for me i target is the 70-300mm ..which equaivalent to 600mm on my E510!!

70-200 f2.8 VR around 6k
18-200 f3.5-5.6 around 2.5k
70-300 f4-5.6 around 2k
55-200 around 850

1. your budget
2. your purpose

have fun shopping

for me i target is the 70-300mm ..which equaivalent to 600mm on my E510!!

It's not the best lens to start with. Besides, it's way too expensive for the moment I think for TS.
The 70-200mm f/2.8 is close to 6K not the 55-200mm.
Hey victor, try and butter your parents for a 18-200mm VR. I believe it's a better lens to start off. Between wide and telephoto. Best of both worlds. If you have a telephoto lens, it'd be hard to use it to take group photos (if you do) and you'd need to stand way back to get everyone in the frame.

Normally people wont have a telephoto attached all the time, unless you're a sports photographer.

Or are you set on a telephoto for any specific reason?

Try and convince your parents, cause for lenses, you must invest on one which you will use all the time, and not one that doesn't help you further or improve your photographic skills. Cause I believe having just a telephoto is a limitation on your photographic subject matter.

Oh yeah, about the softness in telephoto lenses... it is only noticeable if you zoom/magnify closely the photo in your computer. But if you develop 4R sized photos, it's not noticeable.

but with 1.5x crop of Nikon, 70-300 is 450mm equivalent only

Hmm, I don't think anybody would spend on a DSLR system just to be able to develop decent photos not bigger than 4R...

Hmm, I don't think anybody would spend on a DSLR system just to be able to develop decent photos not bigger than 4R...

Normally you develop what size?

To be honest, I have never developed a single photo from my Nikon D80 with over 13K shots. 

I have a A3+ pigmented ink photo printer in my office... nyuk nyuk... and enough inks and Letter, A4, Tabloid, A3+ size media for my usage.

But sadly anything printed larger than A4/Letter/8R is expensive to frame.

Normally you develop what size?

To be honest, I have never developed a single photo from my Nikon D80 with over 13K shots. 

I have a A3+ pigmented ink photo printer in my office... nyuk nyuk... and enough inks and Letter, A4, Tabloid, A3+ size media for my usage.

But sadly anything printed larger than A4/Letter/8R is expensive to frame.

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Added on October 14, 2007, 12:11 am

But having said that, I have post-processed photos (upscale, sharpen, upscale) from my late Powershot A510 3.1MP camera to be printed on A3+ (13x19"). As long as you don't demand detail like being able to tell apart someone's hair strands or skin texture, it should be OK to upscale to print to sizes larger than 4R. I know my old 7.5MP DSLR body reaches its limits at A3+ for large group portraits (30-40 ppl; faces start to be pixelised). But abstracts are OK at larger sizes because viewers aren't supposed to focus on individual details, but more of the overall pattern and form.

Those 4R like that would be enough actually...   the rest I will just store in a external hard drive

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Added on October 14, 2007, 6:27 pm

I totally agree with you...

Possible good reasons to aim for at least 8R photos:
1.) You may be able to sell them off for publications (magazines, maybe).
2.) Contests may demand at least 8R size (I have joined two contests that put that as minimum requirements) hardcopy submissions.
3.) Photos printed larger may impress your clients more (if you decide to go into a photography business) than a portfolio of just 4Rs... may need to show them a hardcopy portfolio - not everybody will just go online and browse your virtual photo albums, and their screens may render your colours wrongly.

Trust me, it's quite different seeing a photo on screen (eg. Flicker, Picasa), and actually printed out on media (glossy, matte, photo rag, canvas), but for most people printing large format is unjustifiably expensive if for no good reason. Frankly if I hadn't had access to a company photo printer, 99.99% of what I take would just remain in my hard disk because at S$0.20-0.30 per 4R, S$4-6 per 8R, and S$16-20 per 11R, developing photos is quite expensive.

yeah..if there's a need I will do it..

Don't go off topic anyway...back to topic 

[offtopic]

why not start today?

[/offtopic]

well..I've just came back from one utama

55-200 is priced at about 900
70-300 abt 1800..

well..I've just came back from one utama

55-200 is priced at about 900
70-300 abt 1800..

best price (when i was shopping a month ago)
55-200 rm850
70-300 rm1750

If you were referring to the same place as Victor3010, then looks like prices of lenses over there has increased. 

lol nah... i dont go to midvalley or 1U to shop for camera stuff. they tend to be a lil bit more expensive

lol nah... i dont go to midvalley or 1U to shop for camera stuff. they tend to be a lil bit more expensive

Yeah because the rent in those shopping complexes are rather high hence the pricing they put would be higher compared to J-One in Amcorp Mall or YL Camera at Pudu Plaza.

Then it would be helpful if you share with us where you saw that price.