Very Cheap!
Sharp!
Light!
Great for close-up, Travel

N/A

I love this lens. You do not have to compare this lens with other expensive lenses. You paid much money, and you can get good. This lens is around $ 100; I think it is good enough for your pocket

Customer Service

N/A

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Nikon 35-105/3.5-4.5D, Sigma 70-300/4-5.6DL

Everyone likes to bash this lens. For pro work it will never do. For shooting slide film in which you want to enlarge cibas to 11x16 or larger, it will never do. But for less than $100 out of B&H in NY it's got the biggest bang for the buck of any lens. I took great photos of my sister's wedding with this lens on my N70 both day and night using fill-flash when needed and the photos were GREAT! At the 4x6 size and for standard snapshooting (which 95%+ people ONLY do) this lens is more than enough and produces adequately sharp and contrasty photos. And talk about LIGHT in weight!

Plastic mount and fairly cheap construction make it not too durable. But again, for standard snapshots what more do you need?

Yes, it's a cheapy and cannot be compared or hold up to the more expensive lens. But the more expensive lenses (like the 28-105 for $350 or the 24-120 for $450 or the 35-70 2.8 for $800+) are NOT 3-8 times sharper. If you need amazing sharpness and ruggedness this is not the lens for you. If you take photos of the kids in the park on the weekends or casual shots of your neice's wedding for less then $100 this lens is great!

Similar Products Used:

Nikkor 28-105, 85 1.8, 105 4.0, 70-300

CHEAP

SHARPNESSRESOLUTIONSLOW

THIS LENS WAS TERRIBLE, TOOK VERY FEW DECENT PICTURES, MAYBE DEFECTIVE? MAYBE BECAUSE I GOT IT USED? WOULDN'T PAY 20 BUCKS FOR ANOTHER!

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50MM F1.450MM F1.835MM F2

Lens is sharp and has great flare control for a zoom.

Limited range- made up by its size; slow aperature, but inexpensive.

I have the steel mount which I understand was the earlier model. It is built very well. I am impressed with the crispness of my photos. I have taken a number of weddings with this lens. Except for being slow it performs incredibly for a $120.00 lens. The newer one however are obviously poorer construction.

Customer Service

None needed

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Tokina lenses; other Nikon lenses.

Very light weight, versitle and compact! This lens makes an EXCEPTIONAL travel in one lens. You can get really close to your subject or back away and the lens takes it with ease. I am very happy that Nikon has bundled the 35-80 f4-5.6D with their cameras. They WANT you to take good pictures right off the start and they have succeded. Why is this lens so cheap? They mass produce them! Is that bad? No, more they make the better Nikon gets! Geat lens! I have take some really excellent "keeper" scenery shots with the lens.. everything from TRUE (non-filtered) golden sunsets to siloettes. This is my main lens and I'm happy with it! Even done night photography with the f4 end of the lens too.

Its plastic, but hey, isn't you car mostly made of plastic too? Plus, its very stong plastic. Can't think of many disadvantages. Maybe a faster f stop would help in rare situations or with out a flash on hand.

Super great intermediate lens for a beginner cost. If you don't have one, get one! Due to their mass production, you can pick one up cheap ($110 USD or so), but don't be fooled by the plastic and cost, you have a Nikon in your hands!. Good shooting all.

Customer Service

Never used. Nothing ever went wrong with the lens in any way. Guess that is good. :)

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Phoenix 60-300mm

1) It's light!
2) It's cheap!

1) It's not very sharp. 4x6's are okay, but forget about enlargements
2) The focus ring feels cheesy...it's not really a focus ring!
3) The zoom barrel feels awful, with unequal dampening across the zoom range
4) It looks and feels like a cheap plastic toy.
5) Widest aperture is 4-5.6. This is a serious drawback.

This review is for the plastic mount (current version) of the 35-80. Personally, I think that you pay at least $300 for a Nikon body (or more), so you at least should invest an appropriate amount in a short tele-zoom. This lens is not it. It's not sharp, it's not fast, it feels bad, and looks bad. Nikon used to make high-quality lenses...even their E-series was decent. But this new stuff...the 35-80 and the 80-200 are just pure junk, IMO. If you spend $200-$300 (used), you can get the 28-105, the 28-70, or the 35-105 which have decent quality construction and are a LOT sharper (not to mention half a stop faster or so). Please don't buy this lens. :-)

Customer Service

Nikon's 800# is great -- you actually get to talk to someone, and they actually know a lot about their products!

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35-80 metal mount (older) and primes in this range

-price(around $99)
-light weight
-crisp contrasting images
-simple operation

-loose focusing
-a bit loud when auto focusing (used f100)
-had some paint debris inside the inner element
-plastic lens mount

I bought this lens as an emergency back up. Because of it's price, you can't go wrong on goofing around with it and not feel guilty beating it. With my Nikon F100 it focuses real fast and was really light weight. I love the fact that you can close focus to about 8.5 inches. Don't let the price fool you, this little lens is suprisely sharp! Because of the price and it sharpness it deserves a big Five!

Customer Service

have not had any problems.

Similar Products Used:

nikon 28-80mm 3.5-5.6; nikon 28-70mm 3.5-5.6

Lightweight, very inexspensive.

Kinka cheaply made

Great starter lens. Pretty sharp and lightweight, and only about $100.

Customer Service

Never needed

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Nikon 28-70 afs
Nikon 24-120 afd

Close focus to 1.2 feet from fim plane ( mere inches from the front of the lens).

Tiny. Light. Reasonably sharp. Reasonably flat. Reasonably free of distortion. Excellent contrast. Good flare control. Overall, it offers a bland competence.

Superb value, if a slow midrange zoom is what you want.

My older version (metal mount) has a real focusing ring with a distance scale, which the current version lacks.

It feels cheap, but it has never failed me. What the heck, at the price it's practically a disposable lens.

The front rotates as you focus, a minor quibble.

I have the first version of the 35-80, which has a metal mount. The current version has a polycarbonate mount. There are advantages and disadvantages to each version. The metal-mount version has a traditional focusing ring and a distance scale, but weighs about 30% more. The polycarbonate mount version is a couple ounces lighter, but has a vestigial focusing ring and no distance scale (the easiest way to focus this lens manually is to turn the lens shade). The two versions are not the same optically. The metal-mount version has 6 elements in 6 groups, and uses the HN-2 hood; the plastic-mount version has 8 elements in 7 groups and uses the HN-3 hood. Both are much better lenses than their prices warrant ($99 brand-new). Both focus to 1.2 feet throughout their zoom range, handy for detail shots. Mine is sharp, with no distortion or flare, and excellent contrast. I use the deeper HN-3 hood with no problems.

Customer Service

Not needed.

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At under $100, what's similar? The 50/1.8 (faster, sharper, smaller)? The 28-85 AF-N (horrible)? The 35-70/3.3-4.5 AF (faster, with the same, bland, competence)?

Sharp results considering the price.
Close focussing.
Tougher than you might think too, I manage to drop it from time to time, once in the bath (don't ask), and it just keeps going.

Feels a little flimsy and the manual focus is too light.
No barrel markings.
Nice to have a metal mount but can't expect such things at this price.

This came as standard with my F50 when I bought it and will only change it if I were to upgrade to an f2.8 - in the not to distant future he hopes (£££). The results from it are suprisingly good and I assume anybody who finds it otherwise are either judging it at too high a level, ie to professional standard, or have a defective or battered example.

Customer Service

never needed

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None