Sharp, light-weight, superb quality for low price.

None

Got mine some 6 weeks ago and, whow, I''m surprised. Made lots of landscapes the last few weeks with Fuji Velvia and both F3HP and F100. This one is a real bargain, when stopped at 5.6 to 11 it''s d***** sharp not only centered but in the corners too. Was hard to find a differece between my good old MF 28/2.0 and the 18-35 both stopped at 8.0 while there was extreme light at a diffuclt sutuation (snow and sun). There is some (brilliance) but, boy, it''s hard to check this out. Best consumer lens made by Nikon the last 2 years, I guess.

Customer Service

No need

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28/2.0, 20/2.8 .

*sharpness *weight *value *very well-built *focuses reasonably fast

*77mm filters get pricey

Nikon''''s best consumer lense! I tried quite a few of their lenses (zoom and prime) before settling on this one, which is just too much fun. It feels and looks like it is built better than any other of Nikon''''s consumer lenses too. Sharpness is amazing stopped down to f/8. Wide open it can be a little soft in the extreme corners. there is a little noticable distortion in the 18-20 range, but it can be easily controlled. I read a review on a professional website that said they couldn''''t find any difference between this lense and the 17-35 AF-S at 35mm. This lense simply cannot be beat for the money. I agree with another reviewer who said this lense represents Nikon''''s N80 policy - 80%-90% of pro features and performance and less than half the price. Try the ultra wides, you''''ll love ''''em.

Customer Service

n/a

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24mm, 85mm, 60mm macro, 50mm.

Well Built (In Japan)Light Contasty and nearly as good as the aps version costing four times as much

None at this price.

This is a real bargain it is a well made contrasty lens and it even comes with a lens hood well done Nikon.

Customer Service

Never needed

Very Sharp, and very contrasty! Great price especially compared to pricey 17-35 F2.8 AFS version. Light weight. AF fast especially when coupled to my F100.

Not as "solid" as my other F2.8 zooms. But then again it didn''t hit my wallet as hard either.

Outside of shooting, I work sales at a local camera shop here in town, and I had the great fortune to order this lens diect from Nikon before it actually hit the dealers. As soon as I got wind of its release I had to get one and try it out. That was about a year and a half ago and I have to say I''m glad I got it. I had been toying with the idea of the 17-35 AFS version scince it was announced back in ''99, but I do a lot of landscape/nature photography. Neither of which requires a fast F2.8 aperture or ultra fast AFS focusing, so I found it hard to justify the high price tag for two features I would probably never use. That said, if youre considering an ultra wide zoom for anything exept for fast breaking photojournalism, this is the lens for you! Its a great bang for the buck. Flare control is excellent! Although not as sharp as "primes" in its focal range, it performes extremely well when stopped down at F5.6 to F-11. Slides shot with Fujichrome velvia have been consistantly sharp with GREAT contrast. I can not speak for it''s performance when shot wide open. I can''t remember ever doing so. However, I will agree that, although fairly well corrected, there is the typical linear distortion from 18-24mm+/- associated with ultra wide zooms in this focal range. Optical performance is also just a tad soft at the corners and edges in this range as well. Filters will be expensive, but everything is relative. You will need the slim mount ones. I highly recommend a good set of Heliopans. They are made with schott (Zeiss) glass and you will not lose any optical quality what so ever. Don''t waste a great lens by using cheap, low grade filters.

Customer Service

Never needed. Thanks Nikon.

Similar Products Used:

35-70mm F2.8 Nikkor, 80-200mm F2.8 Nikkor, 28-105mm F3.5-4.5 Nikkor, 50mm F1.8 Nikkor.

Sharp contrasty glass! lightweight, hood provided albeit a clumsy one. GREAT bang for the buck!

Not as sharp as primes in its focal range but a hell of a lot more convienient. Doesn''t have the physical construction of my F2.8 zooms.

Ouside of shooting, I also work sales at a camera shop here in town, and was lucky enough to be able to special order this fine lens direct from Nikon before it actually hit the dealers. I''m glad I did! This lens has GREAT contrast and sharpness, although preforms best at F8.0 and F11 from 24mm-35mm. Corners slightly soft from 22mm +/- down to 18mm especialy when shot wide open, but chances are if your shooting with an ultra wide, you probably dont shoot it wide open anyway. Distortion is fairly well controlled, flare control is exellent even shooting into the sun! IF design gives outstanding performance in AF mode and is a godsend when shooting with circular polarizers or "P" mounted ND grads. Speaking of filters you will need slim ones! They are not cheap, but then again to put a cheap filter on any good lens is a waste. I strongly recommend getting a good set of Heliopan slim mounts. Made with Schott (Zeiss) glass your image quality wont be compromised when using this fine lens. That said, if your thinking about an ultra wide zoom, the 18-35 is a tough lense to beat for the money! It might not be as fast as 17-35 2.8, but the image quality is close and it weighs and costs a lot less!

