NIKON AF NIKKOR 28-80mm 1:3.3-5.6 G Lens Advice ?

John Young

John Young

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I have heard and read that the NIKON AF NIKKOR 28-80mm 1:3.3-5.6 G is a good lens but how does it work on the D600


Daft question probably but would be all manual like my old 35mm SLR off years ago ?
 
No it's an AF lens that was made until relatively recently. It's not a bad lens, quite sharp, but was ultimately a basic kit lens on lower end Nikon film and digital bodies, nine came with my D70 in 2005. It is very light but that would be the only reason I can think of to use it on a £1500 camera body!
 
I don't know about what its like on a D600 but I have one which I bought for my D700.

It's sharp and fast to focus. But wide end it has heavy distortion and vignetting.

For the money I paid for it (£40) it's great for a FX lens. But there are better choices out there. I'm using it as my disaster lens. ie. if my main zoom packs in.
 
Thank you both....

So what other 'old' lenses would you recommend. I am just looking on ebay and there are a few old timer lenses so wondered if they were worth a go as some go for little money
 
Strange I should see this post, I saw a 28-80 in the local Cash Generator for £39.99 this morning and thought it looked a good price.
 
One of my most used lenses on my D700 is the nikkor 28-105 from the mid-late 90's-cheapish, decent quality, quite light.
If you want to use something a lot older then pretty much any Nikkor ever made should work. Depends on whether you want auto or manual focus, budget, focal length,etc
 
Thanks... well I would prefer to have the lens auto focus and be able to meter through the camera as normal. Its funny I used to be totally manual on my old film cameras but its hard going back to that now.

I actually really liked my D90 kit lens (18-105) but its not full frame so I am selling that and that is why I am thinking of replacing it with something else. If I can get a couple of older, cheaper but good lenses then great....

So what do I need to look for in old lenses to make sure they can auto focus and meter on my camera (D600) ?

madmardle said:
Strange I should see this post, I saw a 28-80 in the local Cash Generator for £39.99 this morning and thought it looked a good price.
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Well I read somewhere that the F3.3 is the one to look for rather than the more common F3.5
 
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Yep, mine is the f3.3 one and I got it after reading about it on Ken Rockwell's site and found one on eBay for £40. It was more the curiousity than anything. A sharp FX lens for £40....... intriguing! lol

It autofocuses and meters perfectly on my D700. Can't see any reason why it wouldn't on the D600.

In fact I just dusted it off and did a couple of quick shots to compare it to the 24-85 VR lens which is the 'kit' lens for the D600. In terms of image quality after 50mm I really cannot see any difference. Maybe if I were pixel peeping. The 28-80 leaves the 24-85 VR standing in terms of AF speed. It's seriously fast.

As Ken Rockwell correctly says "There is a boatload of barrel distortion at 28mm". I'd definitely agree with that. And as I mentioned earlier. Heavy vignetting. But nothing which cannot be PP'ed out in Photoshop/Lightroom and hey....it's £40!

Not sure what you are looking to use this lens for but I can't imagine you'd get a better lens for the same money.
 
gadgeteer said:
Yep, mine is the f3.3 one and I got it after reading about it on Ken Rockwell's site and found one on eBay for £40. It was more the curiousity than anything. A sharp FX lens for £40....... intriguing! lol

It autofocuses and meters perfectly on my D700. Can't see any reason why it wouldn't on the D600.

In fact I just dusted it off and did a couple of quick shots to compare it to the 24-85 VR lens which is the 'kit' lens for the D600. In terms of image quality after 50mm I really cannot see any difference. Maybe if I were pixel peeping. The 28-80 leaves the 24-85 VR standing in terms of AF speed. It's seriously fast.

As Ken Rockwell correctly says "There is a boatload of barrel distortion at 28mm". I'd definitely agree with that. And as I mentioned earlier. Heavy vignetting. But nothing which cannot be PP'ed out in Photoshop/Lightroom and hey....it's £40!

Not sure what you are looking to use this lens for but I can't imagine you'd get a better lens for the same money.
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Now that is some good clear advice... thank you. :clap:

I was going to use it for all-round work maybe even a little bit of wedding work or a lot of wedding work if it worked well :thumbs:
 
I have just purchased the 28-105 D of eBay, there were only 3-4 for sale this week and 2 have been bought on buy it now.
Should be delivered tomorrow; I'm hoping it'll be a good general walkabout to compliment my primes, looking forward to using the Macro feature also!
 
hobodan said:
I have just purchased the 28-105 D of eBay, there were only 3-4 for sale this week and 2 have been bought on buy it now.
Should be delivered tomorrow; I'm hoping it'll be a good general walkabout to compliment my primes, looking forward to using the Macro feature also!
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Let us know what its like..... some sample photos would be good.

Can I be cheeky and ask how much you paid
 
TheCrewDesigns said:
Let us know what its like..... some sample photos would be good.

Can I be cheeky and ask how much you paid
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I probably paid slightly higher than the going rate, however it was boxed and advertised as near mint with lots of pics from a reputable seller; I paid £135
 
I've got this lens, it's light and sharp , was good on my D7000, but on the D700 it just doesn't cut it.

