Nikon AF-P DX 10-20mm f/4.5-5.6g VR

£264/$307 A fun-sized DX zoom with a big heart

When the going gets tough and you’re clambering around, in pursuit of landscape photo op, the last thing you need is a bag of heavy camera kit. This compact ultra-wide zooms weighs just 230g, employing a plastic mounting plate, but it still packs in useful features. Unlike Nikon’s older and heavier AF-S DX 10-24mm, it adds 3.5-stop VR that can save a lot more weight, avoiding the need to lug a tripod around.

Autofocus is based on a stepping motor that gives quick performance for stills and smooth, near-silent transitions while shooting movies. Manual override and fully manual focusing are available via an electronically coupled focus ring. Also typical of ‘AF-P’ autofocus lenses, there’s no focus distance scale.

Performance

Although undercutting the price of the Tamron and Tokina DX format lenses on test by quite a margin, the little Nikon punches above its weight in terms of performance. Sharpness is great and aberrations like colour fringing and distortion are minimal.

N-photo verdict

This budget-friendly DX format zoom packs good performance and VR into a small and lightweight package.

Sharpness

Levels of centre-sharpness are very good but edgeand corner-sharpness could be better.

Fringing

Fringing at the corners of the frame isn’t quite as low as from the other F-mount DX format contenders.

Distortion

Short-zoom barrel distortion is a little worse than from the Tamron and Tokina lenses in this Big Test group.