Description: Compact 3.8X zoom covers portrait to wide view with Nikon's exclusive Silent Wave Motor for high-speed auto-focusing with accuracy and super-quiet operation.
Min focus: 0.38m (15 in.)
Lens hood included
DX lens design is optimized and compatible with Nikon D-Series digital SLR cameras
Summary: For the price, this is an excellent lens with really unbeatable value. However, it is important to conceive of this lens as a "prosumer" lens, and one should not expect the optical quality to approach that of the 17-55 mm f/2.8 or any of the other pro Nikon lens. While quite sharp generally, my sample is soft at the low end. Above f/8, the images as very, very shart. In addition, I agree with some of the other reviewers who found that the colors are not as rich on this prosumer lens. At f/3.5, it's not a particularly bright lens. One would appreciate the f/2.8, but obviously this would drive the price considerably higher. The build quality on the 18-70 mm f/3.5 is sturdy and reliable; is lightweight and very mobile; but lacks the solid build quality (and weight) of the 17-55 mm. The distortion at the 18 mm end is definitely there, but I can definitely live with it. There is some vignetting with a Moose filter.
One leg up on the 18-70mm is the range. I don't understand why Nikon designs a range of pro lenses (17-55 mm f/2.8 and 70-200 mm f/2.8) that leaves the 55 mm-70mm completely uncovered.
This is an excellent choice as a general stay-on lens. However, I wonder if the 18-200 f/4-5.6 VR makes more sense as a general stay-on lense, both because of its (amazing) range and VR. I have not tried the 18-200, but based on its favorable reviews, it may replace my 18-70.
Strengths: Useful 18-70mm range. Unbelievable value! (Come on! Only 300 bucks! Just give up Starbucks for 3 months a get the lense. Well worth it!). Reasonable build quality. Very good optics.
Weaknesses: Some distoration at the low end. Some vignetting with a Moose filter.
Similar Products Used: 17-55 mm f/2.8, 80-200 mm f/2.8 VR
Summary: I bought this lens with my D70 18 months ago and I forgot to review it. I tested it a bit at first compared with my 28-70 f2.8 and with my 28, 35 and 50mm primes on the D70. I couldn't see any difference in terms of definition, even wide open. Recently I compared my F100+50mm prime+Velvia+Coolscan IV with the D70+18-70 - no way I can make film look better. It's a struggle to make it look as good.
I stll prefer the 28-70 f2.8 because the colours somehow seem richer, but it's hard to explain why.
Strengths: First lens I've had that you can use at all focal lengths and apertures without noticing any difference in the performance.
Weaknesses: Get some vignetting and light falloff sometimes at the wideangle end, but this may be because I've had to fit a non-standard rubber lens hood. I dropped camera + lens on the floor once which broke the lens hood and now I can't find another one.
Summary: I had this lens for just over 7 months and have already had to get rid of it. I found the manual focus was to sensitive (obviously a lens built for the auto-focus generation) and the images were always unship using the lens wide open, I know that this is the case with all lenses, that they do not work at there best optical quality wide open but for the price a third party 2.8 lens could easily out perform. I also found that the bayonet mount was a little louse and that the front element could be 'wobbled' a lot more than it should. So over all build quality was not up to much.
Strengths: Weight, optics between f5.6 and f22
Weaknesses: Build quality, and I think for the price there are so many better quality third part lenses out there with a prime lens constant F2.8.
Similar Products Used: Nikon 35-70
Sigma 28-70
Tokina 28-70
Summary: This is a much reviewed lense, I found some of the problems that many have mentioned on this site. Overall I have found the lense to show good sharpness, colour and contrast on a D200 for my type of photography (mostly weddings and people). The distortion at the 18mm end is annoying, but probably to be expected give the lowish price of this lense. The vignetting with filters can be got around. I don't own any 67mm filters so I use a 67 to 72mm step up ring and then use 72mm filters. But take care as flare can be a problem with this arrangement since the lense hood becomes unusable. With the step up ring using more than one filter at time is still problamatic, may be you need to step to 77mm. Overall I would say this lense is superb value for money for general purpose medium cost lense.
Strengths: Good allrounder capable of top quality results if its limitations are borne in mind.
Weaknesses: Distortion at the wide end, vignetting with filters (but this can be fixed)
Similar Products Used: The following Nikkors of similar focal length range; 20mm AFD, 24mm AFD, 35mm AF, 24~124 AFD, 28~105AFD, 28~70 AFD, 35~105AFD, 35~70mm 2.8 AFD
Customer Service: None for this product, very good on all other products expect for a glitch with the F80 film camera.
Summary: After reading the posted reviews and talking to other photographers about this lens, I hypothesize that when one purchases this lens, one either gets a very good lens or one that leaves much to be desired. Luckily, my lens falls into the first category. For a kit lens, I have found it to be quite sharp at low and high focal lengths and aperture settings respectively. I like this lens so much it is my working lens. If I go somewhere and the "one camera one lens" rule applies, I would bring this lens.
Strengths: For a reasonable price, this lens is a good working lens for digital cameras whose focal length magnification factors are appoximately 1.5. It is the equivalent of a 28-105 lens for full frame format, but this lens is not meant for full frame cameras. Most on-line retail merchants explictly state such about this lens. It feels quite rugged and hefty, despite the fact that the lens barrel is not made of metal. And like I stated above, I found the lens to be quite sharp.
Weaknesses: The zoom and focus settings are reversed as stated in another review, but once you get used to such this is easily overcome. Also stated in another review, this is a "one filter" lens, i.e, you can only use one filter at the 18mm setting. If stack filters, then the filter ring shows up in the exposure. Again if you are aware of this limitation and are willing to work around it by changing filters, there isn't an issue. O, just don't use the 18mm setting if you stack filters.
The low end of this lens does show some barrel distortion so it would not recommend it for photographing architecture, obviously this lens will not produce the same result at this setting at the Nikon 17-35.
I would not mind paying a little extra money if this lens could be a constant f/2.8 or lower. I really enjoy working with low apertures and very limited depth of field.
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