imagemeister wrote:
The 18-300 is weakest @ 300 - weaker than
your other lenses. If that suits you, go for it.
..
"Writing off" the long end is a perfectly valid
approach to using high ratio zooms. I have a
28-300/3.5-5.6. I just think of it as a 28-200
[250 ? depends on aperture] of excellent IQ.
There is another benefit to having the long
end available. Typically, a modern high ratio
zoom is internal focusing which means they'll
focus very close, but this design involves the
loss of FL at short distances. IOW the longest
FLs might not be stellar at infinity, but those
longest FLs are just an incidental side effect
of the IF design, not suitable for all purposes.
My particular 10X zoom may not be terrific at
300mm at infinity,
but leave the zoom ring on
the 300mm mark, focus it to about 6 feet and
it's quite sharp, tho its FL is reduced to about
150mm ... IOW, a sharp "short tele" portrait
lens, even tho the
indicated FL is 300mm.
Rambled on a bit, but basically, the long end
that you would avoid using near infinity focus is often still beneficial, indirectly, when using
the lens in other situations.
.