Yet Another New Toy

A couple of weeks ago I bought a Nikon D5100 body from MPB Photographic. I said at the time that although I'd got Beth's "kit" lens from the D60 on it, an 18-55mm¹ F3.5-5.6 zoom I would probably buy something else for it for my birthday. The Nikon 18-200mm was the front runner.

Well this came to pass somewhat sooner than I intended because I was looking on the MPB Photographic site again on Tuesday night and they had a Nikon AF-S 18-200mm² f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED DX VR II at a good price. I'd been reading positive reviews of this lens as a very good general purpose lens with very little compromise across the range. And 18-200mm is a big range: from reasonably wide to quite seriously telephoto.

This was a mark II, at only about £30 more than a mark I from MPB (rather than the usual £100 or so)³. It's not hugely different to the mark I to be honest, it just has a zoom lock switch that lets you lock the zoom at 18mm to prevent "zoom creep" which apparently afflicted some people using the mark I.

Anyway having pondered overnight and decided I might as well get on with it while I had the chance I bought it yesterday morning and it arrived today⁴ and it's now on the front of the D5100 in place of the kit lens.

I've taken a few test photos and they seem just fine. The only drawback is that the lens, although barely longer than the 18-55mm when wound in, is significantly heavier (562.25g versus 203.4g) and that's quite noticeable when you're holding the camera: the centre of gravity is definitely forward of the body now.

1. So 27-83mm in film camera terms: "DX" sensors as found on most digital SLRs being 2/3 the size of a 35mm full frame "FX" sensor.
2. So 27-300mm in film camera terms.
3. Although it's perhaps worth saying that it was still more expensive than the body, but that's lens for you.
4. All credit to DPD by the way, who delivered it. They are the slickest parcel delivery I've ever come across. Accurate tracking, and one hour delivery slots confirmed on the morning of delivery so it's easy to be in when you know they're going to call. The first time he arrived as the slot opened, this time he arrived about five minutes into the slot. Impressive.