"...very tempting to have a 28-1200 zoom you dont need a tripod for..."
Here is something to think about:
If such a lens was f/2.8 wide open, realizing that the f-number of lenses increases as the ratio of the FL's, this means that at maximum zoom (if I did the numbers in my head correctly), the widest f-number available to you would be around f/60.
Also, don't forget that the minimum usable hand-held shutter speed is around 1 divided by the FL of the lens, so such a lens could only be hand held at shutter speeds faster than around 1/1000 or 1/2000th of a second. OK, for the sake of argument, lets assume that such a lens was produced with a vibration reduction system that gave you an extra 2 or 3 stops, ie, around 1/250th of a second
Do you think that being forced to always shoot at f/60 and 1/250th sec in all lighting conditions might just limit the utility of the lens at maximum zoom?
Tom M
PS - BTW, the above completely disregarded the fact that very long lenses need extremely high surface finish to produce good images. If the mfgrs only give this hypothetical lens a surface smoothness similar to what they use on current APS lenses, this means that there is no way it will give sharp images even if the f-stop and minimum hand-holding speed were adhered to.
