NikoDoby said:
I thought I was the only one with grey hair around here?

Nope, you just look older ;)
As for sharpness to get the best results f/8 is the one for most lenses.

NikoDoby said:
I thought I was the only one with grey hair around here?

If grey hair qualifies, I should have been a silver member years ago!

Two pretty-safe rules of thumb - 1) lenses perform at their best with smallish apertures, 2) the longer the zoom range the poorer the quality.

I'm very impressed with my 18-105. Good balance between quality/versatility/weight/cost.

Yup the strength of the 18-200 is its range.. not its sharpness although it is sharp enough if you stop it down to F8 and above. when I want sharp I use it at F10 which I find to be at its sharpest.

Went out yesterday after work and shot most of the pictures in RAW and tried both my lenses. I think I got far better results and I was using P mode to adjust the aperture.

Couple examples (first 2 with the 18-200 and the last with the 18-55)...

All it took was a Tokina 11-16 2.8 mailed to Poland, NSX. Give it a shot. (Thanks, Adam! I hope you like your lens.)

Whoa, how'd you get silver member? :D

adamz said:
up to this time You are "silver member" :D

So is it Adam or Niko who is trying to torture me by getting me almost to platinum (two rungs below, I reckon)?

alessy, I was going to suggest the 18-105 but I knew I'd get harassed by Niko for saying it because I'm always saying it around here. I agree with that suggestion.

I had nikkor 18-200 VR with my first dslr Nikon D60, and I noticed that my version of lens was not so good and it was really unsharp, because I compared the lense with my brothers 18-200 VR, same on nikon D60 and the resoults were different.
I was really unhappy with my 18-200 lense . No sharpnes at all and was not able to improve sharpnes in photoshop because it was just too soft.
I didnt bother much, because I sold that lense with camera together and bought D90 with 18-105 VR witch is much sharper than my 18-200 VR was. And it is alot cheaper too.
The problem is that not all lenses are same and the quallity can vary through lenses.
Maybe I was just one of 100 or maybe one of 1000 that got bad version of 18-200 VR .

Anyway I like 18-105 VR much more and would never change it for 18-200 VR.

I thought I was the only one with grey hair around here?

up to this time You are "silver member" :D

the pictures looks ok, try to use a little bit slower aperture - like f8, to get maximum from Your lens as at f4.8 it's wide open

ja - soone or later You also become "preferred member" :), You just have to try a little bit more harder - a nice lens for mods would certainly speed up the whole process :D

This is a good read, tcole. http://www.bythom.com/rightpixels.htm

I took some sample shots using both the lenses (put them on my flickr page). I couldn't get enough light in my house without moving lamps so they were taken with a flash, but even at ISO 800 they seemed to look good. I ran them both through the ViewNX software with a sharpen of 5.

Overall they both look sharp. The 18-55 with the sharpen done in the program looks the best. On the other hand the results looked much better then I have been getting while shooting outside....which seems to mean it is probably user error. Guess I just need to use the camera more. I am getting more familiar with the settings all the time. I guess I just need to be patient with it.

Thanks for all the info. I will try it all out.

You pictures are sharp enough, maybe you are lured by some software sharpening some people use extensively.
You could try using Sharpener Pro or unsharp mask (it actually sharpens the images) but be humble Uriah.

NikoDoby said:
I agree with jonny. A DSLR gives you way more control over your images than any point & shoot. Often times that's why people are disappointed with the results at first. They are use to the point & shoot doing everything for them.

Have you tried adjusting the sharpness, color, contrast, etc in your camera? Is paint shop pro the only software you are using? Have you tried Nikon ViewNX software? Although it's not as good as CaptureNX it is free and gives you some of the same features.

http://www.nikonusa.com/Find-Your-Nikon/Product/Imaging-Software/NVNX/ViewNX.html

Didn't even know it existed. Thanks for showing it to the OP, I need to look at that.

jonnyapple said:
Completely off-topic, but what's a preferred member? Has NSX hacked the forum to get that or is it the 1-year milestone? I'm still gunning for platinum member because, hey—platinum.

Maybe I'm just a better member. :D

It means that if you and NSX get into an argument, I automatically take his side and delete your post jonny.

j/k :^)

Completely off-topic, but what's a preferred member? Has NSX hacked the forum to get that or is it the 1-year milestone? I'm still gunning for platinum member because, hey—platinum.

I agree with jonny. A DSLR gives you way more control over your images than any point & shoot. Often times that's why people are disappointed with the results at first. They are use to the point & shoot doing everything for them.

Have you tried adjusting the sharpness, color, contrast, etc in your camera? Is paint shop pro the only software you are using? Have you tried Nikon ViewNX software? Although it's not as good as CaptureNX it is free and gives you some of the same features.

http://www.nikonusa.com/Find-Your-Nikon/Product/Imaging-Software/NVNX/ViewNX.html

I have heard that the 18-200 is not extremely sharp, it's just good enough. If you look hard enough, it won't be sharp, that's just the property of the lens. The 18-55 I heard is an excellent lens optics wise, it's just the build quality that's a letdown, for me at least.

So is it blurriness or compression artifacts that you're worried about?

Were you shooting raw (NEF) and then processing the pictures before switching to jpeg? If you're shooting jpeg, make sure you're at the highest quality setting or better yet switch to raw and you'll thank yourself later.

If you're shooting raw, this could just be because you're not used to working with 12MP files. It's not really helpful to compare 6MP with 12MP at 100% zoom because that's not fair to the 12MP file. It looks like you're using paint shop pro photo for post. I'm not sure whether that program applies some automatic sharpening to compensate for the camera's anti-aliasing filter, but in case it doesn't you might want to play around with an unsharp mask. I'm not a huge fan of the 18-200. I know it has big supporters around here, but from when I've used my uncle's (only for about an hour so I probably shouldn't say anything), I wasn't all that impressed with it. Maybe you should see if anyone you know has a lens you could borrow that you know is sharp so you can see if it's the camera or the lens.

I got my D5000 a couple weeks ago. I have been using a first series 18-200 VR lens (with the red VR). It seems like all my pictures are somewhat blurry, pixelated, or just not sharp. I was looking at them compared to my old Fuji P&S pictures and the fuji ones almost look sharper. I tried to take some moon pictures two nights using a tripod with the VR on and off and they show no definition in them. Once I zoom in a moderate amount the detail disappears all together in the pictures.

Could it be a setting or can it possibly be the lens? When I get home I am going to take some test shots side by side with my 18-55 kit lens. Here is a link to my flickr page. The first half page are pictures with the D5000 and 18-200 lens.

Am I possibly expecting too much? I looked at comparable pictures that someone had taken with the same body + lens combo and they seemed 10 times sharper then mine.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/73666367@N00/