Nikon 24-120mm f4 G AF-S ED VR Lens

Comments about Nikon 24-120mm f4 G AF-S ED VR Lens:

Consistant results, rarely hunts on focusing, good for travelling

Comments about Nikon 24-120mm f4 G AF-S ED VR Lens:

Good, lightweight, VR lens with a superior range to the 24-70 - in my opinion. But WHY have the focus ring where the zoom ring should be ? That's my only gripe.
The max aperture of f4 through the range is good - although I don't do much low light work, and build quality seems decent.
Sharp and good contrast with good CA control and the usual Nikon distortion.

Comments about Nikon 24-120mm f4 G AF-S ED VR Lens:

This is a great lens. It is sharp at f4 with a slight drop off at the corners, but by f5.6 it is sharp across the frame. It does suffer from a bit of barrel and pincushion distortion but this is easily sorted with software. All the colours are great and is well protected from lens flare, in fact I don't use the lens hood at all.

Comments about Nikon 24-120mm f4 G AF-S ED VR Lens:

A very nice lens that feels well made and gives sharp, contrasty images across a handy 24-120mm zoom range.

Comments about Nikon 24-120mm f4 G AF-S ED VR Lens:

I have owned my 24-120mm F4 for over a year now. When I bought it it was a toss up between spending extra cash for the renowned 24-70mm F2.8 or taking a slight gamble on this newish lens.

Although I now probably will buy a 24-70 for it's extra bokeh quality and isolation/IQ in portraits/weddings, I do not regret my decision and will not be getting rid of the 24-120mm by any means and will still use it heavily as a general walk around lens and on a second camera sometimes too.

I have used the 24-120 F4, for travel, for events, and for weddings and due to my shooting style I tend to shoot wide open at F4 at least 80% of the time and I still find it plenty sharp enough for my needs.

It is an excellent partner for my D700, although there is some distortion and vignetting at the wide end it is easy to sort and I often find myself shooting at the handy 120mm end of the range where the VR is extremely effective.

The lens is sharp and resolves detail well - although the D700 is by no means a high resolution camera I have been very impressed with the detail resolved by the 24-120mm. Pixel peeping will show flaws but I'm very happy with it's real-life ability.

The Autofocus is whisper quiet and very fast. I often shoot at night events like wedding receptions, birthday parties etc and I find the focus is fast and accurate on the D700 with very little hunting even in very poor light.

The only place I feel I need the extra IQ of the 24-70mm is when comparing it for wide-aperture shots where you want a pleasing blur background. Although this is entirely possible on the 24-120 it takes a bit more effort as you need slightly more focal length and sometimes the bokeh appears a little sharper when compared to bokeh taken with other pro-spec lenses (especially primes but the comparison there is really not fair at all of course).I particularly notice this though because of my "wide open" shooting style - but it isn't a huge problem.

The build of the lens is pretty good - plenty sturdy enough and well sealed. My only real gripe with the lens is that it tends to creep out to max zoom when I'm carrying it on my black rapid strap. I wish it had a zoom lock switch.

Comments about Nikon 24-120mm f4 G AF-S ED VR Lens:

This is a great 'walkabout' lens with a useful range of focal lengths, It's quite heavy and bulky considering it's not an f2.8 but you can feel the quality of it.

Comments about Nikon 24-120mm f4 G AF-S ED VR Lens:

This is a briiliantly sharp and versatile lens.It is quite large, but easy to hold and well balanced. The zoom is very smooth.

The images are very sharp indeed, and the colour saturation and contrast is exceptional.

The VR works very well too. My only other experience of VR was with a Sigma lens I borrowed, whose VR would have woken the neighbours. When I switched the VR on, on this lens, I wasn't sure it was working as it was so quiet. I had to put my ear to the lens to make sure it was working. But it was. It is brilliant!

Comments about Nikon 24-120mm f4 G AF-S ED VR Lens:

This lens has virtually replaced my Nikon 24-70 (2.8) for most purposes. The VR and the extra reach are useful while the loss of a stop (f4 rather than f2.8) is no real hardship since in most of my day to day photography I aim to shoot at f8 for optimum image quality (excluding portraits). I read a lot of reviews on this lens before taking the plunge. The image quality is excellent. Perfectionists may cite the added barrel and pincushion distortion of the 24-120 over the 24-70 but it's easily corrected in post processing.

Comments about Nikon 24-120mm f4 G AF-S ED VR Lens:

This is a nice lens. Significantly larger and heavier than it's predecessor, but it is a full stop faster. The build quality is first class - it feels very solid with no wobbly bits, although the manual focus ring on my example is a little stiff. This may be no bad thing as it may well loosen up in time.

The optical quality is way better than the older version of the lens. I use mine with a D300 (not a full frame camera) and even at F/4 it is sharp right across the frame at all focal lengths. I did notice that at F/4 there is some colour fringing on bare branches against a bright sky, but this was only on one image so maybe an isolated case. The brightness contrast was pretty extreme so a very severe test of the lens.

With that one exception every image I have made with this lens has been more than acceptably sharp regardless of aperture or focal length.

The VR works very well, just as it did on the old version, and the autofocus is SO quiet that I had to check to see if it was actually working !

One downside - it's an expensive lens and I think it's overpriced, but it certainly does deliver so maybe that's what you have to pay for performance. I'm very impressed with it.

Comments about Nikon 24-120mm f4 G AF-S ED VR Lens:

Hugely better than the old Nikon 24-120 lens. This IS THE LENS my D3X has been waiting for! Turns a D3X from an awkward (got to carry three prime lenses around with you) piece of kit into a fantastic camera that's easy to use and produces STUNNING results. What a revalation! Well done Nikon. And no colour aberation that I can see (contrary to blogs I've seen).