AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II

No, its not the equal of a half a dozen prime lenses. It´s not the equal of Nikon´s holy trinity of fixed aperture zoom lenses covering the same range. But its remarkably robust compared to the competition, its plenty sharp, and its distortion is acceptable in all but the most critical applications. Five stars for a lens that´s good enough for all but the 99th percentile. The only lens I need in my bag.

This pic was taken on a purchased used 18-200 VR. I also have new one. the 5000 has the old 18-200 and the 7000 has the newer model. The newer model is a little sharper, tighter and better sized rubber grips. Either of them will do the job. My other lens is a 80-400 VR.

Anyway, there were 14 people on the boat, the only picture of the whale came from the 7000/18-200 setup. Whales are only out of the water for a moment, as they weight 30 tons, and you have to focus, and get the pic taken in milliseconds.

That is my testimony to Nikon and i am sticking to it!!

I bought this lens last year and I am pretty much happy with it. Here is what I have found within this year

Pros.
1. It´s an excellent all purpose lens, you don´t have to switch lenses back and forth.
2. Focus within 0.5 meter (I think good for beginner macro shooters, my opinion does not count because I am not a big fan of macro)
3. It has a focus ring (which is a plus)
4. Autofocus is okay (it is not the fastest one but acceptable)
5. I love the bokeh of this lens

The most important feature of this lens is its versatility and a very good choice for beginners when people are not sure which focal length is perfect to photograph what.

Cons.
1. The lens creeps, it is a big problem if you point it upward.
2. It has a lock button but it locks only on 18mm, so basically you can use lock button it you want to hang it on your shoulder.
3. The images are not crisp sharp! but the images are still very good. If you are the guy who swear on sharpness then it might disappoint you but for me it is okay.

I am not sure why it´s worth $100 more than its previous version, apparently there is not much difference except the lock button which is not very useful anyway.

I usually steer away fron lenses with a wide range of focal lenghts and own several f2.8 pro lenses. After reading test result on this lens in Popular Photo who found that this lens has amazing optical qualities for a lens with this focal range, I decided to buy one. This lens will be perfect for when I don´t want to carry around several heavy pro lens. I can mount this lens on My DSLR and go. I will still use my other lenses for specific needs, but this is the lens that I will use most of the time.

First of all, I mention what everybody already knows, this lens exudes Nikon quality. So precision, clarity, operation is flawless, and has been for me for the past 4 years.

This is a great starting lens. with 18mm being the shortest focal length it outstrips other telephoto lenses in the wide-angle field. 200mm is a good zoom for many people, especially those who at higher fl display a shakey hand.

I bought this for my wife, who asked for a point and shoot. Reasoning that this would be the most amazing point-and-shoot in the world, I remembered an old adage my dad used to say: ´´The bitterness of poor quality remains long after price is forgotten.´´

I had been using both the 18-55 zoom and 55-300 zoom on my D3100with great results but I wanted something a little easier to carry when traveling. This lens does the job. Smooth control, great sharpness and a generous zoom range. A bit heavier than my long zoom fixed lens camera, but a lot more detail and sharpness

this lense does everything! portrait, landscape anything with my D7000!

i don´t know why the lense creep could really be an issue? if you set it at 200 and you shoot up, it does not creep down, however any settings below 200, it will creep, but at that point you should be holding the barrel while shooting either up or down or any other position (that is the normal way of shooting long barreled lense anyway)... my only complaint is when i forget to lock it at 18mm and the camera is dangling down from my waist (my normal way of carrying it using a sling-type camera strap), then barrel will extend down, real heavy creeping... but i can live with it! i just need to keep reminding myself to lock it when not in used...

the IQ is so much better than the 18-55 and the 18-105 for sure! those lenses are for the low-end dx bodies, like d3x00 and d5x00 variants... if you are buying a d7000, you would want this lense, especially if you do not like the idea of missing a shot while changing lenses, do remember a moment happens in a split-sec, once the moment is gone, it can not be repeated again!

i have used this lense in weddings, sports events and church activities among others... although it does not render the bokeh compared to the 80-200 or a 50 f1.8 prime, the flexibility is simply amazing, and it is as sharp and IQ is pretty much the same...

I use this lens for just almost everything... Landscape, micro (flowers or insects), and parties.. With my D7000, It doesn´t disappoint me so far...

I just bought this lens about 3 months ago and Im glad I did. I use this in almost everything... Landscape, portrait, party, and I even use it as micro (Flowers and Insects). It does a good job so far, sharp and fast focus... Very happy with this lens...