I chose a Gray Whale 18-55 vr because it was $50 less expensive and only had a one-year guarantee. I then purchased a 55-200 VR. My first SLR. Extremely delighted with everything. While there are obviously drawbacks, they are rarely visible due to the infrequent shooting situations. In extreme circumstances, you simply have to put in a little bit more work. For instance, you might twist a polarizing filter manually after focusing instead of exposure bracketing or perform HDRku programmatically from RAW. In other words, heaven and earth come next after the soapbox. You can capture excellent pictures that are on par with costly DSLRs if you have a little bit of artistic flair and basic computer skills. There are a few of my examples after the break.