Because of my business trips to Taiwan, i have a lot of chance to stop by photo shops. As the prices in Taiwan are considerable low - compared to Europe and just a little higher then BH Photo, i usually buy my lenses from Taiwan.
My collaguaes start to ask me to buy a camera and lens from Taiwan, and this trip, i have bought two nikon D-SLRs and two lenses.
The first one is a nikon D60 with nikkor 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR lens.
As a D300 owner, i usually use my "tourist lens" - nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR with my camera. But, since the 16-85mm VR has announced, a little bit wider 16-17mm made me itchy , and this time, i have cought the chance to try.
When i check my photos, i have seen that, i usually use 18-100mm range of my lense. +100mm rarely i have used. So, 16-85mm VR looks like a deal for me... Was it?...
When you compare the lens optical quality, 16-85mm VR is better than 18-200mm VR; by means of distortions and resolution. The distortions on 16-20mm is very well controlled. Chrommatic Abberrations are around 1 pixel level on the ultra wide end of the lens, also acceptable.
Lighter weight is also an advantage compared to 18-200mm VR, but not a big deal for a D300 owner as well.
Using the 16mm end of the lens gave me a lot of chance to compose my photos as i like and very few times i have missed my 18-200mm.
About D60:
After D300, this was like a mouse in my hand, but after a while, i have get used to it as a nikon user. But only 3 AF points, small screen, limited menu and slow recording speed made me feel strangled. But, D60 is a quite good camera, considering the price. Its simple LCD info screen, self cleaning image sensor, 10.1 MP CCD sensor make it a good starter D-SLR in the market.
OOOPPSSS:
Second day i try the 16-85mm VR, i have discovered some white dusts inside the 16-85mm VR lens. What is going on??
The weather in Taiwan is quite humid and hot, is it because of this? Can not be.. I have used lot of lenses here for weeks, even months, but nothing happened to any of them.
The scenery above ruinned my visit, because i was in HuaLien and there are no nikon dealers here and there is no way to go back to Kaohsiung to hand the lens and go back home with a D60 body only. I will try to do it from Turkey, but this is not the important part. How come a brand new lens get some dust inside the lens???
I will inform you in the future about the result and cause of this incident...
PS: 22 April 2009 > I still have these dusts inside the lens. Not effecting the quality of the picture but makes me sick... I am still waiting for my next trip to Taiwan...
