chimphappyhour
:p
Registered: November 2007
Location: KCMO
Posts: 1213
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Review Date: Mon February 23, 2009
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 8
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Pros:
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VR, sharp, nice zoom range
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Cons:
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For what it is? Nothing.
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Used with what SLR Body:
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D300
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I bought this lens for myself as a late Christmas present. (I wanted to make sure I still had a job.  ) Anyway, I was trying to decide between this or the three times as much 24-70 2.8. As much as I really wanted the more expensive lens, the "frugal" choice won out.
Now, I didn't loose out on much. I made sure to read up on all of the reviews out on the net. There was a lot of good information out there on this lens and more has shown up since I bought this. (Thom Hogan gave a rather nice one recently!)
Physically, this lens is almost the smallest in my collection. (Only my 50 1.8 is smaller.) The lens is compact enough to drop into a jacket pocket. It features a double zoom design, two barrels extend out. So far, it seems pretty stable. The zoom is stiff to prevent lens creep but the focus is easy.
This lens features AF-S for quick and quiet focusing. In standard use, this has worked out pretty well so far. I have yet to test it with this lens and fast moving objects such as birds. Of course since the long end is only 85mm, I may not get the chance. 
Another useful feature is the VR which allows one to handhold in lower light than a regular lens. So far, this has worked out quite well. In fact with the current crop of digital bodies, I was able to combine bumped up ISO and VR to render shots in some of the darkest parts of the art museum that I never would have achieved before!
What about optical performance? After all, it is a lens and that is what really counts. When a manufacturer designs a lens, they have to make a compromise at some point. The bonus is that there are some parts of the design that can be fixed in post processing which means the designer can concentrate on those items they can fix in post. That is almost what they have done with this lens, almost.
Sharpness is something that you need to have as much as you can get right out of the camera. Nikon did that with this one. Even wide open, where some lenses start to show softening, this lens stands up quite well. All focal lengths and apertures so far have yielded surprisingly good results! It even stood in for my macro lens for one shot. (Not 100% as good as the macro, but it was still good enough. Although, I still should have gone back for the macro, but that is a different story altogether.  )
Colors and contrast are good. Nothing to complain about here.
So, what about the bad? There is supposedly CA's, but Nikon's Capture NX and newer bodies eliminate it without the user even realizing!  Distortion? It's there, but minor and fixable in post.
Which leaves vignetting. Yes, it vignettes. That is the one bad about this lens, but there had to be one. There's always one and since this is a DX lens, you have to see that one coming. It mainly shows up at the widest setting wide open. Other than that, I can ignore it.
Overall, I've been very pleased with this lens so far. It has been a great value for the performance it yields. I'm sure I would love the images that the 24-70 yields, but I like having that extra grand in my possession better right now. (That's other gear or a trip!  ) No, it isn't 2.8 or all of Nikon's gee whiz technology, but it is either close enough in some categories or fixes some aspects with other concepts. They balanced need versus want very well with this lens.
Items tagged in my flickr stream with this lens: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chimpha...s/nikon1685vr/
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My Flickr: Clicky
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Niknon Photography Discussion
