As an avid landscape photographer, I've been fond of the convenience of Nikkor 18-200VR on my D300 (which I absolutely love!). But I've been hoping to get sharper images and greater focal length by changing over to the new Nikkor 16-85VR is paired with 70-300VR. All in all, I am very happy with 16-85. My opening remarks:
- I have noticed a significant improvement in the exposure of landscape photos (not as dramatic for indoor shots). Outdoors, I shoot regularly with a -. 7 adjustments as images Tented slightly over-exposed to 18-200. With the 16-85 lens, the images came out with much better exposure. Pictures can only see better to the eye and recorded in the comparative histograms from many sample images.
- Ditto with improved color reproduction. I was pleasantly surprised to see how much better colors taken with this lens. Again, this is most noticeable in outdoor shots.
- Improved sharpness was not as pronounced as hoped, but at least equal to or above 18-200 in most cases with a shutter speed of 1 / 20 sec. Surprisingly, showed my first test shots to between 1 / 6 to 1 / 20 VR was only comparable or in some cases not quite as good as the 18-200 over all focal lengths 18-85 I usually end up shooting at slow speeds and have been impressed by the ability to shoot so low with VRII in 18-200 and 16-85.
- Balance is better with the 18-200. Maybe it's a small nit, but for handheld shots, D300 seems a little better balance with the larger 18-200 than with 16-85. Perhaps this allows for a more stable hand at shooting low speeds. (Note:. I realize that this may be simpily a matter of having become so familiar with the feeling of 18-200 on a D300, and this NIT may disappear the more I use 16-85)
- The extra 2 degree wide angle is nice and seems to mean not having to switch over to my 12-24mm zoom quite so much.
- The lens measures can be compared with the 18-200 - but no barrel creep. Shooting with the lens angled down into a problem with 16-85.
Overall this is a nice lens that I plan to keep, because it makes such a noticeable accuracy improvements in exposure and color ... plus the extra two degrees and no barrel creep.
p.s. I just got yesterday 70-30, so do not have much comparative tests, but overall image quality of the 70-200 focal length seems to be slightly better than the 18-200 and you have the longer focal length and NO barrel creep.
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