a recommendation on a telephoto or zoom telephoto nikon lens.

hi,

i recently started learning SLR "travel" photograhy and bought the
following based on earlier advice from this group:

nikon N70 body with 50mm/f1.4 and 24mm/f1.8 prime lenses. i took my
first shot out on a trip to the netherlands and was somewhat happy
with the results for a first timer.
(http://purnea.ee.princeton.edu/~pgupta/webalbum). many folks have
given me good tips for improvement so thanks for that.

i am very happy with the lenses I have but now i'm heading to sikkim
(eastern himalayas) and rajasthan in india this winter and i want to
shoot some closeups of the mountains and people etc. the main problem i
encountered with teh above was not being able to do closeup of objects
that are far away. i got lucky as netherlands is just plain flat and i
could get quite close to what i wanted to shot. it'll be a problem
trying to shoot a mountain while you are about 10 km from it.

i'm looking for recommendations on a nikon AF telephoto or zoom
telephoto lens that will be a good travel lens. i've been looking at a
80-200mm/f2.8 but $700 is beyond the budget for a student. if i can
find a used one for $350-400 (my budget) i'd be happy but haven't been
able to locate. some others have said don't get zooom, get primes. but
it'll be hassle for me to 5-6 prime lenses while trekking.

any recommendations for solid mid-range zoom telephoto lens that will
give good results that i should consider for a nikon n70 body.
thanks for your time.
pallav

wrote:

i'm looking for recommendations on a nikon AF telephoto or zoom
telephoto lens that will be a good travel lens. i've been looking at a
80-200mm/f2.8 but $700 is beyond the budget for a student.

And that lens weighs 1.6 kg, not something you really want to
take trekking. I haven't come up with a good solution yet;
the Nikkor 70-300 doesn't get great reviews, but the weight
~500g is much more manageable. You could consider the
24-120 VR, but reviews on that aren't raving about sharpness
either. The VR will help get clearer pictures on hand-held,
since you can use slower shutter speeds and still avoid blurring
due to camera shake. There is a Nikkor 28-200, popular for
travel snaps but as expected for such a huge range zoom,
no raving reviews. I'm thinking of the old Nikkor 70-210,
which gets marginally better reviews, but it's not easy to
get hold of in shops and I'm wary of buying camera kit on ebay.

What I'd like to see is something up to 200mm, f4-5.6 VR,
weight 600g, But I haven't seen such a thing.

--
Ken Tough