Lens question

porshe1015

I have the 18-55mm lens that came with camera. Sears has Nikon Zoom-Nikkor Lens 55-200mm for $150.00. Any help? We have a graduation next week and was wondering if this work for me to zoom in?

bruto

The 55-200mm should zoom in quite nicely, and it's usually considered a pretty good lens at a pretty good price, but it sounds as if Best Buy is not giving you anything like the best bargain. B&H has the US version for about $180 and the gray market version for $150. If you buy gray market, you may be stuck in the event of repair, as Nikon USA not only won't do warranty work, they will not do any work ever on a gray market lens. At the price level involved, one might still take the chance and consider a $150 lens a gamble, but it's up to you.

Edit to add: I may be wrong about pricing, as a second look at the B&H listing suggests the $150/180 lens shown is not the VR version.

One must check very carefully to keep track of what versions you're getting of lenses like this that have gone through several generations. It looks as if this is about the same price at B&H.

For a little more you can also get the 55-300mm VR, which I have, and which is very nice to use. It's more expensive by a good bit, though. I got mine last year with a $100 rebate, which made it reasonable, and I like it a lot.

If you have any time in which to order, I suggest you skip Best Buy and go with B&H, which is considered one of the best sellers and ships quite fast. They don't take orders on Jewish holidays, but once they take the order, their shipping is very fast. Adorama is also good. If you see a price that's much lower than either of these, you are probably taking a gamble.

Both these vendors sell both USA versions and their own import "gray market" versions. Sometimes rebates make the difference nil, sometimes gray market will be cheaper, but you must make sure you know which you're getting. They are open about it. Not all vendors are.

But in answer to your basic question, either the 55-200mm or the 55-300mm should be a good match for a D3200, and the 18-55mm makes for a nice complete range. If looking around at used bargains, make sure you get one that's new enough to have VR, which will help greatly with hand holding.

porshe1015

Sears has it online for $146.95 (see here)
So am I buying a good lens? Thank you for helping me.

bruto

That looks like a pretty good deal. It's the VR version (the latest, probably the $350 one at Best Buy, is VRII which adds one more stop of hand holding ability, but VRI is quite decent), and the warranty information identifies it as the US version. It should be a comfortable fit on your camera and give you good results.

porshe1015

Thank you for your help.