maryo Loc: Santa fe

I am looking for a zoom lens for my d7200 that will go up to 300mm. I can spend up to $1000 or less if used. Any suggestions? I have a Tamron 16-300 now but would like one with a little better sharpness. Thanks.

drklrd Loc: Cincinnati Ohio

I use the 50 to 300mm on my D7200. On the second camera (D7200) I use the 18 to 140mm that came with the D7200 when purchased. Shooting sports I have the best of two worlds and no lens changes to stall my timing with. Quick change to second camera. I set both cameras to the same settings so I get the same results from both cameras. I think I just saw an add either from Nikon themselves or it was B&H that was having a sale on these lenses. You can buy direct from Nikon I think it is Nikon.com. They had a few good deals for father's day.

AndyH Loc: Massachusetts and New Hampshire

We love our Sigma 18-300 with optical stabilization. Near macro capabilities too.

Andy

maryo Loc: Santa fe

thanks

CO

You'll probably want to go with a 70-300mm or 100-400mm lens instead of a superzoom. I stay away from superzoom lenses as the engineers have to compromise too much in the design in order to achieve the long zoom range. They usually have a lot of barrel distortion at wide settings and a lot of pincushion distortion at long focal lengths. I just rented the Tamron 100-400mm f/4.5-6.3 G2 lens from LensRentals.com to try out. It costs $799 new, weighs only about 1100 grams and has weather sealing including a weather seal at the lens mount. I'm impressed with it so far. A review I read says that it focuses accurately about 92% of the time which isn't great but I want to continue testing. It has Arca-Swiss dovetails cut into the tripod foot. That's nice as it can go straight into a head with an Arca-Swiss clamp without mounting it on a plate. Another option would be Nikon's 70-300mm lens.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Most of the superzooms have poor quality at the long end. You can get a used Sigma 100-300 F4 for about $500, or you can get a new Tamron 100-400 - either of which will do a much better job than what you have now.

If you can forego the zoom thing, an even better solution would be a nice clean Nikkor 300mm f/4D ED IF AF-S - which you can find used from $500 to $900 depending on condition. THAT is a very sharp lens, and works nicely with a 1.4X TC.

http://www.bythom.com/300AFSlens.htm (older model)
https://photographylife.com/reviews/nikon-300mm-f4d (a newer model)

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

.....The Sigma 100-300 and the Tammy 100-400 are optically the best at this price point IMO. If you must have a NIKON zoom, the latest FX 70-300 is also pretty good.

..

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

The new Tamron 100-400mm and Sigma 100-400mm lenses are quite reasonably priced at $700 to $800.

The Sigma appears to be very slightly sharper at the 400mm end, but doesn't have a tripod ring or any means of attaching one optionally.

The Tamron also seems to have very good image quality, has option to add a tripod ring for $129.

Personally I think a tripod ring is essential for a lens like this, even with images stabilization (which both have) and especially if using it on a crop sensor camera.

Check out the reviews and images samples online. These 4X zooms don't compromise the way the extremely wide ranging 10X and more zooms do. The 100-400s come pretty close to the performance of near pro grade OEM lenses such as the Nikkor 80-400mm or the Canon 100-400mm... each of which are in the $2000 price range.

Might as well get 400mm, since you have the budget for it.

PCL92

Tamron's new lens , i think it is 18-400 or 16-400 is a great walk around lens. This has all the features you need and is reasonable cost. My friend has it on his Nikon and there is no barrel distortion and it is sharp through the entire zoom .
Dont buy anything until you check out this lens.

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

Easy one, the Nikon 18-300 FX lens.