EF-S 18-200mm Thoughts?

Photo Joe

Recently I've been looking to upgrade my kit 18-55mm IS lens that came with the XSi I got earlier this summer. I was leaning strongly towards either a 17-85mm f4-5.6 or the 28-135mm f3.5-5.6, till a friend of mine suggested taking a look at Canon's new 18-200mm f3.5-5.6 lens.

Anyone have any thought, or personal experience with any of the lenses? I'm currently using a 18-55mm and 55-250mm, which means the 18-200mm would effectively replace both for most uses, and be a great daily walk around lens. The 18-200mm does lack a USM which the other two lenses I've been looking at do have. I don't have any experience with a USM lens yet, so I honestly can't tell if it makes a huge difference or not.

Here's where I'm standing now, and correct me if I'm wrong, or please add any advice you can think of. The 18-200mm lacks a USM, so focusing will be a bit noisier and slower (again is this significant?), and the over all build quality seems slightly lower, though not significantly from what I can tell. Brand new all three lenses are relatively close in price.

Thoughts?

Photo Joe

So I did some more digging, and found a big thread on POTN about this lens. The trouble seems to be that nobody has done any actual testing and comparing of this lens to some of the higher quality alternatives, ie 17-85/28-135 lenses. I can only assume build quality will be on par with the 18-55 and 55-250 that I already own, and optics will probably be similar as well. Though I found it interesting that the 18-200mm is both heavier and more expensive than the 18-55 and 55-250 put together. Guess you have to pay a premium for the connivence of an all around versatile lens.

So now its a question for me of if I want to replace my two lenses for connivence sake (which would be very nice for hiking and backpacking, no doubt about that), or continue to use multiple lenses to achieve the same range (which I don't mind), but with undoubtably better optics, and the USM feature on the 28-135, which I'm leaning towards more so than the 17-85 right now.

cmason

18-200s are typically good 'all in ones' but are bought for a 'walk around' lens.

This is because these have a very broad range, and any zoom is a compromise for range vs clarity. the more range you add, the less clarity. These are good examples. Even the well respected Nikon 18-200 VR is in no way a replacement for other Nikon lenses within that range.

Most who would own a lens like this do so to 1) have a nice travel lens, so they dont need to bring their other lenses, meaning they do not replace other lenses with this one. or 2) buy this lens to have no other lenses and therefore do not want other lenses. Rarely does some one by this as a replacement of others, unless you fit in category 2). So you need to decide which you are.

The 28-135 IS is a much better lens than the others you have mentioned, though the 17-85 IS is close. I suspect you are correct that the 18-200 will be similar to the lenses you have now, in terms of quality of image. Build quality may be similar to the 28-135, but not sure.

Many prefer the 17-85 since it has better wide support for crop cameras, but really, you need to look at what you shoot and decide which you need most.

Photo Joe

I'm not terribly concerned about the wide angle aspect at this point, I was looking at getting a dedicated wide angle lens (EF-S 10-22mm) for panorama shots on hikes and mountains climbing trips , which would compliment either the 18-200 or 28-135 as far as range from what I can tell. The 18-200 would offer great versatility and ease of use on hiking trips, but the overall better optics quality and cheaper price on the 28-135 will probably win me over in the end.

Tom

How grungy do you get when you backpack? Do you hike to windy/dusty/sandy areas? Swapping lenses is an opportunity for dirt to get into your camera body.

Just something else to consider.

Photo Joe

Not too dusty. Thus far all my hikes have been in Alaska. So the occasional rain and snow of course in the winter, but thats a little easier to fight off than dust I would assume.

Speaking of which, is there some kind of cleaning kit, or precautionary system to protect lenses from dust while swapping them?