PhotoPhred Loc: Cheyney, Pa

Sigma 18 - 250 macro. $350.00. Hard to beat the price, well built and it seems nice and sharp throughout its range. Not as good as a dedicated macro lens, but with the d7100 you can "zoom by cropping" with this lens and camera combo.

Ralphwg

+1

PhotoPhred Loc: Cheyney, Pa

Sorry, 7200. I have a 7100, I lost my head.

jlefebvre Loc: Toronto, Ontario

I too have a Nikkor 18-300 lens on my D7100 and I love it as well. I just hate taking lenses on and off especially if I am on the go....

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

In the Nikon Lens Group it is a Good Lens not a Great one.
But it is a Great Walk-Around Lens.
Craig

Wingpilot Loc: Wasilla. Ak

What would be a great lens in that category of focal length?

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

The Nikon Holy Trilogy. I have similar Lenses to the first 2 and am working on the 3rd.
Nikon 14-24mm f2.8
Nikon 24-70mm f2.8
Nikon 70-200mm f2.8
http://www.mattgranger.com/gear-talk/item/107-nikon-holy-trinity-of-lenses
Craig

Wingpilot Loc: Wasilla. Ak

I will check them out.

Wingpilot Loc: Wasilla. Ak

I went to Best Buy and checked out these lenses. I see why they're called the holy trilogy--the prices are breathtaking.

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

Now you know why it's taking awhile to acquire all 3.
But I'm cheating a little I got the Tokina 16-24mm f/2.8 and the Tamron 24-70mm f/2.8 and the Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 is next.
Craig

Wingpilot Loc: Wasilla. Ak

There's always more than one way to skin a cat. LOL! :D

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

Unfortunately, the only thing close to a truly great super zoom is the Canon EF 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6L IS USM, but it costs $2500 and weighs 5.4 lbs. Unlike most super zooms this lens was designed to work on both full frame and crop Canon bodies, and as good as it is, it too is not truly great.

All super zooms of reasonable size and cost, with few exceptions, are designed for crop sensor cameras only and, by their nature, compromise image quality for convenience. They all tend to be soft at the long end as well as at the edges of images at all focal lengths. They all tend to have much higher levels of various distortions than primes or shorter focal length zooms, especially at the wide end. They all tend to have higher levels of chromatic aberration than primes and short zooms . They are all slow lenses, general f/3.5 for a few millimeters at the wide end to f/6.3 at the long end. Many of them hunt for focus significantly in very low light. As a result of their maximum aperture and tendency to hunt, they are fairly useless in low light situations without a flash or other external lighting.

In general, one buys a super zoom for convenience, not for image quality. As I've stated earlier there are many people who are quite happy with the images they get from a super zoom and don't feel they are compromising much. But you did ask about "great", and the reality is most super zooms are optically mediocre to good, at best.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

Not exactly the category of focal length he was referring to.

icemncmth Loc: Oklahoma

I have a 7200 and several lenses. The one thing to consider is that you will have a great camera and match that with a great lense and you can crop your pictures with better results. I have several zoom lenses and depending on what i am doing depends on what lense I grab. Basically my Sigma 35mm art lense is what I keep on the camera. I also have a 70-200 that I will throw on my camera when I need a zoom.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

After initially using the kit lenses that came with my first body, i updated to superzooms and used them for a couple of years until i realized i wanted to take my photography to a different level with a different approach. Now, I keep the Canon 35mm f/2 with image stabilization on my Canon 7D2 most of the time. I do have short and long zooms when I need them, but for me 35mm is my go to focal length. For most, though, this won't provide the day to day flexibility they want.