The Nikon 18-35/f3.5-45D IF-ED AF Nikkor Zoom Pro Performance at a bargain price
Written: Apr 14 '03 (Updated Apr 16 '03)
Product Rating:
Pros: Compact, fast AF, sharp, light-weight, and a reasonable price
Cons: Some barrel distortion at 18mm, possible vignetting at maximum aperture if you use filters
The Bottom Line: This lens is an excellent choice for photographers who want the basic performance and image quality of Nikon’s legendary AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8D ED-IF at one third of the cost
Howard_Creech's Full Review: Nikon AF Nikkor 18-35mm f/3.5-4.5D IF-ED Lens
Serious photography is a very expensive hobby and it is not at all difficult to invest several thousand dollars in the contents of one medium sized camera bag. Everyone loves to save money, but in photography bargains often come with a heavy trade off in terms of speed, durability, and image quality. The Nikon 18-35/f3.5-45D IF-ED AF Nikkor Zoom was introduced as a lower cost alternative to the popular but very expensive Nikkor AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8D ED-IF. Is Nikon’s entry-level ultra-wide zoom an inexpensive alternative? Read on for a definitive answer.
When I first looked at the 18-35/f3.5-4.5D IF-ED AF Nikkor Zoom it reminded very much of one my old favorites, the excellent 3rd generation Sigma 18-35/f2.8-4.0 but after a thorough test run the Nikkor 18-35/f3.5-4.5D IF-ED AF zoom does a better job across the board. Every now and again, it is possible to find a REAL bargain and the Nikon 18-35/f3.5-45D IF-ED AF Nikkor Zoom ( like the Nikon 85/1.8D AF Nikkor) is a prime example of just how good a lower cost lens can be. Nikon’s “baby” ultra-wide zoom consistently delivers pro quality slides and negatives with tack sharp resolution, excellent contrast, and absolute color fidelity at a price that is quite reasonable, especially when compared with comparable Nikkor optics (like the AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8D ED-IF Zoom)
Construction/Performance/Build Quality
The Nikon 18-35/f3.5-f4.5D IF ED AF Nikkor Zoom is a light weight (due in large part to the polycarbonate lens barrel) zoom with great balance, especially on Nikon’s entry level SLR models like the N55, N65, N80, and the new N75. The Nikon 18-35/f3.5-45D IF-ED AF Nikkor Zoom is well designed and the build quality is actually quite good. The lens has a variable maximum aperture starting at f3.5 (at 18mm) and shrinking to f4.5 (at 35mm). This doesn’t sound very fast, but when you factor in the angle of view at 18mm (100 degrees) the light gathering ability (especially outside in good lighting) is excellent. Using the zoom handheld at shutter speeds as slow as 1/60th of a second shouldn’t present any problem.
The focus and zoom rings are easy grip textured plastic and both are logically placed, but manual focus (as with most AF lenses) is a little under-damped. The aperture ring feels a bit cheap and lacks the solid click stops of more expensive Nikkor lenses. The 18-35/f3.5-45D IF-ED AF Nikkor Zoom ‘s auto focus is fast and locks on the subject quickly, but the lens is a bit slower and noticeably noisier than the Nikkor AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8D ED-IF. Neither of these minor quibbles will affect image quality, nor will they significantly impact performance. This is an IF (internal focusing) zoom so the lens doesn’t doesn't extend, nor does the front element rotate during focusing. The front element is not recessed, so the big curved chunk of glass is very exposed. The included tulip style hood helps but some care will be needed to protect the lens from fingerprints, scratches, and bumps.
How Does it Compare with the legendary Nikkor AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8D ED-IF ?
Overall, the Nikon 18-35/f3.5-45D IF-ED AF Nikkor Zoom is an outstanding lens. Ultra-wide (18mm) performance is very good from f4.0 (there is noticeable light fall off and corner softness at f3.5) and excellent from f5.6. The AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8D ED-IF Nikkor is a better lens, but it is not substantially better. As my friend said, “The 17-35 is better than the 18-35, but it costs three times as much and it definitely ain’t three times as good.”
If you need a maximum aperture of f2.8 and pro level build quality it will cost you fifteen hundred bucks, if you can get by with an ultra-wide zoom that’s 2/3 of a stop slower and built for serious amateur photographers you can save a thousand bucks. If you plan on enlarging photos beyond 8X10 inches I would recommend against shooting at apertures larger than f5.6.
