Excellent quality, fast, sharp, solid and sturdy. Good feel in hand.

Heavy

I like this lens. It is sharp at all f-stops and focuses fast. When I want a quality image I don't hesitate to put this lens on my camera. My only complaints are weight and zoom range. It's a 2.8 so it is a big (read heavy) lens. You won't want to use is as a knock around lens. It just a little too big and heavy. My other complaint is the 55mm length is just a little too short for my liking. I wish it went to 70mm.

Similar Products Used:

70-200 mm vr
nikon kit lens

• Build quality
• Image quality
• Sharpness
• Fast aperture at all focal lengths
• No significant distortion
• Its heavy and stable to hold

• None

I bought this lens after several months of using the do it all Nikon 18-200VR which I found useful but quite disappointing for critical use.

I wished that I had bought this fine lens a long time ago. With its fast aperture, sharpness and tough build quality it is a perfect picture taking tool. There is only minimal wide anglle distortion. Colour, contrast and sharpness is the best.

Its costly for sure: but with the solid metal body and weather sealing it will last forever.

Customer Service

none

Similar Products Used:

Nikon 18-200 VR
Nikon 18-35
Nikon 80-200 F2.8 VR
Sigma 12-24

heavy(i love it this way),very very sharp..Great colors and contrast

No Weaknesses (maybe just the price- but iven if the lens was selling for $2000 a would of buy it because 17-55 is Perfect

I love this Lens...I use it daily. It's a great lens never let me down. I'm a photojournalist that mean that i use my equipment alot and the 17-55 always work great. i love this lens for the colors,sharpmess and contrast!!! IT's a perfect len,one of the best Nikons today.

Similar Products Used:

Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 VR AF-s...Nikon 300 F/2.8...Nikon 85 f/1.4

IT's sharp sharp sharp
IT's fest fest fest
I love weight of the lens:):)

THE price i think

The lens is Great. One of my favorite lenses. It very very very sharp and fast.
I love the weight of the lens. It better than Nikon 28-70 f/2.8 that i used alot on film:)
And it's alot sharper that nikon 20-35 f/2.8,it almost as sharp as Nikon 85mm f/1.4


I lOVE IT SO MUSH:)

Similar Products Used:

Similar in sharpness-Nikon 85 f/1.4

Sharp, fast focusing and build quality.

Weigh,t price and no VR

For a digital Nikon this is probably the best standard zoom around but not the best value for money and it's heavier than the competition. For me a wide constant maximum aperture is a big consideration. I had the Sigma 18-50 2.8 and was very happy but the focusing was just a little sluggish and noisy sometimes. Since this was the lens range I used most often I treated myself to the Nikon. It is very sharp and focusing is definitely quicker and the slight extra range is more apparent than I thought it would be. However it's bukier and heavier and much more expensive. Even with this short focal length and a 2.8 apeture VR would be nice.

I can't tell any difference in picture quality but they are both very good, I imagine a test chart would reveal something.

So in summary if you must have the best and woieght isn't a huge factor then get this one, otherwise save a good few hundred pounds and get the lighter cheaper Sigma. If the Sigma had the HSM focusing of the 10-20 I'd switch back.

Customer Service

Not tested on this lens, in the past Nikon have been good

Similar Products Used:

Sigma 18-50 2.8 EX

The range.

Softness.

I'll make this review short and sweet. This lens 17-55mm DX is not up to professional standards. I shoot children at schools at play. I have found this lens to been very soft if the subject is more than 5 ft. away. So much so that the shots are not marketable. I use this lens on a D2X . I expected much more from a 1000.00 + lens. I use other zooms with no problems. 17-35mmAFS,70-180mm macro, 12-24mmAFS DX. I can not trust the 17-55mm to get the shot with the sharpness my customers expect from a professional. I will be contacting nikon with this for a refund or some exchange. I have run test with this lens against other lens. The 17-55mm has failed hands down everytime! I wish this was not the case because I love the range the lens has.

