% from the right side. Dont you agree that it improves the composition?

It is rare to see a dead-centered subject that works well, even more rare to have your subject matter split with dead spacing on either side of the subject. ususally it draws attention away from the image.

Bokeh won't change with VR on or OFF

Here is the link to his full review of the 18-200's Bokeh
http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/18200/18200-bokeh.htm

i just bought it last month and didn't really like it at all. i guess it's more for outdoor photography when we have enuf light.. otherwise when i plug in my sb800 it works as any normal telelense .. so the vr is not useful at all.. anyway just my 2 cents.. i took some pic using 18-200 , you guys may want to check it out in my flickr.. http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikonshots
thanks.