One for All...
During the film era, some considered SLRs to be premium products, and amateurs rarely ever dared to touch these sophisticated looking gadgets with confusing dials and rings. Then came digital, which made SLRs affordable to the amateurs. But this also gave rise to another segment, the prosumers, which quickly began eating into the amateur segment of D-SLR space with superzoom lenses covering all focal lengths a photographer needed, though with decreased image quality. Now D-SLR manufacturers are on overdrive to wean the amateur photographers away from prosumer cameras. The AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR seems like an effort in this direction.
Design and Build Quality
The NIKKOR 18-300mm f/3.5-5.6 is made of engineering plastic on the exterior. The lens has a three-segment construction: while two of them are polycarbonate, the one at the centre is metal. We noticed slight movement on the inner segment of the barrel, as is the case with most long amateur lenses with coaxial segments. Though the slack is negligible, this might increase with use. The lens has a metal mount, while the filter thread is polycarbonate. It features four switches — zoom lock that locks the focal length at 18mm, VR On/Off, VR mode–Normal/Active, and Focus mode– M/A or M. The zoom ring is rubberised, while the focus ring is plastic.
Key Features
The 18-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR provides a 35mm-equivalent focal length of 27-450mm on a DX body. With this range, the lens can cover a wide range of subjects from landscapes to wildlife. Though the product has been designated simply as VR ( Vibration Reduction), it features an advanced VR II system, claimed to offer up to four stops advantage over the recommended shutter speed for a non-VR lens. The lens has a maximum aperture of f/3.5 at the wide-angle end and f/5.6 at the telephoto end. It has a Silent Wave Motor, which facilitates AF with bodies without internal focussing motors such as D3000 and D3100. It features a 9-blade circular aperture for smooth bokeh. The minimum aperture varies from f/22 at the wide-angle end to f/32 at the telephoto end. It has an angle of view of 76º at the wide-angle end and 5º 20’ at the telephoto end. The lens is constructed with 19 elements in 14 groups including 3 aspherical and 3 ED ( Extra-low Dispersion) elements. The aspherical elements help to reduce spherical aberration, which causes loss of sharpness towards the edges, and distortion caused due to the spherical shape of elements. The ED elements provide achromatic properties and hence reduce secondary spectrum to a considerable level. The end result is a lens with better sharpness
and control of chromatic aberration. The 18-300mm lens features internal focussing and hence the front element of the lens does not rotate nor does the barrel protrude while focussing. It has a minimum focussing distance of approx. 40cm (from focal plane) at the wide-angle end and 45cm at the telephoto end. The lens has a maximum reproduction ratio of 1/3.2x. The lens features M and M/A modes. While the M mode is full-time manual, the M/A mode offers full-time AF with manual override. This is useful when you need to fine-tune focus quickly. The zoom lock allows you to lock the focal length at 18mm so that the barrel does not slide during transportation. The NIKKOR 18-300mm f/3.5-5.6G features a 77mm filter thread and has dimensions of approx. 83mm (dia) x 120mm. It weighs approx. 830g.
Ergonomics
We mounted the lens on a Nikon D80 and the combination was comfortable to use. The zoom and focus rings have optimum damping and are very easy to use. The zoom ring rotates a little more than 180 degrees from the nearest to the farthest focussing point, which aids in better manual fine-tuning of focus after autofocus, but if you need to manually focus fast, it could be slightly inconvenient. But we would not consider this a major issue since complete manual focus is rarely required.
Performance
The Nikon 18-300mm did not disappoint us. AF was smooth, fast, precise, and barely audible. Prominent darkening was observed at the corners at the wide-angle end with the lens wide open. Though it lessened with narrow apertures, the darkening prevailed throughout the aperture range. Slight flare was observed with chromatic aberration in strong against-the-light shots, when the lens was pushed to its limits. The lens reproduced reasonably sharp images edge-to-edge and the sweet spot was found to be f/8. But the sharpness decreased on approaching 300mm, as is the case with most superzoom lenses. We observed prominent barrel distortion at 18mm and pincushion from 28mm up to the telephoto end. The coatings did not produce any discernible colour cast.
Value for Money
The NIKKOR 18-300mm f/3.5-5.6G lens retails at an MRP of Rs.72,950. We feel this is on the higher side for a slow, variable aperture lens.