Best lens for plane spotting?
I'm getting a Nikon D3300 for plane spotting and I'm getting so confused with about 2 million Amazon search results for a Nikon lens. Which one should I get? I've seen the really bad zoom on the stock 18-55mm and I'm looking for a great zoom lens that's under $200.
Least expensive decent telephoto zoom is the 55-200mm AF-S VR. Cheapo 70-300mm's will not be sharp at the longer focal lengths--empty magnification. If you plan to make a lot of use of 300mm, invest in at least the Nikon 70-300mm AF-S VR, not the cheapo. It's about three times your budget, but it costs less than wasting your budget on something that works poorly, because then you would be spending four times your budget before having something good.
I feel your pain. Amazon is horrible at parsing out just those items that you need. Do a search for "Nikon Telephoto zoom" and you get 4,706 results even though there are only 30 telephoto zoom lenses being made for the Nikon mount.
You will find going to sites like bhphotovideo.com or adorama.com will allow you to find what you're looking for far easier. Here are all the 30 telephoto zooms by all brands for the Nikon mount. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/...rtclk=sort
Then, go to photozone.de to see how sharp these lenses are compared to others. Sure, the 70-300 is sharper than the cheapo 70-300, but by how much? And does the increase in image quality justify the additional cost? What about Tamron or Sigma? They are actually put out a few lenses that are sharper than Nikon at a much lower price. Go to http://www.photozone.de/...lens-tests to find out.
This will work:
I agree that the 55-300mm is your best option but you're going to have to increase your budget because you won't get it for less than $200 unless you search for used or refurbished (maybe).