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Hey guys, I have been shooting pictures with my Nikon D5100 DSLR and Nikon 18-55 mm kit lens for like three years now and it's time for an upgrade. I believe quite some members on the forums are also into photography, so hopefully someone can help me out. The main problem I have with the 18-55 mm lens is that it just doesn't zoom in very much. For street photography, landscapes and a bit of simple train photography it is sufficient. However, when trains or other objects are further away, 55mm just doesn't cut it. Too many times I have missed the chance to take a photo because I just wasn't able to zoom in beyond what my current lens offers. So I'm looking for a new lens that either supplements and/or replaces my current lens. There's also the thing that I will be staying in Japan for half a year very soon, and that I want to have proper photography equipment to take nice photos while I am there. I have been looking at "superzoom" lenses that are combined wide angle and zoom lenses in one, but I do feel like they have too many compromises to compensate for the convenience of having one lens for all. A Nikon 55-200 mm lens, supplementing my current 18-55 mm lens, is a possibility. However, I feel like I will be getting annoyed at the need to change lenses constantly because most photos I want to take are probably in the 18-100/150 mm range. That opens up the road for the Nikon 18-140 mm lens, but which is just too expensive for me currently. Then there's also the Nikon 18-105 mm lens, which will probably suffice plenty enough for my daily photographing. However, that means I'm missing out on anything beyond 105mm, which I actually do really want for the occasion that I need that zoom. Getting the aforementioned 55-200 mm lens in addition to the 18-105 mm lens is a possibility, but I feel like that would be spending money on an overlap of 50mm, while not having the convenience of zooming in even further. Although I do not believe that I will want to zoom in beyond 200 mm any time soon. There's also tons of other zoom lenses available, but the Nikon 18-105 + 55-200 together fit right into my budget and seem to offer the best picture quality vs price, while the other options just seem too expensive for now. I have been looking at so many lenses now that I feel like I just don't know what I should go with any more. Should I get one or two new lenses, should I get a more expensive one now and save up for another expensive one later or will two more affordable lenses suffice for now, etc. I hope someone can help me out with that.

This is an old commercial, but I saw it on TV again tonight. Thought the photographers on this board might be interested.

I am planning a short, post-Christmas, New Years holiday in central/southern Europe and will be in the Zurich area for a couple of days. I have allocated a full day for full-on trainwatching (no sightseeing), and am seeking some suggestions. My parameters for train watching spots: 1. locations within approx. 1 train hour of Zurich Central Station 2. mainline with heavy passenger traffic, preferably with freight traffic too, say 15~20tph ea. direction 3. good trackside vantage points with few obstructions like signs, overpasses, fencing. Station platforms are OK. *Background scenery not necessary, though existence of such is a plus 4. preferably some loco-hauled passenger trains, such as Re4/4 pulling older coaching stock, if it still exists I am thinking of visiting two or three spots for around 90min each, depending on the time needed to get to them as well as availability of daylight. I have already some places in mind: A. Olten- not so much for photography, but to observe SBB railway operations at this node. B. Some point on the approaches to the Gotthard Line (Zug?, Schwyz?), heavy pax and freight trafffic. Your thoughts appreciated.

http://www.03fotos.com/photograph/index.html Interesting photographic work, I particularly like the one taken from around Tokyo. There is nice some "under the scene" views.