Nikon 18-70mm F/35-45g Ed if Af-s Dx Review

Nikon 18-70mm
© 2006 KenRockwell.com

Nikon 18-70mm f/3.5-four.v AF-S DX. I'd become it at Adorama or Amazon. It helps me go on adding to this site when yous utilize these links, thanks! Ken.

June 2008 More Nikon Reviews

Introduction

This xviii-70 was Nikon's showtime midrange zoom designed for the shorter focal lengths required past digital cameras. It was introduced along with the D70 in February 2004. It was my favorite midrange zoom for digital until the better and cheaper 18-55 came out in Apr 2005. Then the eighteen-200 VR came out in December 2005 which is 2 choices alee of this eighteen-70mm, if you lot can justify it.

The 17-55mm f/two.8 weighs a ton and costs $ane,500. I'd skip it.

I propose the 18-55 or 18-200 VR first depending on your budget. This eighteen-seventy would be my third option and expressionless last would be the heavy 17-55 2.eight. My biggest beef with this 18-lxx is the weird camming of the zoom. The wide focal lengths are crunched together making it difficult to set up the composition precisely.

This 18-70mm goes for about $350 lonely, and also comes every bit kits with camera bodies.

This is a serious lens, not a "kit lens" or a inexpensive replacement for a lens cap sold as part of a kit equally with most other cameras. The fast f/3.5~4.five speed should be your clue; the cheapies are all f/3.five~5.6. The 18-55 is a cheapie, but good.

This 18~seventy is similar to a 27~105 mm on a 35 mm moving picture camera.

It Only works on digital SLRs. Using it on a movie photographic camera volition issue in a semi-circular epitome with nighttime corners. If you lot need a wide angle zoom for a film camera you need the 18-35 instead. It is a DX Lens.

It's an easy to utilise, abrupt, compact and all effectually nice lens. I've shot with it and fifty-fifty owned one. It's pretty much identical in size, feel and weight to the 24-85 AFS I use for my film cameras but with a much more useful focal range for digital cameras.

Specifications      back to top

Optics: fifteen elements, 13 groups, ane of which is an aspheric. This is not a cheapie "kit" lens (the xviii-55mm is).

Diaphragm: 7-bladed rounded diaphragm, f/22 - 36 minimum aperture.

Size: 2.9" (73 mm) long past 3" (74 mm) long.

Weight: xiv oz (390 g).

Close focus: fifteen" or 0.38m, very good.

Filter Thread: 67 mm. I suggest permanently attaching a 67 -> 77 mm step-up ring and treating this lens as if it's got a 77 mm thread just like the remainder of Nikon'south pro lenses. This way you lot just demand one size of caps and filters and other accessories. Trust me, you'll go insane if you buy different filters for every lens! No, you lot can't use the lens hood this style; I never use lens hoods then no problem. I but apply my hand to block the low-cal of the sun if it's shining directly into the lens, which works a lot improve than the hood when you need information technology.

Nikon Product Number: 2149, in itemize every bit of spring 2008.

Functioning      back to meridian

It'due south sharp, focuses fast and silently and has instant manual focus override like all AF-s lenses. The baloney is adequately typical: barrel at broad, neutral in the eye and some pincushion at the tele stop.

Some people worry also much almost sharpness. On a digital photographic camera y'all go up to a sure spatial frequency and the MTF drops to zero thanks to the antialiasing filter and the CCD layout, thus information technology'due south much easier to characterize lenses for digital cameras. Sharpness is easy to get on digital camera lenses and this is as abrupt as it can exist. Nikon posts the MTF curves at the lesser of this folio.

Discount lens makers are trying to scare people into thinking that they simply invented magical "digital" lenses in an endeavour to make people recollect that the discount lenses somehow outdo the existing lenses y'all already own. Nope. Your 15 twelvemonth old AF lenses are just great on a digital camera.

