Resolution / Sharpness

Sharp! Sharp! Sharp! It is the sharpest zoom lens I have ever used! For all focal range, f:2.8 is sharp, although not as sharp as razor, definitely usable. Image contrast is slightly reduced with wide open but much improve after f:4. It is razor sharp from f:5.6 till f:13 with the best at f:8. Sharpness start to fall from and after f:16. Some people complaints it is pretty soft at tele-end. But my personal experience there is no significant difference of sharpness between the tele-end and wide-end. This may be due to the samples variant and I was lucky to get a good sample. Or just because I use D2H with relative low resolution of 4.1 Mega pixels and just could not be able to squeeze every detail out of the lens.


Overall conclusions

As I mentioned, it was this lens that made me go for DX format DSLR. So I did expect a lot from this lens. However, it is also the only lens in that time offer the best and only solution for me if I switch to DSLR. And my desire to was very high. So it was also this lens that made me willing to compromise.

One of my largest compromises about this lens is the flare issue. As this is an all-around lens to me, I need this lens to be able to shoot in very adverse lighting conditions. Pervious experience and impression of flare control by the Nikkors offered me the confidence about them. So I didn’t expect this lens will perform such badly to suppress flare. I even have to persuade myself in such manner: “Well, it’s not too bad at all. At least it won’t turn the whole scene into a dead-white!” I have no other better choice but have to made use to it.

Be honest, purple fringe doesn’t bother me very much. But I just think it is ridicules that a digitally specialized lens designed by such large optical expertise will cause purple fringe problem!

Apart from these problems, other drawbacks of this lens really don’t bother me too much. I agreed that the barrel-type distortion at wide-end may be a little bit scary to some demanding person. But I just can live with it. However, on other hand, the sharpness, the vignetting contral, the constructions and the AF performance are truly make it a professional lens. If you ask me would I still choose this lens even there are more competitors on the market nowadays? The answer is: "very properly yes!" (I fact, I'm now very interested to the Tokina 16-50 mm f:2.8 DX, which is still not available on the market untill this fall.)


Extras

Many people worring about is it worth to invest on a DX lens given that we can't rule out Nikon may announce full-frame DSLR completely in the future. Well, let me tell you more. It is a DX lens which is not "recomment" on film camera. But they share the same F-mount and the fact is the image circle of lens can cover the 24 x 36 mm frame at the focal length of 28 - 55 mm if on filter attached. Think up yourself.

Personally, f:2.8 is not large enough for me. With the 1.5x corp factor, the actual focal length has to be shorter in order to restore the same view angle that we used to be on 135 format. One of the drawback is the increase in depth-of-view and become less able to "melt down" the out-of-focus subjects. We have seen Tamron introduced their 28-75 mm f:2.8 and its APS-C countapart 18-50 mm f:2.8 with filter diameter of 67 mm with the aids of XR technology. I always have such kind of fantasy that this Nikkor DX 17-55 mm also incorporate such kind of XR technology, or thing alike, but remaining the universal professional 77 mm filter diameter to expand its aperture to at least f:2.0 or even f:1.8! Am I demanding to much?

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推薦者: dcyang, fishy

見笑了！現在看著看著還發現錯字連篇呢！

此鏡我用了一年多快兩年了，以上的評論絕對是個人使用經驗和心得，主觀到不得了！就它的抗耀光和色差表現，小弟也毫不客氣地盡情鞭撻！

迄今為止我還是覺得此鏡好壞參半，Nikon 並未盡力造好此鏡，更遺憾的是它已是同級中最好，市面上還沒有比它更好的選擇！要是售價降低 20％ 我就覺得比較公道！

AF-S 28-70 嘛...說來讖愧，小弟是用 Sigma 的... >_<

補充一下, 剛剛又回頭看您先前的大作, 關於 F80/F100 的心得,
真是心有戚戚焉.

小弟第一台 AF SLR 正是 F60, 四年後升級 F80. 最大的原因也是景深預覽.
當時最哈的是 F100, 無奈預算不夠,
差價兩萬多台幣我選擇留給 18-35 以及 SB-28.

即使現在已完全使用 D70s, F80 跟 18-35 我依然捨不得賣掉...

離題了離題了, F80 還真是一把難得的好機子, 您的評論字字句句說到我心坎裡去了...

有沒有大大有更多其他的分享？
小弟也正在考慮此鏡，只嫌價錢略貴
和恐怕不久將來 nikon 會發佈改良版!