im seriously about to lose my mind trying to pick a single lens for my upcoming trip to glacier national park next month and i keep going in circles. i have a d7500 and i am so sick of carrying a bag full of glass and switching every five minutes because i see a bird then i see a landscape and then i miss the shot because im fumbling with lens caps. its driving me crazy.

i have been looking at three specific options:

• nikon 18-300mm f/3.5-6.3
• nikon 16-80mm f/2.8-4e
• tamron 18-400mm di ii vc

so i was thinking about the 18-300 because the range is just insane right? you can basically do everything with it but then i read some reviews saying the image quality is soft at the long end and i dont want my vacation photos to look like they were taken with a potato. my logic was that the convenience would outweigh the quality but now im second guessing myself hard.

then i looked at the 16-80mm because its supposed to be way sharper and better in low light which would be nice for those sunrise shots but then i lose all that reach and what if i see a bear or something? im gonna be stuck at 80mm wishing i had the 300. and then theres that tamron 18-400 which sounds even better for range but people say its even softer than the nikon.

my budget is capped at like 800 bucks max and i really need to buy something in the next week so i can test it out before i leave for montana. i keep looking at sample photos on flickr and one minute i think the 18-300 is fine and the next i think it looks terrible compared to my primes. is there actually a best one that doesnt compromise too much on either end or am i just chasing a unicorn here? i just want to leave the house with one lens on the camera and not feel like i missed out on half the shots because i didnt have the right gear attached...