A very sharp lens with excellent contrast and colour rendition. Flare is well controlled, even shooting straight into the sun!

Plastic body

I cannot believe the negative reviews I read about this lens. I have used this lens for the past 18 months, on prints up to 20 inches, slides, and digital. I find that the lens is very very sharp, with good contrast and colour rendition at all focal lengths using f8 - fll.(Who wants to shoot at f2.8 anyway?) Barrel distortion at the 24mm end is not apparent.The digital results using a Fuji S2 body are breathtaking!

Customer Service

Not used

Similar Products Used:

50mm f1.4 Nikkor 28mm f2.8 Nikkor 105mm f2.8 Nikkor 300mm f2.8 Nikkor 2000mm f2.8 Nikkor 80mm-200mm f2.8 Nikkor

Solid construction, Quick AF, crisp and clear images when used with a D100

manual focus ring is to close to zoom ring. Lens Hood blocks AF illuminator light in the D100

I bought this lens to use with my Nikon d100 after seeing another photographer in the area use it. Could not be happier. The AF is extremely quick and quiet and the pics are very sharp. If you are looking for an all purpose lens, this is the one for you.

Customer Service

Not needed yet

Similar Products Used:

Nikkor AF 35-70 Nikkor AF 70-210

Macro, Fast to F2.8 at 24mm, sharp picture, good control of flare, moderate detail. 1 lens can do a lot of jobs. (may be not too good, but good enough)

Soft at F2.8 and a bit soft for macro. Contrast too high. Some color deviation

First of all, this lens is not a PRO series lens of Nikon, but I would say Advance Amateur lens. So if anyone compare its sharpness, and what so ever with any of those PRO lens with F2.8, one might find this lens not impressive. However, in my opinion, I think this lens is fine enough for Advanced Amateur or else. This lens can : - go from wide angle of 24mm to portrait 85 mm. - at 24mm this lens is fast to F2.8 (Although at F2.8 picture a bit soft, but come on give this lens a break) - do Macro upto 1:2 (eventhough not as sharp as the real macro lens like 60mm or 105 mm micro or else, but it can do with satisfactory) - sharpness when use F5.6 to F11 is not bad, if Pro Lense get 10, this lens should get 8.5 - flare is minor to moderate. Therefore, instead of buying a few Pro Lenses that really give good impression in all type picture taking, with just this 24-85 mm F2.8-4 can save you a lot with a little lower performance so I think I give this lense at least 4 for value rating

Customer Service

Mine needs no service.

Similar Products Used:

Nikon 105 mmF2.8 Tokina 28-70 mm F2.6 ProII Sigma 20-40 mm F2.8 DG Nikon 80-200 mm ED F2.8 D

Reasonably fast speed. Useful focal length. 1:2 macro capability.

Poor image quality when not stopped down. Poor macro-performance.

After reading the wide variations in the reviews of this product, I have to conclude that there are quality contol issues in the manufacture of this lens. If you got a good sample, then count yourself lucky! I purchased this lens about a year ago, and used it on an N70 and F100 body. I shot numerous rolls of both negative film and slide film, and many of the photos were a big disappointment. If the lens was stopped down to around f/8-f/11, image quality was quite good, but in the f/2.8-f/5.6 range, the images were so soft that if you blew them up to 8X10, they looked like they were taken with a $50 Point & Shoot! What good is a fast zoom, if the images taken wide-open, look like they were shot through a milk bottle bottom? The macro-mode was no better. The lens provides an outstanding 1:2 macro mode, but the images I got were so soft that they went straight into the garbage. (I was shooting with a Bogen tripod, so camera shake was not a factor.) I finally sold this lens on Ebay, and ate the loss. It's the best decision I ever made. In conclusion: I would not buy this lens unless you shoot a test roll in the store first. Be sure to check out the wide open performance, and macro performance before you buy. Incidently, I found that the Tamron 24-135 is a far superior lens for a lot less money!

Customer Service

Not needed.

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Tamron 24-135

Does a lot of things well, some very well.

