Congratulations! If your secret supplier was Park cameras of Burgess Hill and you got the magical phone call in the last few days, then it might even be the lens with my name on it that you are now sporting. I got the call to action and having forgotten to advise them that I had got mine three months ago elsewhere, it will have defaulted to the next lucky person in the queue. When I explained that my own 18-200 had cost £479 as opposed to their not unreasonable £539, (Well done Great Western Cameras in Swindon) I thought I could detect a gulping sound on the phone. There are THAT few 18-200VRs kicking around, that there is a good chance that your lens could be "mine".
It is a great all round lens and covers a lot of ground, being equiv to 27-300 in film terms. Quality is very good really for general purpose work and you don't change lenses often with that one as the spout either, so any dust issues are minimised yet further. There is a bit of distortion, but hardly noticeable for most users and unless a devotee of "Top Trumps" is only of academic interest. It isn't a pro lens, but it is a wonderfully accomplished piece of kit and I am sure that you will be very happy indeed with it. The performance is impressive. A few thoughts on that lens though.
Vibration Reduction
The VR is very good, but if ever you put in on a tripod, then turn VR OFF. Also,the "Normal" position is for everyday use unless travelling in a car or flying, where "active" is the preferred choice.If you are a flingwing merchant then difintely use the active as this caters for the more unusual vertical and odd out of phase vibrations.
Aperture.
Most lenses are happiest at mid everything and although the lens isn't lightning fast, everyday shots both indoors and out will give you chance to shoot at something other than wide open and this will give you some sparkling results. It really is a great all rounder.
Contruction and build.
Small, lightweight and surprisingly so, when you factor in the VR Gubbins that live there too. It can have a tendency to "creep" especially if not on either the 18 or 200 setting. A lot of people are ribbing Messrs Nikon over this, though I have never found it a problem.
If you do put a filter on it, then use a good one. Even so, I find mine sharper without. With a Polarising filter or maybe an ND filter, this can allegedly spoof the camera metering slightly. (So says the Godlike Thom Hogan. He writes books for the D70 and D200 which are incredible. They are everything that Nikon manuals should be but aren't and are in my view, the finest and most definitive works available.) Use centre weighted or Matrix metering in this case and you might find better results.
72mm is a bit of an odd filter size. Most professional lenses are 77mm, so if you have, or plan on getting any of these, then it might be an idea to get a 77mm Polariser with a stop down ring to allow it to fit on the 72mm thread. Cheaper in the long run!
Teleconverters.
Err... Sadly - nope. 200mm is your limit on this lens.
It isn't the cheapest of lenses. Look after it and it will certainly look after you.
How you shoot, is a personal preference, but after making a bit of a splash with the cash, I do think it better to use the highest quality camera settings and especially so, with memory prices collapsing as they are. (Just seen a generic 4GB for £44) I would shoot RAW, RAW and then RAW, with the D50,D70 and D200, but that is me. Look for instance at REF, who as a new D70 owner is already producing some very good JPGs straight from the box and even his will get better the more one hones the process down and the better you get to know the camera. This is the beauty of a good DSLR of whatever manufacture, but I still prefer to fix my goofs afterwards in another editing suite. Anything I can do to help, then just whistle me up.
Conan
PS For software, a few further thoughts. I take it that by Adobe 5, you mean Elements v5 which supports all of the latest cameras. MS Photo Editor? Own view is to forget that one. A few software thoughts now.
Irfanview.
Free, cheap and very powerful for some editing but so good for other work such as resizing, renaming and other processes. Indespensible to all photographers
RawShooter Essentials.
Free and very powerful, this will let you edit and open RAW files with great depth and complete control. The Premium version was available until recently for about $99 I think, but this is history now. Adobe have purchased or acquired a controlling interest in the company (Pixamntec) and it is widely rumoured that they will be using this company's expertise in editing RAW files to incorporate in future versions of Photoshop. Compliments do not get higher than this. Amazingly, RS Essentials is still available. Grab it while you can.
PhotoBucket, Flickr, etc.
Put your albums online and share them. Basic packages are free and these are great tools. One use that comes to mind, is that if you wish to post a pic on Pprune, that it needs to be hosted elsewhere and referred to here by a link. These services do just that, amongst the more obvious album functions.
Nikon Picture Project.
Came with the camera. You might really like it. If so, then I suggest you write to Nikon, as you will be the first one that does. Many users prefer Nikon View 6.27 which is free to registered Nikon users and a goiod browser. For more intensive editing, it might be worth looking at Nikon Capture NX. It is very good indeed, though has no cloning or healing tools. Adobe Elements 5.0 is a cut back, though not crippled Photoshop and represents excellent value for money. PS is a massive and complex package for which photographers will only really use 10-15%. elements 5.0 will give nearly all of this at a far, far lower cost than the full Photoshop.
PPS - It is ok, beddybyes shortly - if flying and shooting from the sharp end with the D200 then go into the menu and find "Tone Compensation". If this is set to auto, then you might really get some harsh contrast and it is always easier to add contrast later rather than try to subtract it. Set a a lower value Infact, this is not bad advice, full stop. If in cockpit, some fill flash would be useful to give you some internal detail as well as that out of the window . Flash will NOT fire automatically, so as long as the head is down, so you will not get any frighteners there, if in ow light, but remember the AF assist light is easily bright enough on both D70 and D200 to stuff night adaptation. You can turn this off via the menu if needed. My own feelings on night flying with any camera, are simple - I just will not do it and will always leave the camera in the bag.
With flying shots, you can often get some annoying glare and reflection problems visible afterwards, so an old aviation trick, is to get a single black glove and use your hand as a lens hood. your hand will follow the contour and curvature of the glass better than anything else. Not quite DV, but the next best thing. Single black gloves are both useful and cheap. In fact, usually you can buy one and get one free. Worth shoving in your camera bag.
Another hint is to try and shoot through glass or perspex at as near a perpendicular angle to the surface as possible, which will reduce any colour casts that can appear and be a PIA afterwards. The Autofocus shuldn't play up by spoofing on the glass but if it does, then remember manual focus as a backstop. I would be surprised indeed if this was a problem though.
Last edited by Conan the Librarian; 21st Oct 2006 at 12:47.
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