Nikkor AF-S 28-70mm f/2.8 D IF-ED - Review / Test Report |
Lens Reviews -
Nikon / Nikkor (APS-C)
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Review by Klaus Schroiff, published July 2006
Lens kindly provided by Josef Merk!
Introduction
The Nikkor AF-S 28-70mm f/2.8 D IF-ED is a gold ring lens
indicating a professional grade Nikon lens for F-mount DSLRs.
Released back in 1999 it is a full frame lens but in the scope
of this review we'll have a look how it performs on a Nikon D200
where its field-of-view is equivalent to 42-105mm.
So on APS-C DSLRs the Nikkor looses quite a bit of its appeal due to the
lack of a true wide-angle setting.
The build quality of the lens is truly superb but then you shouldn't
expect no less regarding the rather hefty price tag of around
around 1700€/US$. The lens body is made of metal and control rings
operate very smooth.
As you may notice in the product shots above the lens (its inner tube)
extends slightly when zooming towards the wide end of the zoom
range - a quite rare but not unprecedented behavior.
Thanks to an IF (internal focusing) design the front element does
not rotate so using a polarizer is no problem (unless you attach the
extremely deep lens hood).
Like most modern Nikkors it features a silent-wave (ultrasonic)
AF motor providing very fast and near-silent AF operations.
Specifications |
Equiv. focal length | 42-105 mm (full format equivalent) |
Equiv. aperture | f/4.2 (full format equivalent, in terms of depth-of-field) |
Optical construction | 15 elements in 11 groups inc. 2 ED elements and 1 molded glass aspherical element |
Number of aperture blades | 9 (rounded) |
min. focus distance | 0.5 m @ 70 mm (max. magnification ratio 1:5.6) |
Dimensions | 89 x 122 mm |
Weight | 935 g |
Filter size | 77 mm (non-rotating) |
Hood | Nikon HB-19 (supplied), petal-shaped |
Other features | Lens provides distance (D) information to the camera. |
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