Doesn't do alot of things VERY well

If I am carrying around just one lens it is between this one and my 60mm macro. This lens does macro down to 1:2 and does it so-so. It shoots at 24mm very well if stopped down to f/8. It shoots portraits well enough at 85mm wide open. It's build quality is better than 99% of all other manufactures' consumer lines, excpet older consumer Nikons. It works well on my F80 for lending to my fiance to keep her entertained when I am switching between all of my other lenses on my F100.(She rarely asks to play with my other lenses) The hood works as well as one can expect from a wide to tele zoom. Colors and contrast are good and sharpness can be excellent. But unless you are careful, distortion can make everything plain old OK. Overall, it is a good consumer lens which is why it is priced below the pro lens line-up. It, as well as my 60mm fills the void between my astounding Nikon 17-35mm f/2.8D AF-S and my superb 80-200 f/2.8D(non af-s). Buy this lens if this is the zoom range you prefer and cannot afford the 28-70mm f/2.8 AF-S, or you want a decent Jack-of -all-trades lens. If you are trying to fill a void in your bag between your wide ande and tele photo zooms, buy a 60mm macro which does every thing it was intended to do and does it extremely well. I am giving this lens top rating not because it is the best zoom in this focal range, but because it does more than most zooms and does them fairly well. P.S. Please quit complaining about curvature with architectural photography. If this field is of great importance to you, you should have bought a prime at least, or a tilt/shift lens. If I was a race car driver I wouldn't compete in a SUV!

Customer Service

Never needed service for any nikon product in 8+ years. I've heard it is a painful experience compared to Canon, but that must be because Canon has more experience fixing things. That alone is worth b

Similar Products Used:

3 Nikon zooms from 17-200mm, 3 Nikon primes and a Sigma 180 macro(great lens as well)

-Somewhat fast max aperture (if you like soft images). -Nice lens hood -Decent AF speed

-Overpriced -Soft images at max aperture -Poor performance in Macro mode -Very little usable range at f/2.8 (24mm), esentially a 4.0 lens.

This lens just didn''''''''t impress me much. It was just ok. I really can''''''''t recommend this lens too highly because of the cost. I think there are better value lenses out there. I owned this lens for about 6 months, then ended up selling it on ebay and thankfully getting most of my money back out of it and was able to buy a nicer lens for less money (more about that later). I thought this lens was pretty soft wide open, especially on the 24mm end. You have to stop down quite a bit for sharp images, which really negates the use of the fast aperture for me. the f/2.8 is only at the 24mm end, which like I say, produces pretty soft images, so if you are buying it for the 2.8, you might want to reconsider. I originally bought this lens to partner with the 80-200 f/2.8 so I could have 24-200mm in two lenses. The images shot with this lens just didn''''''''t have that snap that the ones shot with the 80-200 had (of course comparing apples to oranges there--but for the price I guess I expected more). I ended up replacing this lens with the 24-135mm Tamron, which cost less, produced much nicer images (especially in the tele end) and gave me more range to shoot with. After using the Tamron, this lens pales in comparison. Also, the macro mode on this lens sucks. The guy at the camera store really talked it up, but man did it suck, unless of course you like soft distorted images. Overall, I''''''''d say this lens is just ok-- way overpriced for what you get.

Customer Service

N/A

Similar Products Used:

Nikon 17-35mm f/2.8 Tamron 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6 Tamron 24-135mm f/3.5-5.6 Sigma 105mm EX f/2.8 Macro Nikon 135mm f/2.0 DC Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 Tamron 70-300mm f/4-5.6

Outstandingly sharp at the telephoto setting, this lens has produced the best portraits I have ever taken. Very quick zoom operation. I love the zoom range on this lens - wide enough for great depth of field, and long enough to take good portraits.

Barrel Distortion is quite apparent at the 24mm letting. If it really bothers you (I myself rarely take photos where this would matter) then this is not the lens for you! A little pricey if you''re buying it new... but the I really believe it''s worth it.

