Is it better to buy Nikon 18-200mm and Nikon 70-300mm or just Nikon 28-300mm?

The Nikon 18-200 is known more or less as a "walk around lens", in that it a single lens solution for most shooting situations.

I have this lens, and I consider it my "vacation lens". Having nearly a 12x power, this lens is technically a "super-zoom", and like all super-zooms, it has some optical quality issues. My lens is a bit soft (blurry) at any aperture larger than f/8, but when used at f/8, it performs about as well as some of my other lenses.

I call it my vacation lens as I am willing to use it at f/8 in order to simply have one lens - resulting in a lighter package to take on vacations. Although using it at f/8 is really only good in daylight conditions, most of the time on vacation, I am taking photos outside anyway, so it is not really an issue.

When I am at home, I have better lenses, and I will usually use one of those.

The 18-200, as a DX lens, gives a pretty decent coverage from the wide angle to telephoto end.

The 28-300mm lens is more-or-less the FX (full frame equivalent) to the 18-200. While some DX users have the 28-300mm lens, Nikon really intended it to be the FX version of the 18-200.

The 70-300mm lens is a telephoto only lens, and is best used along with your kit lens to get the 18-300mm range. However, this results in a 2 lens solution, and by definition - it is not a walk-around lens.

Again, the 18-200 and 28-300 lenses are somewhat specialized lenses, and with the optical issues, they are best used at f/8 and smaller. At those apertures, they give adequate performance, so they should also be considered daylight-only lenses.

Here is a webpage where I compare my 18-200mm lens so my son's 18-55mm and 55mm-200mm lenses.

http://www.althephoto.com/lenses/super-zooms.php

The Sigma f/four-5.6 DG, the Tamron, and the Nikon f/four-5.6 G are all 'low-priced attain': sluggish AF, bad image great (smooth at big apertures, gentle beyond 200mm, CA/ fringing), and flimsy construct best. Two others, the Sigma f/4-5.6 APO DG and the Nikon f/four-5.6 D are higher, but nonetheless price range lenses. As for the macro mode: both Sigmas record a minimum center of attention distance three.1' and for the Nikons, it is four.9' / 5.0'. So pick your poison. Also bear in mind that the Nikons will preserve their price better if/ when you decide to upgrade. Otherwise you would readily purchase a used replica to with. The one 70-300mm worth ordering for the longer term (it's not delivery yet) is the Nikon f/four.5-5.6G IF-ED AF-S VR, however this lens fees as a lot as your D50 physique... Then again, that is still most effective a mid-priced lens. --- It just occured to me that the majority of those Nikon lens codes won´t ring any bells. This is what they mean: G: no aperture ring - the aperture is managed through the body D: aperture ring on the lens, however nonetheless managed by the physique IF: interior focussing - the front detail doesn't rotate ED: a number of glass factors have a detailed coating AF-S: fast auto-focus VR: vibration discount