Nikkor lense junkie question

[djg05478]

Both B&H and Adorama have the 18-200mm (manufacturer #2192) on sale with a $250 rebate. I'm curious as to why, in particular could this/ does this mean that a newer version is coming soon? Just curious. Thanks

[Manfred M]

No, it's game playing by Nikon USA (I understand it is not just Nikon doing this). They are forcing all retailers to sell the gear at list price, so the big retailers are getting around the no discounting rules by offering the lens with a rebate.

[djg05478]

No, it's game playing by Nikon USA (I understand it is not just Nikon doing this). They are forcing all retailers to sell the gear at list price, so the big retailers are getting around the no discounting rules by offering the lens with a rebate.

Thanks...I believe this your wife's 'go to' lens correct? Seems like a good buy right now.

[HenkB]

Since the waning days of February, Nikon has been offering substantial instant rebates on many of its lenses. The 18-200 is one of these. The offer for these rebates is slated to end on March 31. The speculation is that Nikon is taking the soaking to shore up its sales figures for the fiscal year just about to end.

[djg05478]

Thanks Hendrik. I'm not sure what I'm going to do. There's a part of me that wants that lense and the other part thinks my money would be better spent on upgrading the D90 to the D7100. I'm going to stew on it. I know the rebates end in a couple of days....we'll see.

[Manfred M]

Yes it is. She rarely bothers with any other lens, in spite of the good selection of lenses that we have.

As for lower lens costs, there are a number of factors at play here. With the fairly rapid drop in the Japanese Yen, Nikon can appear to take a hit on the price of thelens, yet still make more money on it than they did a year ago.

[HenkB]

For ease of use, the 18-200 can hardly be beat. Mine is the original (VR1) that had zoom creep (later fixed in an under-warranty servicing that also rendered the manual focus tight and ratchety - win some, lose some) and is quite a decent do-everything lens. Lightroom tells me that of my photos, ~1/6 have been taken with this lens. It was the more used part of a two lens kit I took traveling to Europe in '10 (the other was the 50 1.4D which came out near dark and inside). The 18-200 is noticeably soft at and approaching 200mm so my internal rule for using it is to refrain from using it at longer focal lengths if I hear myself saying, "Well, I could crop...". In other words, just recognize that little brown birds more than 15 feet away fall distinctly in the Hail Mary category. On a recent trip to SF (using the same D90 that went to Europe) I replaced the 18-200 with the pair of 18-70 and 70-300 and I'm convinced that the image quality I took home was, within the 18-200 range, perceptibly better. All that said, if I were forced to pick only two lenses with which to go traveling, I would still give the 18-200 very serious consideration as the daylight walkabout of the pair. Shots taken with its limitations firmly in mind can be real winners.