Customer Reviews

Nikon 18-35mm f/3.5-4.5D ED-IF AF Zoom Nikkor Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is just a plain sweetheart of a lens. It covers the useful 18-35 mm range (which is 27-52mm on a Nikon digital SLR, which is a VERY useful range). This lens costs less than half the price of the (expensive) professional Nikon 17-35, and does almost as nice a job. Sufficiently nice, in fact, that most amateurs will not discern much, if any, difference. While not built like a tank, I think that the quality of construction on this one is excellent, and more than adequate for enthusiastic amateurs and even some pros.

On a Nikon digital SLR, which will use the center portion of this lens (due to the size of the sensor in the SLR) you can expect excellent, even spectacular results. This is a fabulous lens for landscape and nature shots, portraits, or just plain walking around taking pictures. Someone who only wanted one lens that was not a telephoto could do much worse than to select this excellent, versatile lens. This one is great for parties, vacations, and the works.

The images I have shot with this lens have all featured superb contrast, are very sharp, and have beautiful color rendition. There just is not a lot not to like about this lens. I give it 4 stars for overall performance, but 5 stars for value and price/performance. Some lenses just get it all together and work and become keepers. This is one of those.

I got my 18-35mm just yesterday and used it today for real estate. I bought it used for 200 USD so there is no chance I would regret it. I use it on a Nikon D700 FX so it gets REALLY wide. The lens is pretty sharp even in the corners, though you will notice that they are less sharp especially wide open. The build quality is mediocre and it feels like most cheap plastic zooms from Nikon. If you are a haptic it is not so nice but if you are looking for something light weight it is great. I handle my glas with care no matter if it is plastic or metal so I don't really worry. I use it with a Hoya UV filter which does not cause any vignetting/dark corners. The only problem is that this lens hast quite some distortion at 18-24mm. I tested the Nikon 20-35mm before which has almost no distortion but is not as wide, costs more, weighs more and is not as sharp. So this lens is probably the best compromise if you don't want to spend a lot of money on a 17-35mm or even 14-24mm.

Have had the lens for a few years and probably 15,000+ images on 3 Nikon cameras. No repairs or apparent wear, it is tougher than it looks, even dropped it once, no problems.
Excellent color rendition, contrast and sharpness for the price. While the build and quality not quite up to the pro lenses, you get quite close to their quality for half the price, especially with digital cameras.
Beautiful lens allowing a great variety of shots from family gatherings to landscapes, it serves as my prime lens unless I am going for the greatest possible detail such as large landscape prints but that is not
to say this lens will not provide snappy 8 x 10 and larger, it does!

I wish it had a little more range than 18-35, but then I always want more, but could not get it with this kind of performance and price.

This is less a review than a correction to Amazon's description of the product pending the update I requested. This lens does not as stated come with an 72mm lens cap. It comes with a 77mm lens cap, and uses 77mm filters. I had to return the filters I bought with this lens, since they were the wrong size. Check out the Nikon USA and Adorama web sites for confirmation on this.

Like many others I was debating between this and the 20-35 and 17-35..but it all comes down to what your needs are and how deep your pockets are..right? I wanted a lens for landscape and this fit the bill nicely. If you plan on using a tripod, you don't need fast glass anyhow..right? This lens does struggle in low-light, hand held..but like I said..what are your needs? If you are in need of a landscape wide angle lens and want to save some bucks..this is it. It's plenty sharp..especially when you start stopping it down to 5.6 or more. There is distortion on the ends..but like I said..if you are doing landscapes, just frame accordingly.

Skip any aftermarket lens in similar zoom range and get this, sharp and contrasty, zoom is fairly good best for use with full frame cameras traveling on the light, uses your standard 77mm filter (probably need a slim filter.)

For APS-C DX cameras, the zoom becomes a 27mm-52mm, which is pretty much a normal than a wide angle, so I'd suggest get Nikon 10-24mm DX

This replaced an unfortunate Tamron WA purchase which I regretted immediately. For the price I don't think you can get better Nikon optics. Distortion is fairly high at the widest end and you get vignetting at 18mm if using with a standard thickness filter. Construction feels solid. Recently there appears to be a dust spot that's worked its way into the lens but after backpacking around the world for a year I guess that's to be expected.

The Nikon 18-35 is a consumer-grade ultra-wide zoom (the Nikon 17-35 and 16-35 are the comparable pro-level lenses). The 18-35 is much cheaper and lighter than the pro lenses, and the build quality is a little less robust. Having said that, the 18-35 is an outstanding lens for the price, and is very easy to lug around all day on trips. It is well-made and can easily handle the abuse of travel and daily use in basically any environment. The lens feels perfectly balanced on a D700, and I tend to carry that combination all day when on trips.

Performance is surprisingly good, with great saturation and color. I usually shoot mine wide open at 18mm (f3.5) for a little background separation, and while the corners are definitely not sharp, they're not distracting. The corners get better a few stops up, but they're never really pin-sharp at 18mm. At settings above 18mm, the softness goes away and the images at 24 to 35mm look excellent. This lens works perfectly for most street photography, family snapshots, action photos, nature shots, and travel photography, but does not fare as well for architectural or true landscape shots due to the softness in the corners, though it's still usable if you're very careful about what you put in the corners. Autofocus (with the D700) is fast and accurate enough for action photos of my golden retriever at close range.

I've been using this lens with a D700 for over a year now, and if I could improve one thing about it I would skip the corner sharpness and go for slightly faster glass. This lens really only makes sense for FX bodies, and if it were just a little faster it would really be perfect. As it is though it's tied with the Nikon 50mm f1.8 for my favorite lens. It's tough, light, and takes beautiful images for less than half the price of the pro lenses.

This lens is a superb addition to my growing lens collection. Combined with my 70-300mm VR lens, I have a ton of capability in a small package. This lens is a great value for me. I suppose someday I'll move up to a more expensive wide-angle, but I'll have to REALLY need to.

Pros: Great value, light-weight, sturdy. Feels solid and comfortable when shooting manually.

Cons: Focus ring is very touchy and just a slight touch will spin it.

Lightweight lens at a reasonable cost...
Quite sharp, a bit of distortion though.
Overall not bad.