Customer Reviews

Nikon 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G ED IF AF-S DX Nikkor Zoom Lens

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I recieved my lens with my D70 kit and have used it for the past year and a half. The 18-70 is a great lens, particularly for outdoor photography. Indoors, it is a little more limited due to the variable aperture but works well when used with flash. The zoom range and the silent wave focus are the best features. Stopped down, the lens is also quite sharp.

My shooting with this lens was predominately landscape and event photography, and has really produced some nice pictures. I've since upgraded to a 17-55 f/2.8 lens due to the better low light performance, sharpness and build quality, but aside from a little barrel distortion and light fall-off at 18mm, the 18-70 is no slouch. I'd recommend it as a light travel lens or a good starter lens.

I bought my D50 at a local camera store in my town. I opted for the 18-70 lens after they recommended it instead of the 18-55 kit lens due to better quality optics and sturdier construction. The 18-55 has a plastic mount while the 18-70 has a metal one.

I've had the camera and lens for a week -- and, so far, I've taken over 400 photos. The lens has an excellent range. The wide angle of 18mm (equivalent to 27mm) is great for shooting interior rooms and group shots (no more telling everyone to sqeeze in!). It zooms out to a decent 70mm (equivalent to 105mm).

Compared to my five-year-old point and shoot, this is a night-and-day improvement. In focuses instantly--even in the dark. Image quality is excellent: it is easy to adjust the depth of field and blur out the background.

As most people I guess, I got this lens as part of the D70 kit. The D70 plus this lens make a great kit at a reasonable price. Things I liked -
* Wide to mid-tele zoom range: I find this lens zoom range good for 99% of the photo opportunties I have, which include family life and an occational travel.
* f/22 minimum aperture allows for night photography longer exposures without need for natural density filters
* Optical quality: Given enough available light, this lens is good, color and geometrical distortions are almot unnoticeable. As with all wide lenses, some goemetrical distorion is noticable at the wide zoom range (under 24mm)
* Silent focus and build quality: This is not the old Nikon almost military spec lens construction, it still however feels solid and nice to hold and operate

Things I didn't like -
* The included hood has somewhat cheap feel
* Aperture opening is limiting in some cases, for more capable indoor photography you'll want a fixed f/2.8 zoom, which cost ~3x, or better yet an f/1.8 prime lens and give up zoom altogether.

Why four and not five stars? there are better (and much more expesive) lenses - these would be five stars in absolute rank. In terms of bang for the buck - this is a five stars lens.

I must say, this lens rocks. It's very contrasty and color redention is great. And very sharp, too. Many zoom lenses don't perform well at their longest focal length, especially at the widest aperture. But even at 70mm and f/4.5, it can still hang with the big boys. There's a little bit of light falloff in the corners at 18mm wide open. However, that's no show stopper because it's not bad and rarely will you need a wide open aperture at that focal length. There's some barrel distortion at 18mm, but will not be noticable in most shots. In the real world we don't take pictures of pieces of paper with grid lines, do we? The f/3.5-4.5 is a little faster than your typical f/4-5.6 zooms. So you get slightly faster shutter speeds and better autofocus performance in low light. And the autofocus is fast and accurate, especially for a lens in this price range. The focus ring has a nice smooth damped feeling when focusing manually. But the focus ring is in the back and zoom ring in the front, which takes some getting used to. Build quality is great for a lens of this price point. And there's even a rubber seal on the lens mount-I've never had a lens with a seal. The lens hood was hard to remove and install, but if you grab it by the sides and not top and bottom, it makes it easier. But I still found it a little tight, so I sanded the plastic stops on the hood. You may want to do this to yours. The filter thread is 67mm-filters of this size are a bit pricey, but not nearly as bad as 77 or 82mm. Overall, the 18-70 is about the best bang for the buck Nikon offers!

Got the 18-70 DX with the D80. also have the 70-300 ED and the 50 f/1.8 to round out my nikkor line (for now :)). this is a snappy, dependable lens that is a solid performer. i wasn't sure about it at first, but it's actually pretty sharp -- almost as good as the prime and the range is good for walkaround shots assuming you aren't walking around in the serengeti. it's no rock star like the 18-200 or any of nikon's pro lenses, but then again it's just as fast as the 18-200 -- 3.5 wide open. no VR, but if you need VR with a compact, lightweight zoom, you may want to consider using a tripod all the time. plus, the 18-70 is a lot cheaper than the 18-200 and makes a nice combo with the 70-300. only 4 stars because there are definitely times when it would be nice to have more reach and faster aperture speed, but for the money, it's not bad at all, especially for DSLR newbies (although a lot of pros use this as a backup).

I have read good and bad remarks about the 18-70 lens (mostly good, though). Maybe it's a question of whether you get a good copy or not. In any case, my 18-70 Nikon is excellent in every way: sharpness, color, contrast, distortion (obviously there is some as noted on the official review on this website, but it is entirely reasonable considering the zoom range and the price). I own a D200 and decided to run this lens through the typical battery of testing through the various focal lengths and apertures. I did not find anything whatsoever to complain about. I also own the Nikon 50 1.4 lens and at 50mm, this zoom seems every bit the equal at equivalent aperture speeds. Obviously the lens is slower and would prevent use in low-light conditions without flash or higher ISO settings (maybe VR would be cool to have). At 18mm it's a little soft until 4.5 (5.6 and slower is excellent), but only a little soft and entirely acceptable as any lens (excluding the Pro series Nikkors) tends to be soft wide open. Trust me, if your copy is as good as mine, you will be completely happy with the 18-70. I am, and I highly recommend it! (I would love to have the 18-200 VR, but who knows when I will ever see one as Nikon has told dealers 6-12 month delays, too bad: I would love to have one of these. Until then, I am happily shooting with my 18-70 on my D200 as my main lens).

Certainly a good lens for the price. For those of us non-professional mortals that can't afford the really expensive glass (and be able to write it off on our taxes), this is a good place to start. It's a nice solidly constructed lens that feels a lot more professional than most of the typical consumer grade lenses that I've had the opportunity to mess around with. The only flaw that I can find with the lens is the light fall off that creeps in when you're close to 18mm and in the neighborhood of f/3.5 to f/4. Personally, I like the look that gives in certain images, and used to Photoshop that in quite frequently before I purchased this lens. It covers a good focal length range, and almost never comes off my camera unless I'm using a specialist lens for some specialist reason. For general day to day photography, it's wonderful.

I purchased this lens after being unhappy with the kit lens that came with my d80 (18-55mm VR). While that kit lens produced some good pictures, I found the autofocus to be tooo slow for my personal taste. This lens (18-70) has no such problem. It autofocuses quickly, is quiet and the built quality is worlds better than my previous lens. I got the lens refurbished thru Cameta.com and works perfectly.

Pros: Fast and quiet focus, good focal range and sharp at mid-telephoto range.
Cons: Heavy, loose barrel and wide angle not sharp enough.
Conclusion: This is a good walk-around lens and great value for money.

I'm glad to see all the positive reviews for this lens. I got it by default with my D200 and immediately tried to replace it for the 18-200 which everyone raves about. Its been six months now and the urge to upgrade has gone for the most part. I've taken this camera/lens on a recent trip to Beijing- wonderful combination. Not too heavy, just right for carrying around and the photos were great. A friend has the D200 with the 18-200 and by comparison it seems awful heavy. That said, I will, at some point, upgrade, but this lens is by no means a second rate piece of equipment. You'll be very happy with it.