I recently bought a Nikon D5000. I have the Nikkor 55-200mm VR lens, and it works nicely. However, I would like to get a lens that allows me to get very close to an object, such as when I am taking photographs of animals that are far away. My sister has the Nikkor 18-200mm VR lens. When I tried the 18-200mm lens on my D5000, it did not seem to zoom in very close to an object. In fact, I was able to get closer to the object with my 55-200mm lens. I do not understand if I am doing something wrong; I thought that since the 18-200mm lens is an 11x zoom lens I would be able to get closer to the object I was picturing.

Would the Nikkor 70-300 mm lens be a better lens for my D5000?

Thanks for the help.

Basil