before you go lens shopping, check out this site, especially if you're not totally sold on buying new or set on autofocus (I never needed it in the mountains before it was invented...)

http://www.naturfotograf.com/lens_surv.html


There are a few gems listed that may just catch your attention, like this one:

Zoom-Nikkor 25-50 mm f/4 - "the venerable 25-50 is able to produce silky-smooth images when it is attached to the D2X. There is a roundness and tactility to the image that makes the 25-50 downright enchanting. You might get slightly sharper images with other lenses, but hardly more pleasing to the photographic, inner eye. The virtual lack of distortion, vignetting, and chromatic aberration helps the 25-50 to project its endearing image quality onto the imaging sensor of the D2X."

$200-250 on ebay any day, but really not a great range for a DX body (37-75mm equivalent)

Also consider the Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 - fast and wide, $589 new. Drawback - it's so wide, you will need another lens like the 18-55 on top of it to cover a range that maybe 90% of what I shoot in the mountains requires. I am considering this lens as my third zoom to carry along - you do get the super wide look from it - found this on Flickr - all taken with the D300 DX body
http://www.flickr.com/photos/loicparent/sets/72157606158964425/with/2684147525/


This morning I also got curious to see how good that 55-200mm VR zoom really is and did some lens comparison shots with a top rated 300mm f4.5 ED IS lens. I put both on my D90, shot the old lens in manual with histogram telling me where the exposure was and the new lens on auto with aperture set to f8 where it's supposed to be sharpest.

As you can tell, I've been having a slow day ;-)

My Stuff on Flickr