Lens Review: Nikon Nikkor 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR AF-S Zoom

The Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR AF-S Nikkor zoom lens was announced a couple months ago and began shipping in early September. I preordered when the lens was first announced and got my copy about a week ago. On receipt I did a quick test against other lenses. Since then, I’ve been using the lens to make images for publication. Overall, I like this lens; it fills a place in my kit that has been empty since I upgraded from DX to FX a couple years ago. I noticed there aren’t really very many first-hand use reports on this new zoom yet, so here are some impressions.

I got mine from B&H Photo-Video. Other good sources are Adorama or Amazon.
(It really helps me out if you buy from one of those links. Hey, it costs the same either way, so why not?)

In a nutshell: This is a great “do-everything” tool for FX photographers (that is, Nikon shooters who use D700 or one of the D3 series — a body with a full-frame sensor). For me, it is a very credible FX equivalent of the much-lauded but DX-specific AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II. I’ve been missing that huge zoom range and performance since I upgraded to FX. Now I have it again.

Before I go into more detail, let me say this: I am not a professional equipment reviewer. I will leave the detailed technical analysis (and “professional-versus-amateur” pontificating) to others. Every photographer needs to choose the right tool for their own personal style and needs. I am a working professional who shoots primarily destination and travel photographs while on the move. I shoot a lot in foreign destinations and on a budget, where I need to travel light and don’t want to make myself a lucrative target, festooned with lots of camera gear. I also don’t have the weight allowance, enough hands, or the desire to carry extra camera bodies or swap lenses for each and every shot (that is, if I can possibly avoid it). When traveling, I am usually out exploring and must carry all my gear for the whole day, “sun-up to sundown” (along with water, map, guidebook, jacket, etc., etc., and etc.). In the field I often carry a few lenses to cover the situations I expect through a whole day of touring, but I normally have one “walking around” lens on my camera when I go exploring. This new 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR AF-S lens is shaping up to be my go-to travel and “walking around” lens.

Using the Lens: In the hand and attached to my D700, this new lens feels solid and professional. There is no light-weight “give” in the zoom or focus rings: Everything is firm and solid. Extended to full 300mm focal length, the lens just about doubles in length. The lens focuses internally, so the front does not ever turn (so you don’t have to worry about attached filters like circular polarizers and the like). At this stage (still new), the zoom ring turns with pleasant stiffness; So far I haven’t needed to use the zoom stop/lock to prevent the lens from extending when I’m walking around. (That said, it is nice to be able to lock the lens at its shortest, 28mm, length; I am trying to develop a habit of using the zoom lock.) The lens isn’t light; it is nearly twice the heft of the old stock 28-200mm or 24-85mm zooms — but it is nowhere near as beefy as a lot of Nikon’s “professional” series lenses. (For instance, the classic 70-200mm VR zoom is larger and heavier.) Attached to my D700, the whole thing balances well in the hand. The body with lens attached feels agile and I find I can easily use it all day without stress, strain, or fatigue.

Performance / Results: My copy of this lens produces images that are contrasty and sharp to the eye at just about every focal length; Overall image quality is quite good across the entire zoom range. There is very little light fall-off from center to edges at all focal lengths. My copy turns out clear, consistent results with very little effort and no more than my usual semi-automatic adjustments and tweaks in photo management software. I have not noticed much flare (though of course there is some, especially when shooting with the lens pointed upwards and toward the sun). I haven’t yet calibrated for a lens profile, but at first blush it looks to me like any correction needed will be easily managed in Adobe. I would be comfortable submitting its results for publication at almost all focal lengths — in fact, it is better than other lenses I have used in the past for images that have recently ended up on mass-market magazine covers. Based on my testing and experience to date, I expect this lens will become a favorite.

When I first got the lens I did a quick, technically amateur but basically real-world(~ish) experiential test to see how my copy fares. It was worth testing for myself: Lots of experts have looked at the MTF curves and expressed concern over sharpness, especially at the wide end. I’m happy to report the predictions of poor performance seem to me to have been exaggerated.

The Test: I put my Nikon D700 body on a tripod on my own back porch, where I have a view of the lake and can make sure there is something at practical “infinity” in at least one corner at all zoom lengths. It was a bright, sunny day. The focus point was fixed at a point near the waterline on the opposite side of the lake (at or near “infinity”). I set the camera at aperture priority and then shot raw through every lens I own at a range of f-stops. The resulting images were not processed or optimized: Using the camera raw, I cropped at 100% and then put some samples together for comparison. I think I mentioned already — this lens did great.

Here’s the original scene, shot through a Nikkor 20mm f/2.8 prime, stopped down to F/16. (This one has been mildly processed for appearance; It is not part of the comparison test.)

Just for grins, here is the same scene, shot at 28mm and f/16 through the new Nikkor 28-300mm zoom (with VR on). (This one is cleaned up just like the one above using “clone settings” in Lightroom; since it’s been ‘cleaned up,’ this also isn’t part of the test.)

