Telephoto shots seem fogged out and dull. How can I get them as bright and rich as 50mm?

That's normal. When you zoom in with an ultra zoom lens like yours, the aperture is stopped down - which means there is less light getting into the camera. That will affect exposure. Also because of the extreme nature of such a zoom lens the quality of the optics is often compromised, they tend to be a bit low contrast at the telephoto end of the zoom, sometimes even soft focus is a problem. There isn't much you can do about that - it's the price you pay for using a lens like that unfortunately. However there are things you can do to improve the situation - it's not all doom and gloom!!

To compensate for the narrower aperture, learn how to balance the exposure properly, and how to read your light meter. Increase the ISO, or decrease the shutter speed. If necessary you may also need to use a tripod to get the best shot. If you don't know how to balance exposure read this: Understanding Exposure: http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/camera-... If you don't know how to read your internal light meter, dig out the camera user manual - it will tell you how to use it.

Making sure the exposure is right first will help the problem more than anything else. At this stage don't be tempted to over expose, you'll make the situation worse.

If the finished image is still a little soft/foggy, which is often the case when using lenses like yours, you may also be able to apply a little sharpening in an image editor using unsharp mask, and you can help increase the local contrast by making a levels adjustment - to remove that foggy look. Check your histogram, if the images look low contrast, such images can likely do with a levels adjustment.

This is an example screenshot of what can be done by making a levels adjustment alone.

http://i.imgur.com/ElaPHkF.jpg

The image editor I used is the free software GIMP http://www.gimp.org/

Short answer: Normal behavior for such a lens.

Long answer: Any lens with such a drastic zoom range will never have good quality at the extremes of focal length, especially at the telephoto extreme. It is simply the nature of the construction compromises needed for such a zoom range and not have the lens cost a small fortune or be the size of a Pringles can. Another problem is that the lens aperture closes down as you zoom to telephoto lengths. Zoom lenses that do not close down are called constant aperture lenses and are VERY large, heavy,and EXPENSIVE. Your lens is no where in such a category. As the lens aperture stops down, light is decreased into the camera. If you are in any kind of auto modes, then the shutter will have to get longer and / or the ISO will increase. Increased ISO never helps the photo in such a camera. The camera may be applying some extra noise reducing filtering, which in turn hurts photo quality even more.

Use prime lenses or lenses with much less zoom range and you will see large improvements in your photos.

steve

You may just have a cheap and nasty lens - some simply are NOT as good as others. The "nifty fifty" is a very nice lens (both Nikon and Canon, and probably other brands as well).

If you wanted a better answer instead of a general one or a guess, perhaps you could consider giving us a bit of VERY crucial info such as what camera and what lens you are talking about.

Better still, also show us an example.

Better even still, add a please or a thank you somewhere.

Here's another point of view.It could simply be an atmospheric issue shooting distant exterior subjects.

In addition, be sure to inspect the front, rear, and internal elements of the lens and check for a fogged lens. Hold it up to the light and look through both ends of the glass.

Your lens quickly becomes "slow" when zooming. You can't do anything with it cause it's the price you have to pay for the versatility of your 18-200mm.

You could find out what lenses are suitable for different genres of photography with you camera with Photo Lens Finder: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/photo-lens-finder/...

Your problem is likely being caused by a low quality zoom lens. Based on the paucity of information you provided that's my best guess.

In the future, when asking a question, please include all pertinent information - make and model of your camera and of the lens you're using. Using words like 'please" and "thank you" is also appreciated.