Nikon 18-35/f3.5-f4.5D IF ED AF Nikkor Zoom
Technical Specifications
Focal length: 18mm to 35mm
Maximum aperture: f/3.5
Minimum Aperture: f22
Optimal Apertures: f5.6-f8.0
Construction: 11 elements in 8 groups (with one ED element and one Aspherical element)
Focusing: Internal (front element does not rotate)
Angle of view: 100° - 62°
Close focus distance: 0.33 meters (12 inches)
Filter size: 77mm
Diaphragm: 7 blades (with rounded edges for better Bokeh)
Weight: 13 ounces
MSRP $699 Street Price Range $459.00-$499.00
Included
Nikon HB-23 (tulip style) lens hood and front and rear lens caps
Optional
Nikon soft lens pouch (CL-S2)
In The Field/Handling & Operation
Spring is finally here in Louisville and our annual Kentucky Derby Festival kicked off this past weekend with Thunder Over Louisville, the largest fireworks display in North America. The lead up to the fireworks is an all day air show that features fly-overs by U. S. Air Force combat aircraft, and the “Red Baron Pizza” Stearman Biplane Squadron. The “Thunder” show usually draws about 500,000 people to Louisville’s Ohio River waterfront, but city officials estimated this years crowd at closer to 750,000 people.
The show is a photographers dream, with lots of “street” style crowd shots and once it gets dark, more than 50,000 individual fireworks shells. The fireworks display keeps the sky above the Ohio River lit up constantly during the non-stop 30 minute fireworks show. If you want really stunning fireworks shots, you’ll have to forego the crowd shots and shoot the show from Indiana. It is easy if you can find a good sight line from the Knobs (glacial hills just north of the Ohio River) in Southern Indiana. The Louisville skyline is beautifully lit, the half mile wide Ohio River reflects both the high rise buildings along the riverfront and the fireworks (especially if the weather is calm).
If you shoot from the riverfront in Louisville a stable tripod (space is at a premium so tripod placement may be a problem) a short zoom (28-80 mm or 28-105 mm) and shutter speeds of at least one second will provide super fireworks shots. SLR’s work best, but upscale point & shoot cameras will get the job done. From the knobs, an SLR, a sturdy tripod, and a long zoom (80-200 mm or 75-300 mm) or better yet a telephoto lens (300--500 mm), medium speed color print or slide film (ISO 100-200), and shutter speeds of 1-4 seconds (pre-focus on the skyline between the Second Street bridge and the Kennedy Bridge, with a nice chunk of the river in the foreground) will produce professional quality fireworks images.
My friend (who sells new and used digital and analog photographic equipment) and I wanted to try out the Nikon 18-35/f3.5-f4.5D IF ED AF Nikkor Zoom on the new Nikon N75 SLR. Like many Louisville residents I usually try to avoid most of the Derby Festival events because the crowds are huge and the traffic is mind-boggling, but I wasn’t going to miss a chance to check out a brand new Nikon SLR and an ultra-wide Nikkor zoom I hadn’t used before. We spent much of the day wandering around shooting candids/street shots of the crowd at the Great Lawn. The new N75 was super (that review will appear as soon as epinions adds the N75 to the database).
By the time it started to get dark we had gone through two 36 exposure rolls of Fujichrome Provia 100 slide film. My friend has access to the roof of a four story building near the riverfront so we were able to set up the N75 and Nikon 18-35/f3.5-f4.5D IF ED AF Nikkor Zoom on a favorite old Leitz Tilt-All tripod. We had a pretty good view of the northern sky near the Second Street Bridge. By setting the zoom at about 28mm we could frame the bridge, a wide slice of the river just west of the bridge, and a nice portion of the sky above. When the fireworks started about 9:00 pm it was easy to get good shots because the more than 50,000 individual shells kept the sky lit up constantly. The fireworks are set off from two barges anchored in the middle of the Ohio River. We managed to get several shots of really spectacular bursts. The colors were spectacular with good reflections from the water between the bridges. The sky was clear with no clouds and there was just enough of a breeze to blow away the smoke that sometimes shrouds the riverfront area (50,000 pyrotechnic shells create lots of smoke).
A Few Concerns
I was very impressed with the 18-35/f3.5-45D IF-ED AF Nikkor Zoom, however like everything in photography compromise is the name of the game. In order to hold down costs, Nikon built this lens around a polycarbonate lens barrel so if you are looking for that “old time” built like a tank Nikkor feel, you’ll be disappointed.
At wider apertures (f3.5-f4.0) the corners are noticeably soft. If you plan to use this lens primarily for landscapes that corner softness is of no real consequence. We shot a number of “street” style shots in the huge crowds at the Great Lawn and the only way we were able to see any corner softness was with a 6X Schneider loupe. Wide open, some light falloff is visible, but it is gone by f/8. I was surprised that flare didn’t seem to be much of a problem (usually ultra-wide zooms with huge curved front elements are extremely susceptible to flare, even with a lens hood in place). We shot dozens of exposures in a large open area on a bright sunny day and we only saw minor flare when a bright direct light source hit the front element.
