What r compatible lenses for 18 mm - 200 mm range?

I have decided to buy Nikon D3100… And i want one lens which can serve all purposes ( eg prime, zoom, telephoto, wide angle ) so please tell me 18 mm - 200 mm lens will b gud or not and also compatible lens name…

if you want to add any other lens then your suggestions r most welcome

Well the D3100 is a good starting crop sensor DSLR and if you are looking for a lens to cover all the focal lengths you need then yes it is a good lens. However I'm not sure depending on what you are shooting that you will be happy with that lens. The reason I say you may not be happy with that lens, as lenses which cover large focal lengths which are mainstream consumer pricing have something called a variable or floating aperture. What it means is at 18 mm the aperture will be f3.5 which is alright (Aperture is the size of the opening in the lens, the smaller the number the bigger the hole, allowing more light to penetrate) but when you extend to 200 the maximum is now 5.6 Having 5.6 as your limit especially if you want that reach in low light situations will make you very unhappy. The 3100 isn't too bad for noise, I would say ISO 800, 1600 max for usable pictures.

The advantage of going with say a fixed 50 mm 1.8 is that it is much faster ( meaning larger aperture hole) which for low light is crucial as you want to get the most light in so you can lower you ISO or raise your shutter speed.

I have a Nikon D90 and a Nikon 18-200mm lens.

I also have several other lenses, a Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8, Nikon 35mm f/1.8. 50mm f/1.8, and 80-200mm f/2.8, which are all considered to be high performance lenses.

So I can do some comparisons between the Nikon18-200mm and the other lenses I have. I have found that at 24-35mm area, compared to the other lenses, the 18-200 is a bit soft at f/5.6 (even though at that focal length, the minimum aperture is around f/4.5).

But when stopped down to f/8, the 18-200mm lens is about as sharp as the other lenses at f/8.

This is not to be entirely unexpected as the 18-200mm lens is a "super-zoom", as it has an 11x magnification ratio. Anytime you go with a high-power zoom, there are some limitations. This really makes me laugh when some folks find a 24x zoom in a compact camera is not enough.

But anyway, due to the softness issue, I consider the 18-200mm a "daylight lens".It does well in the daytime, but not so much in low light situations. Kind of disappointing that a $850 lens doesn't do better, but the fact is that there's no perfect lens.

At any rate, I bought the 18-200mm lens for travel and cruises as I don't want to lug a lot of gear in those situations, and I'm willing to trade a bit of limitation (daylight shooting at f/8) for the convenience and simplicity of a smaller, lighter lens.

If I'm home, I use my better lenses.

I have posted the test results of the comparison I did here: http://www.althephoto.com/lenses/superzoom.php

You can judge for yourself whether or not the 18-200mm lens is fits your needs.