Raw or JPEG?

[John_B]

Well, here's one of his reviews, picked at random. Judge for yourself if what "some people seem to believe" is true (read the various sections under the heading Performance Details): Nikon 18-200mm

He also has quite the disclaimer:

I started this site as a joke ...
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I only update things as I discover errors. I offer no warrantees of any kind, except that there are many deliberate gaffes, practical jokes and downright foolish and made-up things lurking. While this site is mostly accurate, it is neither legally binding nor guaranteed. The only thing I do guarantee is that there is plenty of stuff I simply make up out of thin air, as does The Onion.
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I love a good hoax. Read The Museum of Hoaxes, or see their site. A hoax, like this site, is done as a goof simply for the heck of it by overactive minds as a practical joke.

But this is my favorite bit:

I love to kid around, but no joke goes over well throughout every world culture served by the Internet. I get email from researchers at both north and south poles, as well as everywhere else from the frozen north of Norway, Igloolik, tiny tropical islands in the warm Pacific, every world continent and even ships on the ocean. I'm read in the chateaux of Switzerland and Beverly Hills to ox-powered PCs in the shantytowns of countries too poor to have telephones for computer support call centers. I'm read by everyone from the corporate rulers of the world to students who one day will build the world.

If they are too poor to have phones, how do they connect to Teh Intarwebz?

More specific to your point, any superzoom like the 18-200VR has unavoidable optical tradeoffs (and that particular lens has been replaced by a newer model). I have the Canon equivalent and use it as a "vacation lens" explicitly for the same reasons he likes the Nikon version; its versatile enough that one lens might just possibly be all you need to take with you when schlepping other gear to remote locations.

Like I said, just because KR likes it doesn't necessarily mean you shouldn't go ahead and buy it anyway.