lens - Are modern telephoto zooms so improved that they're not a big tradeoff vs primes?

I am looking for a good amateur telephoto lens for Nikon DSLR. It's main purpose will be sport shots.

Back when I learned photography with film SLR, a fixed focal lens was significantly better than a zoom, and costed less. I took my best shots with a crystal clear Yashica 135mm.

Now I recently bought a Nikon D3100 with two cheap zoom (18-55mm and 55-200mm) and when I came back to the store to upgrade it I only found very wide range zooms (18-200, 70-300, 28-300 and even 18-300 !) I found a few good reviews on these wide range products, but a lot of bad ones too (distortions and soft image if light is not perfect).

I am surprised not to find any 135mm or 200mm around anymore, except as an high end product in the pro shops. So, has the quality of lenses improve so much that a 18-200 or a 70-300 is not a big trade-off anymore ?

Answer

More or less, today's lenses are better than yesterdays. Historically, yes, primes have been substantially better than zoom lenses. Most modern primes are still outstanding. Zoom lenses, however, have steadily improved -- better coatings, lens formulas, and more precise glass grinding has allowed zooms to improve substantially. Pro level f2.8 zooms are typically the best and often rival prime quality. Lower end zooms are often still great, though a clear step below in all but the best circumstances.

One piece on zoom range worth mentioning: in general, a smaller zoom range results in a higher quality lens. Your 18-55 is a 3x zoom, and the 55-200 is about 3.6x. The 18-200 is about 11x and the 18-300 is 16.5x. Those are big jumps and fitting such a wide range does require some compromise. All lens choices are a matter of compromise -- size, weight, optical quality, and cost are all determining factors, after all.

It's true, you won't find many modern primes in the 135-200 mm range. In that range, I think you'll find most people recommend a 70-200 mm f2.8 zoom -- yes, it's so good that the primes in that range have fallen out of favor. However, I have a suggestion: remember that your D3100 is a crop sensor body; Nikon's 85 mm 1.8 becomes about 130 mm on your D3100, right around the focal length you prefer.