Nikon 180mm f/2.8 Reviews

I used this lens for about three years with film and digital bodies and it always delivered exceptional sharpness and color, even wide open. Bokeh is almost always good and occasionally neutral. My problem with this lens is the barrel drifts when the camera is not within 45 degrees of level. Of course, you can work around that...I did, and was rewarded with some great pics. It worked really well with a PN-11 extension tube, but be careful about stopping down past f/11 because of diffraction. The reason I sold mine was the working distance was just too far on digital bodies (effective 270mm!).

ED version best at f2.8 to f5.6.

This oh-so-good film/FX lens becomes an oh-so-cheap 270/2.8 on DX DSLR's. Even the older 180mm 5-element/4-group Nikkors (selling for a little over $100)are solid performers. I see no downside.

I'm relatively new to photography (3 years)and the owner of a D200. During these years I have read almost anything published on lenses and bought 18 of them and get rid of 11.

It took me a while to understand that sharpness is by far not the only thing mattering in a picture and that color,contrast,bokeh are as important.

A few months ago I bought a Nikon 180mm Ai-s ED. This lens is sharp from f/2.8, color and bokey are incredible. Every pictures taken with this lens has a signature. I did compare images taken at 180mm with 55-200mm VR, 70-300mm vr and Nikon 200mm f/4 Ai-s and difference is stunning. The bokey at f/2.8 is incredible as is sharpness at f/4 and down.

If you can find a good copy of this lens at around 200$usd, just buy it.