dcampbell52 wrote:
The 18-300 is a crop sensor lens, so I am guessing that you are using it on a crop sensor camera (it doesn't really make a difference as it will automatically crop on a FF Nikon) but, it makes it similar to a 27-450 mm full frame as far as reach. It should work fine from a plane for both telephoto and wide shots. The full frame equivalent from Nikon is a 28-300 lens (also an acceptable all-in-one lens for about $1000 US). I have used the 18-300 on a D7100 as a walk around when I was testing it for Nikon and found that it gave very good results across the reach. My shots on wide angle shooting straight down a railroad track next to a moving train showed good blur for the moving train but did NOT show any distortion from front to back of the train cars and was reasonably fast in good light. ( the lens is not a great low light hand held lens as it will force you to use higher ISO if your camera is not a good high ISO camera). I also was able to take some excellent shots of a helicopter flying over and was able to take some shots blurring the blades and some freezing the blades. Again, these shots were between 4 - 6 pm on a cloudless day in decent light. It is a 3.5-5.6 f/stop lens, so it is okay for long shots but a little slow in the 35-70mm where other lenses might have better f/stop. Having said that, the lens has good reach and I highly recommend it for people that want one all-in-one walk around lens and don't mind the weight. As I explained to several, while it is fairly heavy for a 35-50mm lens it is much lighter than carrying 2 or 3 lenses to cover the same range and you don't have to constantly stop shooting to change lenses. So, choose your poison.
The 18-300 is a crop sensor lens, so I am guessing... (
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Oops, typo sorry. I meant in response to your prior post the 28-300. I use full frame Nikons and typically the holy trinity of Zooms. I am frequently caught with the 24-70 lens and need to change to the 70-200 to get the 100+ length. I have heard on the open door flights they limit your gear due to the wind, so no changing lenses. This am looking to cover about 24 -200 with one lens that is sharp. The 28-300 and 24-120 are about equal in sharpness. Both have distortions issues but that can be corrected. If I want the epic shot that I can print large then I need the sharpest lens that gives flexibility in focal length. Thanks for your feedback.