What lens to use for DSLR like Nikon D7000 while bike riding? Room for only one lens.
 

In anticipation of a new DSLR, I realize I may need to keep it as compact as possible, I often take my cameras with me on my bike during bike rides around my city. Being on a bike has it's challenges, & one of them I realize is carrying a DSLR around safely. I have a back sort of closing case on the back of my bike of which I put my purse in.

I will not be able to carry around all the different lenses for each purpose with me, it would not be practical, can anybody recommend a good single lens that had a decent zoom range, a portrait range & a close up range? I often take sunset photos at the beach.

I was linked to this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...SIN=B0012X43P2

or I found a Nikon one that is a little less: http://www.amazon.com/Nikon-70-300mm.../ref=pd_cp_p_2

or would it be best to go with the lens that comes with the Nikon kits, in my case the D7000 kit lens?

Get a good backpack. I'll provide some suggestions in a future reply. (I'm currently looking to buy one for myself, to hold a small amount of gear, plus a bottle or two of water, and some snacks -- either for long bike rides or hiking trails.)

But first, I want to touch on the topic of the lens...

What are you planning to shoot? Yes, you'll be mobile, but what sort of scenes or subject are your trying to capture? Are you after squirrels in a park, deer on a trail, a scenic landscape, or a shot of high-rise buildings? Some need a wide, some need macro, some need far telephoto.

Also note that sometimes your lens choice will change, so one bike trip may have an entirely different lens from the other. Rarely do I leave the house or office with the same setup from last time. When I leave, I have a certain shot or shooting style in mind. I try to take extra lenses, if I can, in case I come across an unexpected shot, but sometimes I just have to make the mounted lens work.

I will probably shoot a little bit of everything, I dont usually go out with the purpose of shooting something specific, just what catches my eye when I am out & about. Sometimes I shoot distance items, sometimes closeups. When biking around my local beaches, I shoot sunsets, landmarks, people, sometimes the occasional squirrel, or seagulls. In the evenings, I may shoot a full moon rising, or lighted up buildings.

If I am in my backyard, I shoot nature, hawks, canyon scenes, a sunset over the canyon, & close ups of flowers or plants.

The problem here is you want a full 12-300 type of range, but you compromise optics by getting one of those hyperfocal-length lenses. As much as I want to like the Nikkor 18-200 lens, it's really not that good compared to shorter lenses. There's distortions all over the place that make it more of a snapshot lens and not a photographic lens. It basically turns an expensive DSLR into a P&S (a really good P&S, but still a P&S).

One cheat that I've used it to take a good 28-80 lens on a D200, and then also have a small 2x in my bag. That gives me a length of 160mm, should I need it. That's still not optically as ideal as a good 80-200 @ 160mm, but it's cheaper than a 18-200 by more than half the price. I use this setup maybe once a year, for personal trips where I don't know what I need, and it's not important that I snag portfolio-quality work while out and about.

Are you sure that a photo backpack with an extra lens is not an option?

Most of what you want to shoot is typically wide angle work, excluding the wildlife. That makes it hard to give advice.

It may be worthwhile to consider a good DSLR with a good lens for most work, and then a cheap P&S for those random "I need a longer lens" situations -- not that it's going to necessarily give you photographic quality either.

This is definitely a hard question. :(

I might be able to have a smallish photobag, with an extra lens but nothing too huge, I dont want to be weighed down on my bike.