They typically have a 7X to 10X focal length range... wait, let me explain something.
Most people see the number followed by an "X" and assume it refers to view magnification, since that's what it signifies with telescopes and microscopes and the like. With cameras, however, it refers to the range of focal lengths.
A 35-70mm zoom lens would be a 2X zoom, going from a wide-ish viewing angle to the very shortest edge of telephoto. A 70-210mm would be a 3X, while a 24-240mm would be a 10X, et cetera.
One of the first really good superzooms was Nikon's 28-200mm AF-D, which was replaced by the even more compact 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6G in 2003. Now discontinued, those lenses have gotten a little cult-y due to their small size and can fetch a premium on the used market.
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| Nikon D700, 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6G |
The superzoom I get the most use out of is for DX Nikons, though: the 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR II. I've used it on all my crop sensor Nikon DSLR bodies and the only one on which I don't like it is the D7100, as the 24MP sensor reveals its limitations. It's plenty sharp on the older D300S, though.
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| Nikon D300S, 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR II |
Basically, any time you're going someplace where you don't want to carry several lenses and have no idea what you're going to be shooting, the Superzoom is your Swiss Army knife lens. Vacation, the zoo, just walking around the neighborhood, it's your one-lens solution.
Quality ones tend to be moderately spendy, because there's a lot of optical jiggery-pokery happening in there to keep image quality reasonably decent, and they're not so hot for indoors or low light because of their fairly slow aperture range, but they're my go-to solution for a sunny day stroll around Broad Ripple if the squirrels are out and about.
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My favorite "walk-around" lens/camera combination is a used Pentax K20D (14.6MP APS-C) with a used 18-270mm SDM. Equivalent to a 27-405mm on a 35mm camera this gives me a pretty good wide-angle for landscapes and zooms out to a darned good telephoto lens for critters. In between it's excellent for close-up shots of flowers and such. It's only drawback is that it's a pretty slow lens, ranging between f/3.5 wide and f/6.3 at max zoom, limiting it to pretty good lighting conditions. But considering I can push even the 17-year-old K20D up to an ISO of around 800 without too much noise, even that allows some pretty dim lighting conditions to be used. That's a zoom range of 15x which just amazes me.
It's relatively small and compact when pulled in (it gets silly-long at full zoom) and lightweight, so I can carry it on hikes without any problem. It was also very inexpensive used, and so I can take it places I'd never take a much more expensive lens.
You've recommended Roberts Camera many times, and so I've just ordered my first lens from UsedPhotoPro to see how that goes. I'm out in NW Wyoming and have yet to find a decent camera store within 200 miles of me. I've been buying gear from both B&H and KEH for a couple of years now with excellent results, so I can recommend those as well.
I've bought a lot of gear from KEH over the years!
I can also recommend MPB. While they don't upgrade firmware, they post each item, along with shutter release count on digital cameras. Shipping from Brooklyn to the Oregon high desert is the same as from KEH. My walking around lens is a Nikon 18-105 f3.5-5.6 DX. It's heftier than an 18-55 but usefully longer and cheap used.
MPB gives great customer service, and the one time I needed to return something, the experience was painless.
I like that both Roberts and MPB photograph the actual item and usually give shutter counts.
The only thing that keeps me from complaining about KEH not photographing the actual item is that they grade things so conservatively I've yet to be disappointed. Roberts does as well, which is no surprise since their used manager came from KEH.
I just got my new (used) lens yesterday from UsedPhotoPro. It was an early '70's vintage Super-Takumar (Asahi Optical/Pentax) 55mm/f2 that came almost complete with a hard case and original front/rear lens caps. All it was lacking was the hood, and I've got an old Asahi hood originally intended for the f/1.8 version. The lens itself appears to be almost new in condition, and the images I've taken with it so far have been extremely sharp.
I bought it since the price ($38) didn't seem to accurately reflect the value of all of those bits-and-pieces, if you had to buy them separately from the lens. I've got a K20D with an M42-to-K-mount adapter pretty much on it permanently, and this lens nicely fills the gap between the 28mm and my old 135mm/f2.5. I'll be looking in on their stock from time to time, just to see what comes in.
I mentioned this because the D300S I bought from KEH was cosmetically mint but had 120,000 shutter actuations. Between that and its heft, I scraped up some money and got the low mileage D5500 I should've bought in the first place
Nice find!
I don't know that I'd be overly concerned about the 120k, that's just well broken-in for a D300S, it should go half a mil, easy...but yeah, they're really hefty cameras compared to the D3xxx/D5xxx bodies.
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