Hi friends, I have Nikons d7200 and d500 and my favorite walk around lens is the Nikkor 18-200mm. Recently it began slipping. I now use a band on it, but I just don't feel the photos are as sharp arls they once were. I know with a long zoom sharpness is often compromised, and I have several other lenses that do an excellent job. But as an almost 72 yr old woman, although spry enough, sometimes I just want to grab one lens for a long hike. I'm looking between Nikkor, Tamron, and Sigma. I want new, as I don't want to deal with slipping again any time soon. I'm looking at 18mm-300mm, or even 400mm is quality isn't terribly compromised. And suggestions from personal experience? Thank you!!

Hi friends, I have Nikons d7200 and d500 and my favorite walk around lens is the Nikkor 18-200mm. Recently it began slipping. I now use a band on it, but I just don't feel the photos are as sharp arls they once were. I know with a long zoom sharpness is often compromised, and I have several other lenses that do an excellent job. But as an almost 72 yr old woman, although spry enough, sometimes I just want to grab one lens for a long hike. I'm looking between Nikkor, Tamron, and Sigma. I want new, as I don't want to deal with slipping again any time soon. I'm looking at 18mm-300mm, or even 400mm is quality isn't terribly compromised. And suggestions from personal experience? Thank you!!

Hi friends, I have Nikons d7200 and d500 and my favorite walk around lens is the Nikkor 18-200mm. Recently it began slipping. I now use a band on it, but I just don't feel the photos are as sharp arls they once were. I know with a long zoom sharpness is often compromised, and I have several other lenses that do an excellent job. But as an almost 72 yr old woman, although spry enough, sometimes I just want to grab one lens for a long hike. I'm looking between Nikkor, Tamron, and Sigma. I want new, as I don't want to deal with slipping again any time soon. I'm looking at 18mm-300mm, or even 400mm is quality isn't terribly compromised. And suggestions from personal experience? Thank you!!

Hi friends, I have Nikons d7200 and d500 and my favorite walk around lens is the Nikkor 18-200mm. Recently it began slipping. I now use a band on it, but I just don't feel the photos are as sharp arls they once were. I know with a long zoom sharpness is often compromised, and I have several other lenses that do an excellent job. But as an almost 72 yr old woman, although spry enough, sometimes I just want to grab one lens for a long hike. I'm looking between Nikkor, Tamron, and Sigma. I want new, as I don't want to deal with slipping again any time soon. I'm looking at 18mm-300mm, or even 400mm is quality isn't terribly compromised. And suggestions from personal experience? Thank you!!

Hi friends, I have Nikons d7200 and d500 and my favorite walk around lens is the Nikkor 18-200mm. Recently it began slipping. I now use a band on it, but I just don't feel the photos are as sharp arls they once were. I know with a long zoom sharpness is often compromised, and I have several other lenses that do an excellent job. But as an almost 72 yr old woman, although spry enough, sometimes I just want to grab one lens for a long hike. I'm looking between Nikkor, Tamron, and Sigma. I want new, as I don't want to deal with slipping again any time soon. I'm looking at 18mm-300mm, or even 400mm is quality isn't terribly compromised. And suggestions from personal experience? Thank you!!

For close to 15 years, I used the 17-55mm f/2.8 as the default lens on three different DX cameras...D200, D300, and D500. It's a pretty great lens, but it is fairly heavy, it doesn't have VR, and it can be a little short sometimes. I made a trip to my local camera store to see what alternatives might be available.

The 16-80mm f/2.8-4 came up first. Somehow, it just seemed too mediocre, too expensive, and too slow, since it turned out to be an f/4 lens from about 28mm and up.

There was a nice 24-120mm f/4 in the used case, however, priced at $425. I tried it and really liked it on my D500. You are correct that it isn't really very wide on a DX camera at pretty close to 35mm full frame equivalent. But it approaches 200mm full-frame equivalent on the long end. That has proven to be a pretty fair trade. It has become my preferred lens when using a DX camera.

If I know I'm going into a wide angle situation, I'll either swap over to a full frame camera or go back to the 17-55. If caught by surprise, a quick 2-4 shot panorama will fill the need at the expense of only a few extra seconds.

This thinking and approach may not work for everyone, but it's been pretty successful for me.