Nikon AF-S 28-70mm f/2.8D

Nikon AF-S 28-70mm

I shot with this lens for a few years, and for the time I had it, the lens was by far my most used lens. When I bought this lens, I was shooting with a F100 mostly and on a full frame camera it gave a very useful range. When I first moved to digital, I still had the lens and it remained one of my favorites, especially for portraits at a reception, but it lost a lot of its appeal of course as it wasn’t even close to offering a wide angel on DX camera’s and I really missed the flexibility.

You know you’ve bought a professional lens as soon as you pick this beast of a lens up. To say that it is substantial would be an understatement. It is very well put together and I can’t imagine anybody having any complaints about its build quality.*

As you’d expect from an AF-S lens, the auto-focus was very quick on my F100 and still quite quick on my D100, although I’d say subjectively, it felt a little slower somehow but either way, I never had any complaints. It was also very quiet of course, which is a real benefit when in the middle of the ceremony I can tell you.

As for its optical performance, here too it excelled. It was sharp straight from f/2.8 and managed to get even better by f/4. I don’t think anybody would have any complaints concerning sharpness, especially in the middle of the image. This of course is helped on cropped camera’s by the camera only using its so called sweet spot, so that’s one benefit to using a full frame lens on a crop sensor camera.

In fact, I’ll just cut to the chase. Vignetting - not a problem. CA - a very good performer. Distortion - nothing to worry about, even more so if used on a cropped sensor camera. In fact, its just fantastic all the way round. The one and only issue could be flare, but come on, that’s hardly surprising given the huge front element and design. The way I used the lens, most often indoors, flare was not something that I had to deal with too often. I could make it flare obviously, but that’s true of any lens. Its not that bad either to be honest, so all in all its one of the nicest optical performers all round in a zoom lens and whilst expensive, you know you’re getting your money’s worth.

I loved having this lens, the one and only reason I sold it is because Nikon released the 17-55mm which fit my needs much better from a focal length point of view. If you don’t care about wide angle and can live with it starting in the normal range, this would still be a great lens to have even if you shoot with a DX sensor camera and are primarily shooting portraits or you like the longer focal lengths. Be warned though, on a D40 or similar camera, it will be front heavy as it is a substantial lens but you can’t hold that against it. A wonderful lens by any measure and well worth buying. Highly recommended and one I may just buy again in the not too distant future.

* if thinking of buying used, you may want to make sure the AF is in tip top condition as I’ve seen reports of it giving out early. Not something I ever had a problem with in 2+ years, but thought I should mention it.