Hi Larry. Thank you for your informative letter on these pieces of equipment. I thank you because I own a D500 (upgraded from a 300S) and an 18 to 200 lens. These are my favourite go to's. I would consider upgrading my lens but due to cost, weight and versatility, I will stick to these for now. I use many sharpening and noise reduction software programs and I so far feel that I am happy with my combo. I do have some prime lenses and can see that they are much sharper than my 18-200 but not as useful. So my question is if you can recommend another lens that is just as versatile, weight wise, and not costly, I would consider it. Thanks again.

Thanks for the update, Larry. Yes I am not from US. I am Canadian. I still think none of the lenses you mentioned have the extension of the 18 -200. They may be better in sharpness but I also need the zoom. My friend has a newer version which is the 18-300 but it is not enough to make me buy it. I will for now keep my 18-200 going until it breaks or Nikon or any of the other companies come out with something that will suit my. needs. If that happens, I will consider the 24-120. And Thanks again for your input.

"I want to be very clear here. My intent is absolutely not to cast aspersions on any piece of equipment. My intent was to determine for myself whether I was correct to encourage folks who can do so to be open to updating and upgrading equipment. The technology has advanced a long way in the past 25 years. It has advanced a long way in the past 13 years or so since I got my first digital cameras. It has advanced a long way in the 10 years since the D300 was introduced. I believe that we may be approaching a point at which advances will be quite a bit more gradual.

I had a pretty cool closing paragraph all worked out in my head, but I'll not include it here. Instead, I'll just say that I know that I have written several places about my friend who creates great art with modest materials and supplies. I haven't divulged until now that she would really like to have a camera with additional capabilities. She has several specific reasons behind that desire. I would ask that we be careful telling folks that "It's the photographer, not the camera," or "Learn to use what you have now." I've noticed that it seems to be mostly be photographers with very capable equipment who tell people one or the other of those things."

I'm not an engineer or a pro photographer but I'm not an idiot either as I have three college degrees (BA MA, Ohio State and JD, Yale). Also, I'm 89 so I have a long lifetime of experience, got my first 35mm (a Contax) from the PX while serving in Korea during the "war". I have found that as I get older, I do less and less photography. For a while, I was burning up 35mm film at an alarming rate. :-) I have never moved on from my 12mp 5Dc although I do have a drawer full of lens but use only a few at this point. I guess if I had to limit myself, I'd keep three or four, the longest being my 70-300, plus maybe a 35 and a 70-200 f4.0 and probably a 50/55 or maybe an 85 which I used a lot in my film days, shooting theatre and dance while at Ohio State. I field trial pointers and spaniels so a lot of my shooting is with dogs. Other than that, land and city scapes, no portraits, not many of people, maybe a few at trials or with dogs. Since I print mostly 8x10s, my 5Dc seems able to meet my needs. Plus, if I had an extra two grand, I'd buy a dog not a camera! Harry

Oh - and I don't tell folks anything, I let them make their own mistakes! <g>

“A certain banal reasoning......”

Some on this forum devote substantial time and effort to photography, and thus become expert. Most of us, I would guess, do photography because we enjoy it — simple as that. I have some nice equipment, which I enjoy having. I also have taken some nice photos that I enjoyed taking and enjoy having. What I do not enjoy, however, is the “talking down” from members who have chosen to devote a bigger chunk of their lives to photography than most of the rest of us. I am willing to learn what I want to learn from those who have accomplished more. But just because I am not an expert is no reason to indirectly refer to photographers like me as “happy idiots.”
Frank