I find it very strange to read so many negative reviews of what I regard as a fantastic lens from Nikon. To be honest I have nothing but praise for the 24-85. I have now been using the lens for 6 months and have seen my photographs improve with every new roll of film. The lens has produced extremely sharp negatives and slides with excellent contrast and colour balance. Admittedly, barrel distortion with this lens is significant, but I tend not to be bothered by this. I am quite sure that there are sharper, "better" lenses out there, but once you get to a certain price range really, they are all good. Beware both negative and positive reviews of lenses on the web. A lens is only as good as the individual using it. The body construction of the lens has thusfar proved solid. I use an F80 and the lens is a little on the heavy side. It would have balanced, I think, a lot better on an F100. This is not really a pro lens, but you can''t get a much better lens than this if you''re an amateur on a somewhat limited budget.

Customer Service

N/A

Similar Products Used:

Nikkor 50mm 1.8 Nikkor 28-80mm 3.5-5.6 Nikkor 80-200 2.8 Nikkor 70-300 ED Nikkon 18-35 ED

None so far - STILL AT REPAIR

This you can figure out

One of the worst products ever used - so far. Bought the product to replace a bad 35-70 2.8 and was force to do so because of availability of other lens. Soft and BAD focus from day one.

Customer Service

Sent in for repair to NY and was told it needed to be sent to CA for major repair. Sent back to me 30 DAYS LATER with a no repair needed note. Sent back to CA again and has been their for 7 days und

Similar Products Used:

Nikon 35-70 2.8

Sharpest and contrast in the mid focal points. With the speed of f2.8, very bright viewfinder; thus, making manual focusing and picture framing a breeze. At a price of AUD960, a bargain compared to the 28-70mm lens. Excellent build quality for a plastic lens. Prefect match for the SB-28 Speedlight as it also has a 24-85mm zoom setting.

Because of the f2.8 rating, people have too high of an expectation from what is essentially a standard lens.

After much consideration (particularly after reading the many negative reviews on this site), finally purchased the lens to fill the gap between my 18-35mm f3.5 and 80-200mm f2.8 (constant) zoom lenses. What persuaded me to purchase this lens were my personal test results. Using my other zoom lenses and a borrowed 28-70mm f2.8 (constant) zoom lens as benchmarks, the pictures taken with this lens were simply outstanding. Yes there were times that noticeable quality difference occurred between this lens and the f2.8 (constant) zoom lenses, but wouldn''''t this be expected when you consider that the 24-85mm is more than one third the Australian price of the 28-70mm lens or the 80-200mm lens. Picture quality fell at the extreme focal points when set at the widest aperture (however, stop-down one or two restores picture quality). At the mid focal range, the picture quality was equal to my 18-35mm lens (at its mid focal range) and close (at least to the naked eye and with slightly larger than standard size prints) to the f2.8 lenses. Similar pictures taken with a previously owned 28-80mm f3.5 and a borrowed 28-105mm f3.5 revealed that the 24-85 lens is superior. There wasn''''t any debate with the 28-80mm - its just plain awful (Nikon ought to be a shame in producing this lens irrespective of price point). The 28-105 lens was better at the extreme points but wasn''''t able to match the overall sharpness/ contrast of the 24-85mm, particularly in the 35mm to 70mm focal range (even at widest aperture setting) All test were done with my F100 and when needed, with my SB-28 Speedlight, always using Hoya SHMC Pro 1 filters coupled with basic Kodak Max 400 print film.

Good range, bright viewfinder image. Balances/works well with F100/MB15 combo.Focussing is quick and precise.

72mm filter size, a bit pricey and as with many modern zooms, the focal length is not really 85mm at close focussing distances. Compare it with a fixed focal length 85mm if you have one.

This lens is capable of good photographs PROVIDED you avoid its main weakness, ie. distortion, and significant corner (light) falloff at 24mm at very close focussing distances at apertures wider than about f/6.7.Also, your images will be quite soft. At normal distances(9ft) from f/5.6 onwards... no complaints.Its at the long end (85mm) that it gets into its stride. Slides shot at f/5.6 & f/8 are quite impressive. For the kind of photography I do, its more than adaquate.

Customer Service

not needed so far.

Similar Products Used:

Nikkor 85mm f/1.8, 80-200mm f/2.8IF ED Tokina 28-70mm f/2.8 (not bad, but 70mm not long enough).