I’m waiting for my new 18-200mm lens to come in. Saneal was going to take 6+ weeks to get it, (and their ecommerce site is a joke - it doesn’t do https!)
So I went at it via Amazon (usa).
Note on Availability: This item is in high demand, and supplies from the manufacturer are limited. Its availability fluctuates, and if the item is not currently in stock, we cannot guarantee that we will receive additional quantities in a timely manner. Orders are filled on a first-come, first-served basis.
Ooh, I’m lucky to have gotten my order in when I did. Apparently even all of the Amazon partners are out of stock on this unit at the moment.
Yes I did splurge, and customs is going to be a bit painful, but I want instant gratification damnit!
The Amazon partner ships to Canada with USPS (USA postal service). Not too bad, I thought originally, since it was an express parcel and not regular bulk parcel.
Check out the grey-oval high lighted area i added. WTF. Bunch of jokers, they are batch processing oriented still? What, do they run their tracking system on a mainframe and dump the results nightly to their web front end? Weirdos.
Don’t forget to buy one of these; 50mm F/1.8d:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005LEN4/ref=pd_cp_e_title/105-9779477-0891638
1) No distortion (straight lines @ photo edges will look straight)
2) More contrast
3) Extra Fstop of light (dog indoor photos)
4) Less glare
5) F/1.8 = massive blur for portraits, closeup, etc
6) Cheap, so why not try one while waiting for the 18-200m?
ralph
January 11th, 2007
You can blame Ken Rockwell for why I splurged immediately on the 18-200. I wanted the image stabilization and increased zoom factor. I may also get the fixed 50mm as you suggested, but will see about that after getting some play time with this other lens.
trever
January 12th, 2007
Here’s the sub-page on distortion with this 18-200 lens.
I’ll have to learn Photoshop a bit
Yeah, I’ll probably get the 50mm prime also.
trever
January 12th, 2007
I did a bit of reading on the 18-200. It sounds like megazooms have improved some since the days of my 28-200, less distortion than there used to be. To be fair, the design is for a digital sensor, so there is a smaller surface area that has to be filled with the lens.
ralph
January 12th, 2007