Table of Contents
Nikon AF-S 28-300mm lenses
introduction
- 10x zoom 28-300mm lenses are mainly designed for consumers or enthusiasts for bushwalks, travel, etc and are thus designed to be relatively light weight with mainly plastic construction
- 10x zoom lenses by their nature are compromises - mainly in aperture and image quality, and if you are going to accept this, you perhaps would be better off with Micro Four Thirds system and have a smaller, less expensive kit to start with and perhaps better image quality and more fun
new Nikon AF-S 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G VR lens
- introduced 2010
- possibly a better lens to buy than the Nikon AF-S 70-300mm lenses as it gives comparably average image quality but more focal length range
Image courtesy of Ken Rockwell
specs
- “3-4EV” VRII
- 19 elements in 14 groups incl. 3 ASPH and 2ED
- 9 rounded blades
- Nikon Super Integrated Coating (SIC)
- 77mm filters
- 1.6'/0.5m close focus giving 1:3.2 (the 300mm actually becomes only 135mm at closest focus)
- 28.1 oz./796g
- 83mm x 115mm
reviews
-
- “matches the 70-300VR optically in the 70-200mm range, neither one is really great at 300mm”
- “extends considerably when zoomed out, which shifts the weight in the hand quite noticeably”
- “this lens wasn’t mean to be manually focused – good luck doing it precisely”
- “isn’t so hot at 28mm – in fact, it’s downright crappy (flare, aberrations, lack of sharpness and contrast) at 28mm until f5.6; curiously, you can manual focus it to a sharper image – however, using that AF-fine tune calibration throws out every other focal length”
- “from 35mm to 200mm or so, this lens is right up there with the rest of them – it’s sharp, contrasty, and has plenty of bite … but lacks microcontrast”
- “flares in a dramatic, cinematic way; distortion is horrible and complex”