Nikon AF-S 17-55mm f/2.8G DX

Nikon AF-S 17-55mm

The one lens that any wedding photographer lives and dies by is the normal zoom. In my F5 & F100 days, that was the excellent 28-70mm f/2.8 but with the move to digital it lost its place in my bag as the range wasn’t nearly as attractive as it once was. Nikon of course knew this as with their DX sensors, that great normal f/2.8 professional zoom became a much less useful 42-105mm which puts it in prime portrait territory but not so great as an all round bread and butter lens. Nikon introduced the 17-55mm f/2.8 to cover us again in the sometimes unexciting but very necessary normal range of 26-83mm* in old money.

Despite it being the normal range, this is not a lens everybody needs to go out and buy. Many professional photographers get buy without having a normal range zoom, just not wedding photographers. Its also a very expensive lens, and if you don’t have a substantial body to put it on, it will feel a bit lopsided due to its weight. What you get in return is a lens that is bitingly sharp straight from f/2.8 onwards. This is a professional lens for the new sensor in every sense of the word. It is simply excellent, from the handling of the smooth zoom and focus rings, to its professional level build to its silent and exceptionally fast auto-focus. Quite simply, if you want and/or need this zoom range and you shoot Nikon, there is no better lens than this.

As per usual, I’ll add a few comments at the end about some not so great aspects as no lens is perfect of course. I find its better at the longer focal lengths than it is at its wider focal lengths. Its very, very good at f/2.8 but it does get better as you move up to f/5.6. It has more vignetting than I’d prefer at f/2.8 but its not excessive. The final criticism would be that it does have a little too much distortion at 17mm, but again for this type of zoom its not unusual to say the least - but its not significantly better in this regard either than lenses that are much less expensive.

In the end, its a lens that any professional photographer that shoots weddings needs to have in their kit when shooting with Nikon or Fuji digital bodies. It is simply the best of the best, but good god do you pay for the privilege. Still, its a lens I would replace tomorrow if it was gone today as its that important and after several years and many imitators, its still the best.

*range is actually 25.5mm to 82.5mm