Test Results:
Overall, this new lens performed better than expected. There is noticeable softness at the edges when the lens is wide open; that is to be expected. My copy sharpens up nicely and can compete with most other midrange zooms once it is stopped down a click or two at all focal lengths. In general, my copy of the new lens is sharper and cleaner than the classic consumer stock 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5G AF-S zoom; the old standby 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6G; or the current, professional 70-200mm ED VR AF-S. With Nikon’s excellent VR-II vibration reduction built-in, I am finding that there are very few circumstances when I have to shoot wide open — and in those cases, usually the subject is dark and the softness at the edges is just not significant.

At Wide Angle — Here are some test images from this new 28-300mm at its widest (28mm) — compared against the well-known, beloved Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 zoom. Right now, I don’t own another 28mm lens, but the 24-70mm is pretty darned good as a starting point. As you can see, this new 28-300mm is pretty close, even when it is wide-open but the 24-70 is stopped down a bit. Just for the heck of it, I’ll also include a comparison crop from the 20mm prime f/2.8 stopped down to equivalent f-stops and cropped to show the same section of the photo (note that since this isn’t at the edge of the 20mm field of view, it is actually in a sharper area for the prime than for the zooms). The prime is clearly a bit sharper, but you have to admit the zooms aren’t too bad even in this unfair fight. (This is the lower-left corner of the 28mm image, cropped at full size/resolution. In the first two series, the new 28-300 is on the left; the last series is from the 20mm prime.)

Comparison wide-open: 28-300mm zoom and 24-70mm zoom – lower left corner, 28mm @ f/3.5

Comparison stopped-down: 28-300mm and 24-70mm zooms – 28mm @ f/16

Just for reference: The same section of an image from the 20mm prime lens

At mid-range (let’s say 50mm and 70mm): The new 20-300mm zoom does great in the mid-range. I’d be quite comfortable with this lens in the mid-range for professional photo publication placements. It is to be expected that any lens with this zoom range would be a little soft at its widest, but sharpness is a little more important at 50mm or 70mm, where most casual users do most of their shooting. Here are some comparison strips at 50mm and at 70mm, wide-open and stopped down. Just to make it challenging, here we will compare against three lenses. For the 50mm test I’ve added the 50mm f/1.4 prime. At 70mm we’ll add in the venerable 70-200mm f/2.8 zoom at 70mm. I expect the 50mm prime to be a bit sharper (and it is), but I was surprised to see that the new 28-300mm on the whole holds its own quite well — better than I expected, especially when stopped down one or two f-stops. The real surprise here is that the 28-300mm is to my eye sharper and more contrasty than the pro-standard 70-200mm zoom at every aperture.

At 50mm (including the 50mm f/1.4 prime, stopped down). We’ve moved to the shadows in the lower right for these shots — check for sharpness in the dock edges and the reflections in the water. (And since I’m inconsistent, look for the new 28-300 to be on the right in these shots.)

Nikon 28-300 zoom compared against 24-70 zoom and 50mm prime – 50mm @ f/3.5

Nikon 28-300 zoom compared against 24-70 zoom and 50mm prime – 50mm @ f/16

At 70mm (now including the venerable 70-200mm f/2.8 zoom reference standard, stopped down to match apertures). We’re still in the shadows in the lower right for these shots — check for sharpness in the dock edges and the reflections in the water. (And the new 28-300 is still on the right.)

Nikon 28-300 compared against 24-70 and 70-200 zooms – 70mm @ f/5

Nikon 28-300 compared against 24-70 and 70-200 zooms – 70mm @ f/16

Telephoto Lengths (say, 100-300mm): The new 28-300mm zoom is crisp and sharp at telephoto lengths. At the longer focal lengths, the new 28-300mm zoom is equal to Nikon’s other zoom lenses. When we get to 200mm, in general I found my copy to be more contrasty and a little sharper than any of my other Nikon zoom lenses. My copy of the new lens is sharper and cleaner than the old (but still often recommended) 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6G or the current, professional 70-200mm ED VR AF-S. It even beat the 105mm f/2.8 micro-nikkor prime at 105mm. I do not possess the longer Nikon lenses, so I’m afraid we’ll have to await other reviews for a rack-and-stack against the bigger lenses. Here is a sample comparison to the 70-200mm and 28-200 zooms at 200mm, just to illustrate:

Zoom comparison – 28-300 versus 70-200 and 28-200 – 200mm @ f/9

At 300mm, the lens is clear and sharp. I don’t have another lens that is this long on an FX sensor, but here is a full-frame photo sample from the new 28-300 zoom at 300mm (ISO 200, f/11 at 1/50 sec.). This is not a crop; it’s the whole image. (By the way, this is not a picture of a rower. The shore line is the focus point for all the test shots; this guy joined the shoot in progress, so he is actually over 25 feet in front of the focus point. But he adds interest to the shot, so what the heck.) You can see the lens’ true focus behind the rower, along the shore wall and tree line.

Nikon 28-300mm zoom – 300mm at f/11

Finally, just in case you’re counting, here are a few tech specs (courtesy of Nikon USA):

If you like this review and decide to buy the lens, please consider buying through one of these links:

I got my copy from B&H Photo-Video. Other good sources are Adorama or Amazon.

(It really helps me out if you buy from one of those links. Hey, buying the new lens will cost the same either way, so why not? Thank You!)

Lens Review: Nikon Nikkor 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR AF-S Zoom is a post from: thePhotoTourist.com.
Images and text copyright © Rick Collier and thePhotoTourist. All rights reserved.

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