Yellowstone Trip - Best Lens for the Sony NEX7

I've been eyeing the Sony NEX7 for awhile - but I'm not going to jump on it just yet, especially at top price. My only big photography trip for the rest of the year is Yellowstone this summer, so I decided to rent a NEX7 for the trip so I can put it through its paces.

Once of the benefits of renting is the opportunity to try out a lens before buying. The 18-200 E mount lens received mixed (mostly negative) reviews. Since I do mostly landscape and wildlife photos, zoom range is important to me - but since I shoot RAW and this camera has 24MP to work with, I thought I might try out the A Mount Zeiss 16-80mm with an adapter. It would make the camera appear a little unwieldy with the adapter, but the optics are better and I would have the flexibility of cropping the RAW 24MP image to get added focal length without losing much quality.

Any thoughts on this approach? Or stick with the 18-200?

If you're shooting wildlife, you really want a fast, long lens. Not sure what are available for you, but you should try to get one IN ADDITION to one of those walk-around lens you mentioned above.

I was there last summer after my backpacking trip to the Winds. Since I was going light due to backpacking, I only took my 18-200mm A mount lens. Yellowstone is one of those places where you need wider angle for many landscapes (though not as many as one might initially think) and a long lens for the wildlife (unless you want them to be seen as little points).

That is 24MP on an APS-C, so those pixels are very close together. I wouldn't want to depend on cropping to get the picture you want. If you end up with just one lens for Yellowstone, I might consider a longer one and then shoot multiple images to stitch together for landscapes.

I got an NEX 5N for Christmas, to use when i didnt want to haul my Canon 7D around. It's not as fast as a real SLR, and personally I miss having a viewfinder to look thru, but it's MUCH more portable for when I don't want a camera bag with me. And the ISO range isn't as good as my Canon either, but it's not far off, and MUCH better than any point and shoot or camera phone.

I used it with the kit lens for a while, which is an ok 18-55 (basically 35-80-ish since its a 1.5 crop factor), but wanted more reach so I upgraded to the new Tamron 18-200. I've been really happy with this lens so far. Good reach for handheld shooting, and still not much bigger than the kit lens, although it is noticeably heavier. Even with this lens, the camera still fits comfortably in a pocket of my north face shell while skiing.

I don't see a better choice for Sony e-mount at this point than the 18-200 for what you are looking for. Mind you, if size isn't a big factor a real SLR is still a better choice IMHO, but for small cameras the Sony 5N (or 7) should crush a point and shoot. So I'd stick with the 18-200 rather than go 80mm and crop.

There is also a 70-200 or so zoom I've seen, if you don't need the wide angle end of things. I wanted a single lens approach, so I didn't check that one out.

Good luck,
Bob

Thanks all,

I checked other reviews for the Sony 18-200 Emount and (through Google) and those reviews were positively glowing for this lens - now I'm even more confused than ever, as I thought this lens was the pits and a huge disappointment.

I think I will give the NEX7/18-200 combo a try for the trip and see how things turn out - can't be much worse than my Sigma 18-200 which has really underserved my Canon Digital Rebel XT.

I use the first edition NEX-5 and the 18-200mm mostly. I'm no pro photographer by any means (still learning) but the lens beats the 18-55 and the pancake lenses I also purchased.

If you are renting it, get a CZ24mm prime if you're shooting landscapes that would be an excellent option, and if you wanted to shoot wildlife I would go with a 70-200ssm but you would need an adapter for that