re: #105 Feline Fearless Leader

Question for the photographers. Currently mainly using a Nikon D3200 with the standard 18-55mm kit lens. Getting good results, but considering going after a telephoto zoom lens (18-200mm or possibly the 18-300mm) for use in getting detail in distance shots, and probably also necessary for better wildlife shots (birds especially).

So I’m fishing for opinions whether adding another lens is going to be worthwhile unto itself, or at that point I should work more at proficiency with the current kit.

FWIW…. I’m not a huge fan of the super-zooms. There are some compromises made that usually end up with really poor performance at some lengths / apertures. I usually use dpreview.com to get a good idea. I’d recommend going with something like 70-210 or so. That works out to about a 300mm when you factor in crop factor. I’ve taken a seminar on wildlife photography from the photographer emeritus of the St. Louis zoo, and he said that generally if you can’t get it with a 200, you can’t really get it at all.

That said, I do carry a 15-85 (5.6 to 1 Ratio) but there is a reason that most of your top-shelf glass zooms are a 3:1 ratio). My own preference when I’ve been in the position to put together a lens kit is to have some overlap between lenses, not always possible, but nice.

RBS