Yay - New Lens for Nate!

Well after much saving of money and waiting, I finally got my very own copy of Nikon's 18-200 f/3.5-5.6 VR super-duper all purpose walk around lens delivered by the Men-In-Brown (UPS) late yesterday. Before I go any further, I want to publicly thank my wife who selflessly helped me get this. Thanks babe, I love you muchly :-)

So, what's the big deal and what's it like? Well, the big deal is that in the old 35mm format, this lens is equivalent to a 28-300, which is a wide angle to a decent telephoto in one small and convenient package. What that means is that for more than 90% of the time I want to take pictures, this lens will satisfy all of my needs. The other thing is that the smart folks at Nikon also included some built in stabilization technology which allows the user to get sharp pictures in conditions typically intended for tripods.

Jenee entertained my excitement last night, and we went on a walk to get a package from the large delivery mail boxes we have on site (thanks Bek for that special something that you sent... O.o) so I took the new toy along for a try-out. (click on the picture to see differences pronounced)

The local theater. ISO 400, f/3.5 at 1/13th of a second. Comparison of VR on and off.

Comparison:
I, III, IV and V you can see significantly better detail in the images with the VR on.
II and VI - you can see there is better contrast and sharpness with the VR on.

So far I am very happy with it but I will put it through some more vigorous testing to see how good the lens actually is. I am really curious how well the sharpness and colors will hold up, as well as its low light/VR performance holds up. My original 18-70 lens was pretty sharp and had great colors, so if this new lens doesn't hold its end of the bargain up it will be off to Ebay...