Nikon 28-105 f3.5-4.5D AF Zoom Nikkor

This has been an excellent lens for me over the years. It came with the F100 I bought in June of 2000 and I have been very happy with it.

Having said that, I was crushed when I found out too late that it was defocusing - or unfocusing - with subjects more than ten feet away! This problem arose (as these things always do) when I took a once-in-a-lifetime photo of my mother's side of the family while visiting Detroit just this past July. I didn't find out until I returned to New England and had the film developed.

The result of the defocusing is that one can barely make out details of my family's faces. You can tell who's who, but that's about it. I hope that some wizard at Photoshop can sharpen it up a bit, but that's going off on a tangent.

Back to the lens. It has always been great with strong build quality and a good "hand feel" to it. I tend to shoot at wider aperatures and I can find no real fault with sharpness at the viewing sizes of my images - typically no bigger than 5x7.

Bear in mind that if you need to use a loupe or magnifying glass to find flaws in sharpness or resolving power, you probably have a pretty good lens! If your audience really only sees your images at 5x7 or 8x10 and not cropped too much, miniscule differences in sharpness or resolving power is unimportant. If sharpness is critical, then stop it down to f8 or smaller and remember to use a good quality tripod or monopod.

With that in mind, I highly recommend this lens for the image quality, build quality, and price. It isn't perfect, but it's worth it. This is a great lens for all but the most demanding expert/professional. I am still crushed that it failed me when it did. I will rue that occurance to my grave. However, in 35 years of shooting, I have learned that sometimes the cosmos are just working against you! The true lesson here is that if the shot is really critical, use manual focus (and exposure for that matter!) and cross your fingers.

Rotating zoom mechanism as opposed to the slide type. It is less likely to creep out of the focal length position you last moved it to because of it. All in all, this is a sturdy zoom lens that offers a great range (moderately wide angle for landscapes and some event shots to slight telephoto for flattering portraits). It does not feel delicate ike some popular zooms do.

It has a wonderful hard plastic bayonet mount lens shade. Some may find the lens shade to be bulky, but I like it. the bayonet mount is a huge benefit to me because it is easy on and easy off yet very secure when in place. It can also be mounted backwards on the front of the lens which makes it incredibly easy to transport - an impossible task for thread mounted lens shades.

I don't use it often, but the macro feature works well and is very convenient. The lens focuses quickly enough when attached to my F100. I haven't tried it on my recently acquired D50 digital camera.

I will also say that sharpness and resolving power are more than good enough. I don't look at my work through a loupe unless I am reviewing slides or checking some detail on a negative. I would challenge anyone to pick out a significant difference - when viewed at the distance the audience will most likely see the final image - in a shot taken with this lens and a similar shot taken with a lens at twice the price.

Alas, it let me down! I can't ignore the fact that the reason I sat down to write this piece after a flawless experience with the lens over the last 7 1/2 years and gobs of exposures made is that it failed me. By backing out of focus as it did my family and our descendents are denied the record of a unique moment captured for the ages.

I don't have a good feel as to how common this defocussing problem is and I don't want to be unfair to Nikon if this is a one in a million occurance. However, the only reason I am scoring it a 3 Star Overall rating is that at one of the most critical moments in my shooting experience and during a rare if not singular personal moment, it failed me.

Olympus OM-1 and Zuiko lenses, Canon F-Tb, Exacta, Miranda, Pentax, Hasselblad, Rolleiflex and so on. The main point here is that this is the first auto focus and auto exposure system I've used with any regularity.

I have no opinion on this.

I bought the 28-105 to use at work where I photohgraph children who have disabilitiies in the classroom, playing sports, on stage, etc., both indoors and out.
Even inside and on digital with 1.5 cropping factor this is a fine lens. Combined with the SB600, it can do almost everything I need it to do--and do it well. The weight and price as well as the macro function are strong selling points, and with its large hood and a Nikon NC filter attached at all times, it is almost child proof.

A big influence on my buying this lens was the review by jrp on the Nikonians.org web site.

Very satisfied; but--I should add--I also bought the Nikon 50mm, f/1.8 for lighting situations that were too much for f/3.5-4.5

My personal equipment includes D200, Nikon 50mm, 17-35, and 100, and 180; plus Tokina, Tamron, and Sigma lenses that cover 12-24, 17-50, and 50-150. I use the SB800, sometimes by itself and sometimes as the master witth the SB600.

I've actuall had the F100/28-105 combo since 2002, but have used either very little, preferring manual focus Nikons and primes. About a month ago, I took a trip north to photograph the change of colors and took two cameras with me: F100/28-105/400UC and D70s/18-70. I was suprised at how really good the F100/28-105 worked. Even though the lighting conditions were quite difficult - cloudy, overcast, drizzle - the images were sharp, clear, good contrast, and saturation. I can't say a bad thing about the 28-105. You can see some of the images at the following link:

http://www.pbase.com/lahuasteca/scans_and_digital

On the F100 the autofocus was fast and precise. As stated, the images were vibrant with lots of punch. I preferred the F100/28-105 images to those of the D70s/18-70. The build on the 28-105 was much better than the DX lens; a plastic outer shell, but the lens barrel was metal.

The 28-105 makes a perfect walkaround lens for a film camera; on digital it is a little long, more like a medium tele-zoom like the classic 75-150E manual focus.
In fact, I consider the 28-105 in the same league with the older MF lens - one of Nikon's all-time bargain/value lenses. Distortion is minimal, AF is fast on the F100 (not so fast on the N80 or D70s), and the color is quite good.

Good build, image quality, minimal distortion, not an extreme zoom, good color.

Front lens rotates while zooming (hard to use polarizer), and "flying saucer" lens hood.

Lots of Nikon primes, 75-150E zoom, 70-210 f4 AF zoom, 18-70 zoom

N/A

I have this lens, recommended highly for it's versitility, quality and price. I have used it on my n70/n80 and also on the d50, although a long for the dslr. It's a great lens for it's price, much better than the quanaray of equivalent zoom. Good one lens walk around lens for a film slr.

nikon optics, price, well built

nikon 50mm f1.8/tokina 19-35/nikon 35-80/quantaray 28-90

Here's the scoop when shooting the 28-105 with my D200. It is soft at 28mm under about f/8. It's a tad soft wide open between about 35mm and 105, sharpening up at aperatures smaller than 5.6. Distortion is fairly well controlled. I think Nikon biased the lens design more for distortion control than sharpness. Chromatic aberation control is fair, but not great.

The wide zoom range and macro capability make this a handy lens. If you want pro quality out of it, you'll have to shoot at f/8 or smaller. I was thinking it would be perfect setup for digital with a 12-24 and the 28-105. That gives a 35mm equivelent of 18mm through 157mm. It's a light and compact little lens.

Softness wide open.

Many Nikkor zooms and primes.

I've always had good luck with Nikon service.