Not up to Nikon reputation
Pros:
Accurate color rendition, good zoom range, light
Cons:
Underexposes, average sharpness, average contrast, barrel distortion, vignetting
The Bottom Line:
This lens isn't worth the money savings. Underexposes, significant barrel distortion, and vignetting.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
The Nikkor name drew me in, but this isn't a stellar lens. I've been using it for two years with a D80 body.
I'll start with the worst flaw; this lens, the unit I received anyway, underexposes by 1-2 f-stops. In laymen terms, it needs up to 3 times more light than a properly calibrated lens should to coreectly expose a scene. This requires longer shutter speeds, which causes blurred images when not using a tripod. That's an absolute disqualifier.
In more technical terms, this lens does not adhere to the sunny f16 rule. In direct sunlight, at noon, using ISO 100, and 1/125 shutter speed, a lens should create a properly exposed image using an f-stop of f16. This lens requires an f-stop of f8-f11 to properly expose. This is not the first low-end Nikon lense that I've had the same problem with, but I did not expect it to happen twice. All lenses are expected to adhere to common exposure standards, regardless of price. And for that matter, the other lens mentioned costed around $100, and this lens averages $350.
What else? At the short and long ends of this zoom's range, there's significant barrel distortion. It's not subtle, and is more extreme when set to wide angle. When shooting trees and buildings, or other subjects with distinct lines, you can see how badly the images are pinched and punched, almost looking as if they're being viewed in a fun house mirror. It's kind of funny to see a row of trees that are all vertical and paralell to each other in the actual scene, appear slightly slanted, with bowed trunks in the photo. Distortion is absent to acceptable when shooting in mid zoom range.
Contrast and sharpness are average to poor.
This lens seems to be designed for the point and shooter, although it's not particularly inexpensive. It lacks distance information, which is necessary when shooting a timed self-portrait. It's also very difficult to accurately manually focus because it lacks a well designed focusing ring.
Focus speed is average, construction is average, and weight is good. The minimum wide angle aperture of f3.5 is average, and the minimum full zoom aperture of f5.6 is too slow at 135mm. The zoom range of 18-135mm is very versatile. Color rendition is accurate.
I falsely assumed that even in the lower price range, Nikon would not produce an inferior lens, but they did. It would be well worth it to spend a little extra to get a lens that performs better.
www.wildernessshots.com
