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The quiet months are gone! In September we had a two week vacation in Spain. We concentrated on Nothern Spain ( mainly the coast ) and Barcelona. I considered to leave my camera gear at home and just take my small Ixus with me. Too much gear can really burden you down on trips. On short visits in Italy, on Santorini and on Majorca I really enjoyed to travel light. But this time a can´t leave my D-SLR at home. I put off the battery part of my D200 and borrowed a 18-200VR from a good friend. I also took the following lenses with me: 1.4/30, 2.8/90 and the 2.8/45 ( as this lens is so small it is almost non existent ). Of course I took my small Gitzo tripod with me. To make a long story short: I didn´t take a single image with my other lenses. I used the tripod only for one image! For the rest of the trip I left it in the car and after the first week I put my other lenses in the suitcase because I didn´t used them. The result was a completely different experience! No constant lens changes, wideangle to telezoom and back, only look around, frame the shot and take the image. It´s like shooting with a point and shot. You can concentrate on the image without worrying if you use the right lens or not. It always the right lens! You can go from a very good wide angle to a strong tele within a second. What a joy! You have all the "bells and whistles" of a D-SLR without the need to carry a heavy Rucksack. So how is the lens? In short: It´s great. Great colors and contrast like all new Nikon ED lenses and very sharp in the 18 to 100mm area. It´s a little soft at the longer end but if stopped down to f8 or even better f11 it is still very good. It´s no 70-200VR of course regarding IQ and mainly because you can´t play with a shallow depth of field but it is a very fine all in one lens if you want to travel light. Today this lens is without competition because it incooperates AF-S ( ultrsonic autofocus ) and VR ( image stabilisation ). VR is really the key because the lens is slow f5.6 and should be stopped down to get good results. At f11 you seldom got short shutter speeds even in good light. Without such a feature a travel lens stops to make sense because you have to use a tripod to get the shot. It has modern ED glass and therefore colors and contrast is great. It´s not your lens when you mainly shoot buildings. It transfers your D-SLR in a superzoom bridge camera without sacrifing image quality. It´s the best travel lens so far and it really gives you a completely new experience of shooting with a D-SLR. Will I sell all my lenses. No way! I will take them with me on big trips to Canada, Ireland, Scotland or to Scandinavia but I will leave them at home when travelling light. I will take this lens on trips where before I decided to bring only my Ixus. The picture shows the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao/Spain. This museum alone was worth the whole trip. It is wonderful! I took hundreds of shots but it is impossible to capture it´s beauty. It is covered with shingles made from Titanium. It is unbelieveable how sunlight is reflected in million different ways. Of course it is impossible to capture this sensation. There is only one way: You have to see this building with your own eyes.
A-Mode: 1/125@f11 ( focal length equ. 63mm ), +0,7, constrast changed to high in Capture
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