Nikon D90 DX |

Sometime in the next few months, I’m planning on purchasing a Nikon D90 or D5000. This will be a step up from the superzoom point-and-shoot I’m presently using. Because my budget is limited, I’m planning on purchasing the camera body along with just one lens to start with, so I want the lens to be reasonably versatile and high-quality.

The 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED AF-S VR DX Nikkor looks sort of promising:

http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/nikon_18-200_3p5-5p6_vr_afs_n15/

but it has more of a zooming range than I need, and I would want something with less distortion and chromatic aberration. (I take a lot of photos for Wikipedia, so nitpicky things like that really matter to me.)

I primarily take photos with existing light, mostly of still subjects (like landscapes and buildings). I don’t do any macro photography to speak of, and I very rarely need to do super-zoomed-in shots, though I appreciate having the option available. I’m also very much into photostitching; see this recent stitch of 23 photos:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mendenhall_Glacier_Stitch_1_June_2009.jpg

I am a total newbie in the realm of DSLRs and have never purchased a lens before, so any advice would be appreciated!

I was going to suggest an 18-200. I have one by Tamron and it’s my work horse because it’s wide at the bottom but has pretty good reach.

By the way the Tamron is about 1/3rd the price of the Nikor.

Take look here: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/