My Nikon camera came with two kit lenses, but I really wanted something that would be at both ends of the range of those and something with vibration reduction for those long shots.  I'd had a Canon and tried out both Tamron and Sigma lenses of this type, so for my Nikon, I decided to try the Nikkor lens made by Nikon.  I wasn't disappointed.  The lens is a little large, especially with the lens hood.  It's not that heavy though, and works very well as a carry around lens for my camera.  It's great outdoors.  I enjoy shooting nature pictures and being able to capture those long shots of hummingbirds, close ups of flowers and everything in between.  I like to shoot without a flash indoors and it is a little slow for shooting available lighting indoors.  You can still use it but very carefully.  For everything else, though, it is really terrific.  When I sell or pass on my D40x kit, I will certainly keep this lens to use on the new D7000.

indagarden

Henderson, NV

Nikon Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED IF AF-S DX VR-II Lens was once super popular lens. It was selling like hot cakes and was out of stock everywhere. The reason was that this has a long zoom range. Despite is rather small max aperture 3.5-5.6, it has the newest vibration reduction technology at the time (VRII). It can give you an extra 2 to 3 stops. Also, the size of this lens is not as big as those professional grade lens and it's not too heavy either. Initially, I was also very happen with this lens because of it's zooming capability. It's very wide and can zoom in a lot. I took it for travelling and it was great. One lens and that's all I needed. After a while, I started to pay more attention to the picture qualities. I realize that pictures from this lens is not so good. Shot after shot, the pictures are consistently not as sharp as my beloved 35/f1.8. And now, even without side by side comparison, I can still see the blurriness of the pictures taken from this Nikon Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED IF AF-S DX VR-II Lens. Boy, I shouldn't have compared the pictures with those taken with the 35/f1.8. Now that I know what "sharpness" really means,  I cannot go back.   Even though the Nikon Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED IF AF-S DX VR-II Lens is very convenient and with amazing zoom range, I am just not happy with the quality of the picture. If all you care is zoom range and a one lens does all travelling, then this lens is a good choice.

fragchai

Oakland, CA

I thought I would need more range on my Nikon DSLR (D90) but in hindsight I should have kept the kit lens with that camera (18-105) and not sold it and replaced it with this lens. Don't get me wrong. The 18-200 is pretty useful range for most people, but it's more like 28 to 300, yes THREE HUNDRED mm when converting to 35mm equivalent. That's telephoto range right there, and it's not really necessary for most people. It's good for taking macro shots and blurring things (nice but not very creamy bokeh, or out of focus blur) like people's faces, but it's overkill for most everything else. Plus it gets significantly less sharp and slower (smaller apertures) when you are zooming out. The f/3.5 doesn't last long in general, actually, and quickly becomes more like f/5.6. There is little lens creep so you can point down and it won't creep past your focal point. It also does just fine when photographing fast-moving objects, with a nice response time in autofocus. I've used it on flying jets during an airshow for instance. Remember to buy a lens filter to protect the front element. Overall this is a good all-purpose lens but pricey and make sure you need that range first before buying!

strata

Oakland, CA

I think this is a really great lens to have in addition to your standard lens.  I know a lot of people that only have this lens, because you can use it for anything.  If you are going on a trip, this is just an awesome lens to have because you can use it to shoot anything.  It gets close enough up that you can still do normal pictures, but if you need to shoot something farther away you also have that option.  I wish this was the standard lens that was included when you purchased the lens kit.  I thought that it was a pretty reasonable price, though, for a great lens to add to your collection.  Definitely worth it for families that have kids that play sports or that like to travel.  It's nice to use just the one lens and not have to switch back and forth. The downside if this is your only lens is that it is kind of big and bulky.  It makes it a little hard to fit in your camera bag and carry around.

SarahHerbert

Gilbert, AZ

This lens is awesome ! Great lens to carry around with you as the range is just right, the wide side being at 18mm (which i consider wide enough) and zooms all the way to 200 which is more then enough for 99% of my photographs. The actual focal length of the lens is technically 27-300mm taking account the crop factor, but it suffices. This superzoom concept has been done before but before this lens, they were all large, heavy, and didn't have great quality.  The aperture is also relatively low for being an 18-200 unlike the 16-85mm nikon which hits 5.6 at a mere 85mm while the lens i am reviewing reaches 200mm before closing up that aperture that much.  I love the focus as it is quite silent and the lens doesn't rotate as it focuses The VR II works quite well and i'm able to shoot clear photos at around 1/20 - 1/40. Note: This lens creeps and requires 72mm filters as the end of it is wider then the base of it.

jamesmsong1

Irvine, CA