The quest for the perfect lens!

In my continuing quest for the perfect lens, I’m again looking at the Nikon 18-200 VR zoom lens. This lens has been out of stock forever, basically since its introduction in early 2005. Sure, I could get one, used, off of eBay for about $1000. The MSRP is $690 and retailers, such as B&H, Adorama, and Ritz are selling them for $749, when they have them in stock.

The thing that attracts me about the 18-200 is that it is a great walk-around lens. What more do you need? This weekend I was walking along the beach taking pictures with my favorite lens, the Nikon 18-70mm, but there were, and always are, those times that I wished that I could zoom out to 200mm to catch a seagull in flight, or whatever. Changing lenses is slow and somewhat cumbersome. I’d like to just be able to take the shot.

Now, my perfect lens would probably be an 11-500mm zoom, f/2.8, Internal Focus, Vibration Reduction lens with very little distortion, if any, at any place along the zoom range! That’s 45x zoom! Oh yeah, with a price of under $1,000!!! And, last, but not least, a solid construction with a weight under 2 pounds! Keep dreaming!!!

I’ve ordered mine from Ritz and it will probably be a few months before I get it. I won’t, however, get rid of my 80-200mm f/2.8 Nikon lens just yet. It is THE sharpest lens that I have and is just amazing and at a constant f/2.8, it can’t be beat for low light situations … with a tripod. This beast is heavy because it is built like a tank!

Oh well, I’ll just have to keep swapping out lenses until I get a good mix, or until that 11-500mm f/2.8 VR IF comes out!