First let me thank all that replied, especially Alan for the time it took for that reply, very helpful. The reason for f18, was that I was at a preserve in Florida, and among other things, was hoping to get pics of the eagles and ospreys, who often sit on distant trees from the walking paths. Additionally, the park has a tower that overlooks not only the estuary where the women was, but in the distance (see attached pic) was the Tampa Skyway Bridge (f18 @265mm). I was shooting the bridge when the women appeared out of the mangroves, and amateur as I was, did not think of an aperture change.

Regarding the filter. I was led to believe that having a filter helped 'protect' the lens. Out of the ones suggested, polarizing was one. Since I'm a 'blue sky' guy ;), I went with the polarizing one and basically leave it on all the time. To those more learned, is this not really suggested for the reasons already given?


Thanks all, learning alot.

Zooms do come with advantages and disadvantages but the caveats of sharpness are often traded off at certain focal lengths. Equally I'm not very fond of variable apertures but to conserve space and size when I travel, I use a 70-300 4/5.6. I don't consider this a great shot but it illustrates the sharpness levels that can be easily achieved after a little post work. Shot at minimum Fstop at F5.6 at 300mm IS0 100 at 1/100 sec handheld. I realize IQ is extremely subjective but for myself, this is what I prefer at a minimum. Thank you for sharing btw. It's good to see people trying to give others a representation of what can be achieved with any given lens.

Have the Nikon version of the Tamron 18-400mm and am happy with it given a few caveats. My lens needed tuning, but once tuned it is sharp over the whole zoom range. The focus ring turns when AF is active, you have to turn off AF on the lens to use manual focus and there is some chromatic aberration and distortion, which are easily corrected in PP. On the other hand, VR works great and the lens is light and compact for its versatility. I especially like it for family vacations when I don't want to take a lot of equipment with me. Enjoy!