Nikon Telephoto Lens Recommendation for Sharpness and Color

Joined: 25 Oct 2006 Posts: 36 Location: IRVINE, CA

Hello everyone,

My name is Brian and I have a Nikon D50. I bought my camera about a year ago in the month of October so I've been into photography ever since. As far as photography techniques and post processing, I would consider myself above average, so it's definately not new to me. However, I want some help from you guys, I would like a recommendation for a Telephoto Zoom lens!

So here it goes, right now I have two lens: the 18-55mm Kit Lens and the 50mm f/1.8 Prime lens! I enjoy both of them very much. However, I think it's time that I want to get a new lens and it should be something in the range of focal lengths 55-200 or 80-200 or even 70-300mm.

I am thinking about being really dedicated to photography, because I enjoy it greatly, so I am willing to make this a big investment. I know how important it is to have GOOD Glass, so I am thinking about spending a lot of money, and well I have cut my choices down to a couple lenses and i want YOUR opinions on a couple of these lenses and how they rank amongst each other as far as Sharpness and Color (how great they contrast and stuff like that).

These are the lenses:

1.) AF Zoom-NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4-5.6G $130
2.) AF Zoom-NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4-5.6D ED $330
3.) AF-S VR Zoom-NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED $500
4.) AF-S DX VR Zoom-NIKKOR 55-200mm f/4-5.6G IF-ED $250
5.) AF Zoom-NIKKOR 80-200mm f/2.8D ED $800

Okay, so i have been doing a lot of thinking and decided that if I should ever choose the 70-300mm lens, then it would be the VR - most up to date model. I assume that it would perform the best out of those three, but is it really worth the extra cash: $500 total?

For Choice #4, I have heard of excellent things about this lens. For one, it is selling for a very good price: $250. The cutback is that it is 55-200mm, but do you guys think the 200-300mm focal range is necessary? Just to let you know, I'm not going to do any wild-life, or sports photography - at least for now. Most of my photography is of PEOPLE, Candids, Travel (architecture, commercial, cars) - most is still life objects, the kind of casual photography i guess you could say. But yeah besides that, I've heard that this lens is very sharp and has great color contrast, what do you guys think?

Last, but not least - Choice #5 which is sort of old, but have heard Excellent things about this lens. First of all it is 80-200mm, for me i'm not really worried about focal length range, but I want a lens that will kick some butt, SHARP and GOOD COLOR? Is this the one? If it is, is it worth it though? I found it for $800 import on BHPHOTOVIDEO and I am willing to spend this money. This will probably be as far as I will go as far as money budget. By the way, this is the AF-D version. There are two kinds i believe, a push and pull and a 2 ring kind. The 2 ring kind is the one im going for. I have heard that the AF-S is faster, but that the AF-D will suit perfectly fine.

Between all these lens, which gives the best Sharpness and Color? Which is the runner-up and which places in last? Sorry for such a long post, but I would greatly appreciate all your help guys!

Thanks so much in advance,
Brian