Nikon AF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5D Reviews

This has been my normal "walk around lens" for many years, it served me well on my film SLR and stiil gives good service on my D70, although I need to use the equivalent 18-70 for wider shots.

The macro feature is very useful, allowing a 1:2 maximum ratio between 50 and 105mm, the only irritation being that you can only switch out of macro if the lens is focused past the macro zone.

The lens hood is a bit of a beast, but it does the job well. The lens has consistantly given good performance for me and provided many a good shot.

To sumarise, this is a little gem of a lens, sharp, compact, covers a decent range and is excellent value for money.

A real Swiss Army knife for film cameras. This lens covers from wide angle to moderate tele in a nice small neat package, with macro function built in.

Build and Handling: Fairly compact, plastic but solid feel with good heft. Built mainly for autofocus, it has a very narrow angle of turn for focusing.

Optically: Sharp, good contrast, good colour, minimal distortion, very slight vignetting. Variable aperture but still only 3.5-4.5 which is not too bad. Macro at 1:2 function works well in a pinch, with acceptable quality.

Drawbacks : None at this price point.

An excellent lens. Able to deliver pro caliber results, and priced moderately. Also has a useful macro mode.

Russ

For many years I`m a Leica adict, a few years ago I decided to buy something more casual, evey day, but with high quality.
I decided to try Nikon.
This was my first Nikon lenses.
Ok, this is not a prime Leica but I love it !
Now I have a lot of Canon, Leica and Nikons but this one is still my favorite bud, always bring it with me in all my trips.
Why ?
Because this is a high quality all-in-one lenses, from macro to tele it does anything well, you don`t need to carry other lenses for casual photo, you will never lost a scene!
I recomend, buy one used if you find !
Ops ! sorry for my poor english !

I was recently hired to cover events for a cruise line based employer - and they had requirements for a single purpose lens that had to be met (I shoot with only primes). This lens mates up nicely to the D700 - offers plenty of range - and doesn't weigh you down. I had used and contemplated the 24-85mm af-s for some time and decided to pass due to distortions. With some Googling you can find a couple old film or aps-c reviews on this lens. A couple people mentioned this lens for full frame so I said why not. The 28-105 shows imperceptable barrel distortion at the wide end - and offers more tele ability than 24-85 - and a truly useful macro mode. At F9 this baby is at its sharpest - which is easy to shoot at in bright daylight or with mounted flash - if you desire sharpest results. I use this for mostly portraits - it offers very pleasant bokeh and more than enough range. I really enjoy using the Rayflash Ringflash adapter with this lens as well. I really obsess over specialty glass - too much I believe - having spent over $10,000 in the past year I am at a point where I have the gear I am happy with - I just want to see what is out there that impresses for less. All Nikon full framers should buy this lens as soon as you get the chance. I got mine minty and dust free for next to nothing. Focus is spot on. Ken Rockwell whined about this lens - I feel he got a lousy sample. Or perhaps he dropped it prior to mounting lol - I dunno. He used it on F100 - likely the culprit. I kinda wish one of the decent review labs would cover this lens (SlrGear, Photozone, etc...)

Clearly sharper stopped down.

AF is dynamite on D700

CA in high contrast areas sucks (found out at ski slopes) - I haven't been able to reproduce results that terrible since however...


Check CraigLook.com or eBay and you're set...


Colin Wadsworth



Pros:

Size/Weight/Price

Full frame range

Useful macro

Great tele portrait isolation and bokeh

Flare not bad

Great Sunstars

Decent Build

Low $ = low expectations - however you will be delighted if used properly



Cons:

Low Light Ability not great - BUT FOCUS IS ACCURATE AND CONSISTENT

CA in certain situations

Extending barrel = lame

Rotating barrel not great for Circular Polarizer, but rotates a minor degree

Macro switch transition requires lens focused towards infinity or +50mm

Stupid filter size