Customer Service

N/A

Similar Products Used:

12-24mm DX,!7-35mm AFS,70-180mm D

Sharpness, Saturation, Clarity - everything - not as big as it could be

It is big, but not bad. f Fcal legnth ring is closer to the body cause there is no arperatre ring but just takes getting used to.

Wow is all I can say seeing my computer screen after test shots with my D-100- If you are anything like me you consider yourself a good/creative compositionist but always wondered why your pics were missing that something that the pros have. The answer is 2.8. This lens has now given me the element I have been missing. If you are fustrated by not being as good as the pros stop screwing around buying the "best value" lens or "I can justify this much after all I am not a professional". It bothers me to death if I am not as good as a pro, now I can be. If you have decent tehcnical skills and good creative skills your photos will now have a special quality to them. The 2.8 lets in more light but it is more than that, it is sharpness, clarity, saturation that all comes together. My test shots are amazing and I am blown away, reminds me of medium format. I had the 3.5 24-85 AFS ED lens - and it does not compare to this masterpeice of a lens. I am great in photoshop and would make a good picture better. Now I can make a great picture amazing. I am glad it is expesive it will keep amatures and dreamers wishing they are getting the quality I am getting. This is just so amazing, I won't cry as hard when the CC bill comes in - it's worth it.

Customer Service

The best on the phone - never needed a repair

Similar Products Used:

Nikon 24-85 3.5 ed AFS Nikon 70-200 ed afs 2.8

Oh, Baby!!!

no sir.

If you are new to Nikon digital SLR, and are only interested in stellar optical quality, from a lens that incompasses the three basic optical views, this is the lens to buy. Though, more expensive then the sharp 18-70 kit lens, It lends a certain body to the image that the 18-70mm lacks. This could also be said of the 17-35mm f2.8, 20-35mm f2.8 and other such like "Pro level" lenses. They tend to be warmer, richer and just more satisfying. The 17-55mm dx is all of that plus, you never have to change lenses and dirty up your sensor. With the added telephoto ability, your covered. I leave this lens on one body and have a second D70 that I use for changing my more exotic and less used lenses (i.e. telezoom, superwides and macro). I never use small apetures on these lenses, so dust specks don't trouble me. If I do need f22 I use to my 17-55mm and a never dirtied sensor. I find it to be vivid and enhancing to any subject, even at f2.8. It's weight balance on a D70 combined with It's light grabbing ability is truly spectacular. I stood in a dark ballroom amongst a mob of dancers, hand holding, over my head, pointing downward at f2.8 and 1/4s and 17mm with flash. Not only did the foreground look pristine, but people in the back of the hall (out of the flash range) came out reasonably sharp and focused. I could never have done this with the 18-70mm dx at f4(a sharp lens in a perfect scenario). Barrel distortion is as it should be. Contrast is high. It has the Bokeh you want for portraits. Focus speed and accuracy are unbeatable in my book. Price is what it should be.

Similar Products Used:

18-70mm dx, 20-35mm f2.8 af, 80-200mm f2.8, many, different AIS' back in the day.

2.8 aperture through the hwole range Sharp

I just wish Nikon would switch the focusing ring and zoom ring. The zoom ring we use all the time, yet it is sitting far back on the lens, were focusing is being done by outofocus system.

I replaced my 18-70 nikon lens with 17-55 because I did not like the sharpness of the stock lens. The 17-55 does every thing I need, it is sharp, quick in focusing, relatively light-waght.

Similar Products Used:

Vertualy all of the Nikon Lenses.

Very sharp. Lighter and smaller than my previous 28-70 which was my old walking around lens.

Flares a little more than my 17-35 did.

Buying a D2H and selling my F5's, I sold my 17-35 f2.8 and 28-70 f2.8 on ebay. I really like the wide range zoom, giving me a 35mm equivalent of 25.5mm to 82.5mm. I also like the lighter weight.