New Toy

I did it - I actually made a decision and purchased a new camera lens!  I settled for the Tamron 18-200 because I couldn't justify the expense of the 18-270 with vibration control.  I hope I don't regret it - I'm none too steady.

Thus far I like it.  It's a significant improvement over the old lens.  Here are some of the things I'm enjoying about it so far, after just a couple of days experimentation.

The color seems brighter, and truer.  It's doing a great job with subtleties in color.

The images are coming out nice and sharp, at a variety of different distances and with a variety of different types of light.

(Yes, that's her own foot.  No, I do not know how that position could possibly be comfortable.)

My favorite feature is its easy do-it-all range of zoom.  Wide angle is terrific fun.  This is just standing up and looking down at Lucy - looks like it was taken from a ladder.

Here's an example of its full range.  This is the exact same shot, zoomed in all the way, and zoomed out all the way.

It doesn't even look like the same spot on the trail.

I know you sacrifice something when you get a lens that has such a big range.  If you think about it that makes sense - a lens that has a range of 17-50 is especially good at wide angle and standard zoom.  That particular 17-50 that we were looking at has a super low f-stop - it's something like 2.8 - so you gain a great deal of speed with it.  That permits you to take photos in low light with a fast shutter speed, reducing the need for vibration control or a tripod.

In order to get a lens that does everything without having to cart around a camera bag full of lenses means you make sacrifices in quality for the convenience.  The maximum f-stop on my new lens ranges from 3.5 to 6.3, meaning if you are zoomed all the way in you wind up with a fairly slow shutter speed, and Ms. Shaky Hands here will struggle with that.

Regardless, I am very pleased so far with the quality and the range.  It's nice to be able to take more advantage of the abilities of the camera.  Amazing how much difference a lens can make!