Customer Service

Never needed, thanks Nikon!

Similar Products Used:

35-70mm F2.8 nikkor, 80-200mm F2.8 nikkor, 28-105mm F3.5-4.5 nikkor, 50mm F1.8 nikkor.

Great glass, build for price

crappy lens hood hard to attach vignetting with polarizer at 18mm (actually not so much a weakness of this lens as of all wide angles)

This lens represents a tremendous value for the money. It is well-built, contrasty and sharp, especially stopped down a bit. (Ignore the posts which talk about sharpness problems at wide open-even the best lens have problems and fall off at the edges wide open.) The range is just spectacular, especially for scenics, landscapes and candids.

Customer Service

Never used

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Canon

One would have to say price. For just AUD 940 you get an outstanding lens. An added benefit would also be weight compared to the f/2.8 lens.

None.

Being new to photography and already owning a 28-80mm and 80-200mm lens, the next logical choice was a wide angle lens. At first I toyed with purchasing the 17-35mm f/2.8 to match my other f/2.8 lens. However, after trying the much cheaper Japanese made 18-35mm lens I was sold. This lens handles very well when coupled with my F100 body. The quality of the photographs are just stunning in terms of colour, contrast and sharpness. Moreover, it was difficult to determine picture quality difference with my f/2.8 lens. The build quality, while not at the same standard as the f/2.8 lens, was nevertheless excellent for a plastic lens.

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Tried similiar products from Tamron and Sigma.

lightweight, nice wide angle range, price

Some barrel distortion. I also agree with another review that recommended taking care when you remove the lens shade, to prevent damage to the lens.

An excellent lens, sharp and lightweight. I use it with a Fuji S-1 digital camera where you have to multiply the millimeters by 1.5 to get the actual focal length. In this situation, the lens performs like a 27mm to 52.5mm lens on the S-1. Since I shoot mostly architectural photography, I notice that the lens does have some barrel distortion. This is easily fixed in photoshop using a plug-in called "lensdoc", available from Andromeda Softwear.

Customer Service

hope never to have to use it, but the 5 year warranty is nice.

Similar Products Used:

none

sharpness, small size, low price, and IF.

None for this price range.

This is a great lens; it produces sharp and contrasty pictures, but it weighs only 13 oz and costs just a little over $400 with the current Nikon rebate. At f5.6 and 28mm, the images that it captures are as sharp and rich in color as those captured by the 28mm f2.8 prime lens set at the same aperture. I shot quite a few pictures at f3.5 at various focal length, using a 5x loupe, the images on the slides are very sharp, and I did not observe any obvious softness or loss of sharpness at the corners. I did not use a higher power loupe nor did I enlarge the image for printing. I took a number of shots during sun set with the sun light slammed right into the lens. Remarkably, I did not encounter any flare. In one picture, there is a small halo in the picture, but it is hard to tell whether this is caused by the lens design or by dust particles on the filter. This particular picture is very nice actually. The objects in the scene is bathed in a rich layer of golden light. Based on this experience, I would predict that the flare is quite well controlled. There is noticeable distortion at the wide end, but it is easy to manage. In conclusion, if you are looking for a light weight and affordable wide angle zoom with top-notched optical quality, this is it. Because it is light, you will use it more often than any other lenses. With ISO100 film, you can use it through out the day even in the late afternoon when it gets really dark. Because it is light, you can hand-hold it up to 1/15-1/8 sec. As such, you no longer have to depend on the speed of the more pricey and heavy f2.8 lenses.

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Nikkor 24-50, Tokina 28-70, and Nikkor 24mm f2.8.

Good sharpness, especially at 28-35 end. Good center sharpness at 18-20. Very good sharpness at all angels, stopped down towards 6,7. The lens has good coulor control and is also quite good when taking pictures outside in the sun. The contast is the best I''ve seen in a zoom. Build quality is good exept for the plastic ring where the sunshade mounts.

The camera was not linear after aprox 6 months of use. Why this happened i don''t know.

I like color, i like sharpness and i like overall good distortion qualities. The Nikkor almost succeeds to a full extent. To view shots taken with this lens try http://foto.no/cgi-bin/bruker/minside.cgi?brukerid=2265

Customer Service

I complained to the norwegian repair shop about the linear problem and they now promise repair within five days plus shipment times.

Similar Products Used:

Cosina/Voigtlander 19-35.