General Purpose Travel Lens Advice

[Caterham 7]

Hi Folks,

I've been toying with a super zoom type of lens, mainly for traveling with.

I've been considering the Nikkor 18-200 VRII, 18-300 or 28-300 or the Tamron 18-270mm.

Body is. Nikon D7000.

Any advice or opinions appreciated.

Chris

 

[a1ex2001]

Super zooms can be really useful as a travel lens where you ant versatility and can afford a compromise on quality, the Nikkor gets really good reviews and isn't ridiculously long. I would avoid the lenses starting at 28mm as they won't be wide enough on a crop and I'd put a fast prime in the bag for times wanted something a little better or faster.

 

[modchild]

I got a Tamron 18-270 PZD for the wife to use on her 650D and a Tamron 28-300 VC for me to use with my 5D3 mainly when we go out travelling. The IQ is decent enough for general snaps and on the beach etc (anywhere you don't want to risk very high value lenses), both give good reach and neither are massively expensive. For a crop the 18-270 is excellent as you'll keep the width over the 28-300 but it really depends what you like to shoot. I occasionally have the 28-300 on my Canon 70D if I'm going to be taking more long shots than wide and while IQ isn't as good as it is on the 5D3 it's still eminently useable.

 

[James24]

I had a Nikkor 18-200mm and didn't get on with it at all. The zoom control was less than tight and quite sloppy (something I believe Nikon improved upon with the mark II version) but worst of all, image quality was very disappointing. I was much happier when I moved to a Nikkor 16-85mm VR, which I found produced excellent images, and made a great do it all travel lens. Yes, it isn't quite as long at the long end but 85mm covers an awful lot, and the extra 2mm at the wide end really does make a difference.

 

[jsstevo]

The Sigma 18-250 looks a good general lens to me. Just looking at the same options, but for a Canon. It has good reviews and comes in around £250 from Digi or similar.

 

[RegG]

I have been using the Tamron 18-270mm for just over a year or so and find it a very competent lens. I also tend to take my Canon 10-22mm wide angle lens too as this is a great lens for landscapes and, on a Canon 70D with the 1.6x crop factor, works well.