At 18mm, the 18-35/f3.5-45D IF-ED AF Nikkor Zoom exhibits minor barrel distortion but some distortion at the wide end of the zoom range is pretty much a fact of life with all ultra wide zooms. If you plan to shoot architecture you won’t be buying an ultra-wide zoom anyway, and for pretty much anything other than architecture, you'll never notice the distortion. Contrast is good, although not as good as the Nikkor AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8D ED-IF, but noticeably better than my old Sigma 18-35mm. Overall, I was quite pleased with the 18-35/f3.5-45D IF-ED AF Nikkor Zoom, especially considering it’s reasonable price. Optical performance is actually surprisingly good. If you use filters (even a protective filter) this lens is likely to vignette (dark corners) at 18mm and maximum aperture. Buy a thin-mount skylight (these are very expensive) and shoot at f4.0 and you should be OK.
Image Quality
For this test we used a Nikon F4S (loaded with Fujichrome Provia ISO 100 slide film) and a Nikkor AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8D ED-IF zoom for comparison purposes. We got the E6 slides back the following day and viewed them on a color corrected light table with a 6X Schneider loupe. The street shots were very good, with a wonderful “natural” look, good contrast, and great color. The fireworks shots were absolutely spectacular with multiple bursts, excellent color, and great reflections. At f3.5 the Nikon 18-35/f3.5-f4.5D IF ED AF Nikkor Zoom clearly doesn’t measure up to the Nikkor AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8D ED-IF zoom, but at f4.0 there is noticeably less difference.
For those shooting with dSLR’s (since you’ll only be using the central portion of the lens due to the 1.5X magnification factor) like the Fuji Finepix S2 Pro, Nikon D1X, and the Nikon D100 there is no appreciable difference in performance between the cheaper Nikon 18-35/f3.5-f4.5D IF ED AF Nikkor Zoom and the considerably more expensive Nikkor AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8D ED-IF. Our Provia slides showed consistently excellent color, impressive contrast, and tack sharp resolution across the frame from f5.6 to f11.0. Diffraction and chromatic aberration are well controlled and comparable to lenses costing much more.
Conclusion
Lenses, like cameras and all photographic equipment are only tools and it is important to remember that the creativity of the eye behind the camera is, in the end, much more important than the device in front of that eye. Henri Cartier-Bresson, Ernst Haas, Pete Turner, and hundreds of world famous photographers used equipment that would be considered primitive by today’s standards. If you compare the slide rule computed lens formulas, primitively ground and polished elements, and single coating (or no anti reflective coatings) of those lenses from the thirties, forties, fifties, and sixties with the computer lens formulas, state of the art lens grinding and polishing, aspherical and ED elements, and advanced anti-reflection multi coating of today’s lenses it is a chrome plated wonder that anyone was ever able to shoot a keeper before 1980.
Don’t fall into the salesman’s trap that more expensive equipment is automatically better. Just as the worst team in the NCAA Basketball tournament can beat the best team on any given night, cheaper lenses can and do equal and occasionally even outperform their more expensive rivals. Don’t rely exclusively on numbers and resolution when researching lenses. Handling, color accuracy, the subjective “look”, contrast, distortion, and many intangibles (almost every lens has a “sweet” aperture where performance is maximized) are just as important as maximum apertures and resolution. My friend and I have both used the Nikon AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8D ED-IF, and while slides from this legendary ultra-wide zoom are better than slides from the Nikon 18-35/f3.5-f4.5D IF ED AF Nikkor Zoom, they are not exponentially or even substantially better. At f5.6 you’ll need a good quality 6X loupe to spot the differences and from f8.0 to f11.0 there is no visible difference in image quality between the $1500 Nikkor AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8D ED-IF and the $500 Nikon 18-35/f3.5-f4.5D IF ED AF Nikkor Zoom.
Links
Here are reviews for three wide angle zooms you may want to consider
ED glass element reduces chromatic aberrations providing superior optical performance - even at maximum aperture Focus distance of 1 foot to infinity ...More at Amazon
ED glass element reduces chromatic aberrations providing superior optical performance - even at maximum aperture Focus distance of 1 foot to infinity ...More at Amazon Marketplace
ED glass element reduces chromatic aberrations providing superior optical performance - even at maximum apertureFocus distance of 1 foot to infinity i...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.