Motion-picture show lenses are trickier since the MTF curve extends, admitting at a very low amplitude, to triple digit c/mm. Digital cameras terminate at about 30 c/mm.

This lens is completely sharp. Go for it.

Distortion:

I have a page of explanation and examples with this lens, before and afterwards correction, here. There is a lot of distortion at 18mm yous tin right in PhotoShop CS2. It mostly goes away at other settings.

18 mm: barrel with somewhat complex signature, probably will require some cleverness to correct completely. It sort of bloats in the center and straightens towards the far edges. If you lot need no baloney at this focal length utilize the 12-24 mm, or use the free Panorama Tools Photoshop to correct this distortion electronically. Like most wide range zooms this 18-lxx volition curve some straight lines parallel and close to the frame edges when set fully broad. I use CS2's lens distortion correction with a setting of +half dozen.00 explained hither.

25 mm: none

28 mm: none

35 mm: nigh no pincushion

l mm: very minor pincushion

70 mm: very modest pincushion

Flare and Ghosts

Shooting straight into vivid lights I saw none, which is keen.

Zooming

The zoom ring is nonlinear and squeezes together the wide angles. This means that you take to be careful moving the zoom band at the wide end since small changes in rotation result in larger changes in focal length. At the tele end you can make very precise adjustments.

Notation to techies: when I say linear I mean logarithmic, of class. An equal amount of rotation anyplace should requite the same percentage modify in focal length, equally on the 18 - 200 and 80 - 400 VR lenses.

Is this the all-time lens?

I often become questions from new photo hobbyists similar "I have priced the Sigma 24-70 f/2.8 and it is the same price every bit the Nikkor xviii-70 f/3.5-4.5G that comes with the D70. Should I purchase it instead of the Nikkor? I am not sure of the importance of the actress .7 f-stop vs. the extra 6 mm on the wide bending side."

Really, the answer lies on both the surface and substance level.

At the surface level understood by the new photographer this reply is piece of cake: the 2/3 of a stop means nothing today, since you tin can only increment the ISO of the D70 with little to no punishment in image quality if you run out of light. On the other mitt, the 6 mm is a HUGE divergence in how wide it goes on the D70: it'southward the difference between a 27 mm lens and a 36 mm lens on a 35 mm motion-picture show camera. You lot will always be at the 24 mm terminate and wishing you could get dorsum out to eighteen mm on the D70 for a lot of things, at least the way I use it. This is quite clear.

The substance level is something I never appreciated until I had a couple of decades of experience under my belt. A discount lens usually offers more features like faster speed or wider zoom range for less money than camera-brand lenses. Likewise, a inexpensive car like a Hyundai or Ford commonly offers ameliorate specifications, like fuel economy, horsepower or number of radio presets, for a lower price than a Mercedes. Yous may realize that the Mercedes has a lot more key quality for which in that location is no numeric specification, and and so y'all probably empathise why a Mercedes costs more even with worse specifications.

It'south the same thing with lenses. Discount brands are unremarkably pushed past photographic camera stores because they make fifty-fifty more than money selling them (more than here on that). I avoid the disbelieve brands and know of no professional person lensman who uses them. Don't you think if even one pro photographer you lot'd heard of used them they'd push that in their ads? Anyhow, the discount lenses cut corners in places that neophytes don't know nearly, like the internal construction quality. I notice them to exist a bad deal, but hey, get what y'all desire.

Recommendations back to top

Purchase one if you want, I did in 2004!

Today (2008) I'd advise saving for the 18-200mm VR instead, or using the 18-55mm DX I usually use considering it's so pocket-size.

For the aforementioned price every bit this 18-70mm you can become the 18-55 and and the excellent 55-200mm VR. That's what I'd exercise with $350.

Your choice should be based on how you lot similar how they feel and focus. Prototype quality is very like.

More than Information: Run into Nikon Japan for MTF predictions.

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Source: https://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/1870.htm

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