I need another opinion before I upgrade

[mselders]

I have been using a Nikon D-50, and will be up grading to the D90. And I need help deciding which VR lens will work best for me. I take lots of pictures, from fireworks, family gatherings, church plays, to my grandson T-Ball games.
The lens that I have for the D-50 is (1) AF 18-200mm 1:3.5-6.3 XR Di2 {IF} MICRO Tamron, (2) LD Di Tamron AF 75-300mm 1:4-5.6 Tele-Micro, (3) AF-S NIKKOR 18-55 mm1:3.5-5.6GED, and (4) an older and heavy lens, NIKKOR 80-200mm 1:4.5. None of these older lenses have VR, and I don’t use my tripod that often.
Will I be wasting my money if I get the Nikkor 18-200 VR lens since I don’t use my tripod much? Trying not to spend too much money, should I get a Sigma, Tamron, or a Nikkor len?

[zona5101]

Originally Posted by mselders

I have been using a Nikon D-50, and will be up grading to the D90. And I need help deciding which VR lens will work best for me. I take lots of pictures, from fireworks, family gatherings, church plays, to my grandson T-Ball games.
The lens that I have for the D-50 is (1) AF 18-200mm 1:3.5-6.3 XR Di2 {IF} MICRO Tamron, (2) LD Di Tamron AF 75-300mm 1:4-5.6 Tele-Micro, (3) AF-S NIKKOR 18-55 mm1:3.5-5.6GED, and (4) an older and heavy lens, NIKKOR 80-200mm 1:4.5. None of these older lenses have VR, and I don’t use my tripod that often.
Will I be wasting my money if I get the Nikkor 18-200 VR lens since I don’t use my tripod much? Trying not to spend too much money, should I get a Sigma, Tamron, or a Nikkor len?

Why do you think a VR will give you better results than your current lenses?
What are you looking to improve/change?

[Almond.Butterscotch]

Yikes- you have so much overlap in your lenses, I'm not even sure where to begin.

But as Zona pointed out, what do you expect to get out of VR? It's not a replacement for faster glass or higher working ISOs

[lil red bird]

The VR will let you shoot at a slower shutter speed IIRC 2-3 steps slower.

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by mselders

(1) Tamron AF 18-200mm 1:3.5-6.3 XR Di2 {IF} MICRO
(2) LD Di Tamron AF 75-300mm 1:4-5.6 Tele-Micro
(3) AF-S NIKKOR 18-55 mm1:3.5-5.6GED
(4) an older and heavy lens, NIKKOR 80-200mm 1:4.5.

Just so that I could read it better.

None of these lenses are particularly great on their own, VR or not. The 80-200 f/4.5 might be worth keeping, but if it were me i'd opt to sell the lot of it (seperately, most likely) and getting a D90 as a kit with either the AF-S Nikon 18-105 f/3.5-5.6 VR or the AF-S Nikon 16-85 f/3.5-5.6 VR

It limits you a bit in terms of range, but the image quality will be considerably better.

[mselders]

I just got back in town, anyway, I don't use the Auto setting, and some of my pictures are slightly blurry from camera movement. I thought the VR lens would help, I understand you turn off the VR when you use a tripod

[NHartzog]

I keep this lens on my D90 and use it maybe 90% of the time I go out to shoot. It is a great lens and the VR is a tremendous asset as I don't take a tripod along with me. If you'd like to look at some shots made with that lens go to my site at Flickr: Nancy's Nikon Photos' Photostream. All the photos there with the exception of the ones marked using an old AF 35-70mm lens were taken with the 18-200mm VRll lens handheld and not post processed.
Nancy