I’d go with the above advice and hire one to try.

I borrowed one from a friend for a week and it is a pretty good lens.
Presumably you’d be going for the VR version of the lens, which does help with camera shake to some extent. But, you’ll still be wanting a decent amount of light when at the long end of the lens.

I thought it was too bulky though to envisage using it all the time.

i’ve got one and it is very good, quite versatile. however, increasingly – especially for travel – i tend to leave the fixed 35 on because it’s far smaller and lighter, and it also stops you relying on/overdoing it with the zoom. for wildlife and stuff it would be handy, though.

I’ll also add, that a 55-200 or 70-300 is a *lot* cheaper, and you might be able to handle the extra hassle of swapping for the savings… my GF has a tamron 70-300 to go with her kit lens, and is pretty happy with it. No VR but it was very cheap and monopod can help. Quality of pictures seems decent, it’s really just the fact you need a decent amount of light with that long a lens.

Jacobs and Calumet also hire, and they’re all over the country – look up and call one near you, see if they hire the lenses you’re looking at.

Yeah – to follow on from IA’s comments.

I bought my D80 with the kit 18-135mm lens, which i use as my everyday lens. I’d like to replace it with something like a 24-70 2.8, but can’t really afford it.
I also bought the 70-300 VR lens which is great for wildlife & sports stuff.

Just noticed too – is the D5100 a ‘compact’ slr with a smaller body? It looks like it. This might make it that bit more unwieldy to use full time, compared with the same lens on something like the D90 or the D7000. The compact body and fairly large lens might make the whole thing a bit unbalanced to leave on all the time – definitely worth trying, I reckon.

I cannot rate mine high enough – its the most used lens on my D8000 by far.

Got one on my D5000. Mine was secondhand, although you wouldn’t know it – try Mifsuds, Ffordes or Grays of Westminster.

There’s 2 versions of the lens – the only practical difference is the newer one (VRII) has a switch to lock the lens at wide angle so it doesn’t extend when carrying it around. Mine does occasionally extend, but it’s not a major problem.

As to the lens itself? Pretty good do everything. It has a wider max aperture than the kit lens the body came with (18-55VR), isn’t a massive amount bigger, physically (goes in the same case) and just works… Downsides? Occasional autofocus hunting, the self-extending zoom and the biggy is distortion – around the edges it does barrel distort quite badly. Not the be all and end all, as you can correct it in photosphop (or I think if you have the fancy Nikon photo editor it can autocorrect).

It’s the only lens I currently have, and whilst I’d like a fast 35mm, I can’t say I’m in any great hurry for it.

Edit – I’ve just checked the prices of the various lenses – there’s a hell of a lot more difference in price than there was 2 years ago when I bought mine. I think I paid about £300 for it…!

Do it all lenses are ok, and have a purpose.

But if you want higher image quality, then I would suggest carrying various lenses for different purposes, but obviously this costs more.

I have an 18-200 lens, and don’t like it. Poor image quality coupled with soft focus.

I now want a 24-70 (or 24-105) lens, coupled with a 70-200 lens. Admitedly these are expensive, but I think I’d get a higher conversion rate when processing images, in other words I wouldnt reject so many.

It’s the only lens I currently have, and whilst I’d like a fast 35mm, I can’t say I’m in any great hurry for it.

do it – the 35’s only about £170 and it’s absolutely awesome, I love mine and as mentioned above use almost only that these days. highly recommended. the bokeh on the wide apertures is lovely.

e.g.

Lunch guest by theflatboy, on Flickr

Flatboy – rotate that picture to get the horizon straight!

200mm isn’t that great for wildlife. I have 300mm on my 4/3 camera which has a greater crop factor, and that’s still not that satisfying despite being over 10x magnification. You still have to be fairly close to get a good picture, well within the range at which many animals are scarpering, but it’s as much as you can practically use hand-held or with a monopod, and get decent apertures at a decent price.

I was reading a review on Flipboard the other day on the Tamron 18-270, and overall the review was very positive as an everyday walkabout lens. It’s only flaw was across the range barrel distortion, but the guy doing the review had an action set up in Lightroom to compensate, although he said that in many cases it wouldn’t show. Generally very favourable.
I’ve just bought a Lumix TZ-30, which has a 20X optical zoom, rather than go the Tamron route, purely because I use a camera at gigs, and a DSLR is an absolute no-no in most cases, whereas a dinky little Lumix gets no attention, plus it has focus tracking and face recognition.
And the Lumix is about half the price of an 18-270, and smaller than my old TZ-3, which is a plus.
[edit]Just had a quick look through Flipboard, and found it:
http://www.thephoblographer.com/2011/09/22/review-tamron-18-270mm-f3-5-6-3-superzoom-lens/
[/edit]

I’m using Nikkor 18-70 and a 70-300VR (the fullframe old one) – both excellent lenses. 200m is too short for most wildlife. If she doesn’t want to change lenses get an additional body…seriously.

Got my 2nd hand nikon lenses at MBP

http://www.mpbphotographic.co.uk/used-equipment/used-lenses/used-nikon-fit-lenses/

some pics from the 70-300

last 2 handheld indoors so a little less sharp

Interesting.

I’ve been “wanting” a 70-200 2.8 for my Nikon for about 5 years (haven’t been able to justify the price 🙁 )

Still interested though and a planned trip later this year means it is back on the agenda.

Anyone used the Sigma 70-200? Does it need the VR / OS found on the later (more expensive) model.

The 2.8 fixed aperature appeals because I want to maintain faster shutter speeds – so VR may not be a necessity for me.

However, I do like to slow the shutter speed and pan action shots – that may be more interesting…

Flatboy – rotate that picture to get the horizon straight!

sorry. 😳