Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR (overview for you).

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Liam.
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Firstly this is not a professional review I am not qualified to give one, this is purely an insight into this lens for anyone interested in it.

I brought this to use on my D700 as a walk about lens, the 18-200 was a great lens on my D300s and as a few reviews had been favourable I gave it a go.

This is what comes in the lovely Gold box.
77mm Snap-on Front Lens Cap LC-77, Rear Lens Cap LF-1, Bayonet Hood HB-50, Flexible Lens Pouch CL-1120

This is how it looks on the camera at 28mm

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This is how it looks extended at 300mm

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The feel of the lens is solid but has a plastic type body, the zoom is smooth and easy to turn, having a 77mm filter thread is useful for sharing a polarising filter with other lenses of similar size.

The lens has a zoom lock in the 28mm position to prevent the zoom from creeping while being carried, as my lens is new the zoom has not crept to date but I guess a handy feature none the less.
The lens weighs 800g which is 100g lighter than the 24-70 so is a very comfortable walk about weight.

The lens has the Nikon VRII system which is obviously a great help in low light situations it has 2 modes, normal and active, I find the VR system fairly quiet and unobtrusive.

The lens has Silent Wave Autofocus Motor which I found to be excellent even with the VR turned on but even better with it switched off.

To give you an idea of what a 28-300 zoom looks like on an FX body here are a few examples jpeg straight from camera horrible dull day just snaps to show zoom range.

28mm
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300mm
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For a more in-depth review please click here
http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/28-300mm.htm
 
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I'm extremely pleased with this lens so far as it's been exactly what I need for the D700, over the summer I've been happy with the GH1/14-140mm but into autumn and winter I prefer the D700 for its high ISO and AF. However my other lenses have just been far too bulky for out walking whereas the 28-300mm is ideal, ok the image quality isn't quite as good but that's not much of an issue as I just wouldn't be taking the likes of the 70-200mm when out hill walking or just generally out and about.

The lens is smaller than expected although a bit heavier, the latter does give it a convincing solid feel though. While the AF motors make some strange noises while focussing (which is apparently normal) they seem to work well as I've been very impressed with the AF performance as it seems to be able to keep up with reasonably fast objects in C-AF. My only issue at the moment is that at long distances and 300mm I seem to be getting very soft images which I need to look at further to see if it's a fault of the lens or normal, at closer distances 300mm looks fine.

John
 
I have one of these coming next week. Got a feeling it will be on my D700 95% of the time.

The lighting for the shots was horribly flat. Looks like the VR did a good job - 1/50th at 300mm focal length.
 
Hi Scott,
I hope if the sun stays out this afternoon to take the lens out to have a proper play as for now it has only been out in dull conditions.
From just taking pics around the home i have to say this is far sharper than the 18-200.
Af speed is excellent with the VR turned off even from 28 to 300mm without a limiter, with the VR turned on it obviously does slow down slightly but nothing that has made me feel it was lacking in speed.
I have not had enough time to play with it yet but think it will certainly be a keeper just for the zoom range and compact size, the IQ is better than the 18-200 in my opinion but not sure if that is the lens or the FX body.
I will post some more pics on here when i have had the chance to take some, here is one of the dog for now.

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Regards
Liam
 
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I am not a big fan of Ken Rockwell, but the images on his website from the 28 - 300 are impressive.
 
I've got this lens and I'm impressed with it so far. It focuses fast and produces soom nice clean shots.
I let my 15yr old son use it on the D300.
DSC_lion.jpg


Shot through link fencing..


Kev.
 
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