mikee

Consider an 18-200 instead? Bit lighter, covers most of your range, IQ is good, and costs around $225 used right now on ebay. This is my primary "vacation lens". Good luck on the repair.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

Send it in quickly. The sooner you send it in the sooner you'll get it back. Bad things always happen in threes. Looks like you've had your 3 bad lucks for the time being. Things should be looking up for now.

Jerry1940 Loc: Born in OH live in CA

Check to see if your home owners insurance might cover your loss.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Like raindrops, and bird "drops"? I would say yes. As for protecting a lens if it is dropped to the ground, a filter will not help. It's good environmental protection, and that's about all.

A.J.R. Loc: Devon, UK

I have not read all the replies, but has anyone suggested that your house and contents insurance might cover most of the cost? In this country (UK) it sometimes does.

TheShoe Loc: Lacey, WA

You may get through this better than you think. Homeowner's or renter's insurance may cover at least a portion of the repair cost depending on your policy. It may be worth a call to your agent.

Nikon1201

you can buy a D5200 at KEH in excellent plus condition with a warranty and a option for an extended warranty..for $349.

zzzynick Loc: Colorado

First of all does it still work. Does the AF still focus? Does it zoom?
If not, look in your local craigslist. If it's been there awhile do a little haggling.
You might get a deal.

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

Bipod

Replacing the lens is the simplest option, if you can afford to do so. However, if nothing else is broken in the lens, then it is still usable -- if you are
willing to accept some some slightly blurry spots in your image and want to go to the trouble. The damaged modern lens is still a better lens than
any lens that existed in 1930 (and better than any zoom lens that existed in 1980).

1. Carefully clean both sides of the element a lint free cloth and camera lens cleaner or 90% isopropyl alcohol.
3. Using a black indelibler magic marker, blacken all the broken parts (this is to prevent them creating a distored
image and scattering light. (This isn't as good as making a mask, but it's a lot easier.)
4. Blow it off with air (using a squeeze ball) and immediately re-install it, touching only the edges.

At that point, you can try a few shots and decide if you want to keep the lens. For best results:
* Shoot at smaller aperatures (bigger f-numbers)--since the damage is on the edge
* Use a lens hood
* Avoid letting the sun shine directly on the lens--it will flare very badly

The lens will have lost some contrast--which on very contrasty days may actually be a good thing. :-)

No lens is perfect, and many good photographs have been taken with lenses that had major shortcomings.
Think about it this way: there are many damaged paintings hanging in the Louvre.

That said, I must admit: I would replace the lens, because knowing it is damaged would always bother me--
even if I couldn't easily tell which photos were taken with it, My hang up, I guess.

Bipod

How much would folks here pay for an 90 mm focal length prime focus lens with a lot of aberration?
How about $6,495? That's what a new Leica Thambar-M portrait lens sells for at B&H.

The Thambar, introduced back in the 1930s is being manufactured again. Portrait lenses
were simply longish lenses that were blurry. But this kind of blur--due primarily I think to
spherical aberration--looks very different than garden variety defocus.

Distortion filters such as the old Zeiss Softar (now being copied by Tiffen) tried to duplicate
the look of potrait lenses, but never quite matched it. Nowadays, you can get a similar non-optical
effect in PhotoSlop, but again, not as good, IMHO. (There are technical reasons why trying to
duplicate an optical effect on a digital computer is a daunting task.)

Soft images are not to everyone's taste: far from it! They are decidedly out of fashion. But more
portrait photographers and fashion photographers use them than care to admit it. It's like
flattering vs. unflattering light. But beyond that, it is an aesthetic.

Begining in the 1900s, and taking hold on the West Coast in the 1930s, the straight photography
movement rebelled against soft photography and pictorialism. "Ultra-sharp images" became a
rallying cry. But things have changed greatly since then. Sharp images are now the norm--
at least until they are blown up. :-(

Today, the danger to photography isn't pictorialism, its post-processing and digital "trick photography".
A couple years ago, a cut-and-pasted image won a Nikon photography contest. It combined two
shots of two different parts of an airport lobby into one: a photo of a place that doesn't exist.
(Which might have been OK, had the photographer admitted what he had done.)

But my point is that perfection is not the goal, even in straight photography (which I love, BTW).
The goal is to avoid adding anything to the image that is distracting or intrusive. (Any fakery--
once it is detected--dominates the viewer's experience of the photography. ruining it.)

So the question isn't whther or not the lens is perfect (no lens is), but whether its defects it has
create something in the image that is distracts or intrudes--that doesn't belong there. Every photograph
and every photographer is different. *Why* you are taking the picture determines *what* tools you need.

sleepy51 Loc: Makoshika Park--Montana

I'm sorry about the broken lens, but alot of people talk about renting lens to try them out. You might rent one for the vacation, while you are trying to figure out what to do with your old lens....

IDguy Loc: Idaho

You can get a new AF-P 70-300 VR gray market for about $200. Much sharper images.

Might need to upgrade your D5200 firmware (free).

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

If your getting results that please you with the lens you have, by all means take it on vacation and get your shots. When time permits, if you wish, send it in to be repaired.

Bipod

Besides protecting the objective from scratches, a UV filter will prevent or lessen minor dents
in the filter ring. So will a lens hood (particularly a rubber one). Or both.

A minor ding is a routine repair: no parts, just labor. A major dent may require
replacement of the filter ring.

BTW, never throw away a ruined lens or camera, if its high-end, old or rare.
Sell it on-line "for parts only". You'll be helping someone else and yourself.
I've bought several cameras and lenses for parts over the years and it
worked out well each time.