The 24-85 AF-s is ok, pretty sharp and not too expensive
 
TheCrewDesigns said:
Is that the 28-80mm 1:3.3-5.6 G ?
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Yes, same lens, I also bought it after reading about it by ken Rockwell!!

Check out my Flickr link, a few of the shots taken with my D7000 are with this lens, the tiger, the lion, the rhino, the swan, london tower bridge, the Budapest parliament building, the close up of the white cat's face. I loved it on my D7000 but it just isn't great on FX, vignetting, distortion and no manual focus ring :(

If u want a good lens get a 2nd hand tamron 28-75 f/2.8, I got a mint one for £180 from eBay and its amazing, fast, sharp and just what you want on an FX body
 
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TheCrewDesigns said:
Right so the 28-80mm is naff on the D700 ? Is that because its full frame ? or some other reason

The review I read said it was very good and very sharp... suppose reviews can be wrong of course
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Vignetting, no manual focus ring, distortion.

See my above post,I edited it, I really liked this lens on DX but it just wasn't good on FX. It only cost £50 from eBay so cheap enough for u to buy and try
 
I've owned all the lenses mentioned in this thread and used them on my D700.

Order of preference would be:

Tamron 28-75 f/2.8
Nikon 28-105
Nikon 28-80

The 28-105 is great, super sharp and has a decent 2:1 macro features but for me the lack of modern optical coatings limited it's uses in some situations.

If I had a spanky new D600 I don't think I'd be sticking a £40 lens on it...
 
TheCrewDesigns said:
I found that review online that made me want one of these to start with

Review Here
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John,

can I ask a couple of questions?

(1) what lenses do you have for the D600?
(2) what do you want to achieve with this new lens?

I pulled the lens in question out of the loft and put it on the D700 this morning to do some test shots to make sure I wasnt going mad.

I'm still not impressed by it. Its main plus points are its really cheap, and its really small and light.

It was good on my D7000 but that doesnt distort as much being DX and more focused on the centre part of the lens. Plus I was just after a cheap little midrange zoom and it really delivered way above what I was expecting for a little £50 lens!

You can get sharpish images with it, but I just find my tamron blows it away for sharpness, even at wider apertures, plus it has less distortion and can manually focus and focus at closer range.

I'd also rate my 24-85 AF-S above it.

I think you will be disappointed with this lens, especially on your nice new D600.

Like I said, why spend £40-50 on it when for under £200 you can get the tamron 2nd hand, and its fast and stopped down to f4 will be really sharp and gives you a similar range.

The only two lenses I use on the D700 at the moment are my 50mm 1.4g and the Tamron 28-75 2.8.

FX deserves better lenses, and the 28-80 3.3-5.6G just isnt good enough, and FX accentuates its negative qualities.:thumbsdown:

HTH!;)
 
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At the moment I have

Sigma 24-60mm f/ 2.8 EX DG
Nikon 50mm Prime
Nikon 80-200mm F2.8

Plus I have a 18-105mm VR Kit lens that I used to use on the D90

Suppose I just wanted a lens to fill the gap of the D90 kit lens which I am selling with another lens just in case. Plus the idea of an old cheap lens being really good intrigued me when I red that Ken Rockewell review

Truth is maybe I don't need another lens just yet.....unless I get a larger reach like the Tamron 70-300 on sale HERE
 
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Yeah, you really don't need that lens with what you got, would just disappoint and be a waste of money.

The nikon 24-70 2.8 is great, had a play with one on a D600 and really liked the combo and would serve you well with your work, but if your happy with the sigma then I wouldn't bother as it aint cheap.

What about an 85mm prime or a macro lens, or a wide angle lens?

The tamron is a cheap, light f2.8 lens, 28-75mm range, if u wanted something cheap that performs well and you don't mind taking a knock or two. Not offering much range difference tho.

Uncle Ken likes this 28-200 lens...

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/28200g.htm
 
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Yeah I do fancy the 85mm prime but that will be out of my budget. I reckon I will have around £100 to spend at the moment or my wife will be having something to say... only right to :bonk:
 
TheCrewDesigns said:
Yeah I do fancy the 85mm prime but that will be out of my budget. I reckon I will have around £100 to spend at the moment or my wife will be having something to say... only right to :bonk:
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Honestly, given the lenses you have you don't need ANY more lenses.

The Tamron lens you mention is crap and what's the point of it when you have a brilliant 80-200 which will given you better results than the cheap Tamron.

If you have a spare £100 burning a hole in your pocket buy your wife a present ;)
 
Nawty said:
Honestly, given the lenses you have you don't need ANY more lenses.

The Tamron lens you mention is crap and what's the point of it when you have a brilliant 80-200 which will given you better results than the cheap Tamron.

If you have a spare £100 burning a hole in your pocket buy your wife a present ;)
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*LOL* You are probably right... suppose its just because I got rid of the Nikon 18-105 that I always had as a backup it got me worried
 
OK just an update for anyone who is interested...

I saw a cheap copy of the Nikon 28-80 costing me £25 inc P&P so thought it was worth ago. Had a bit play today inside but its VERY dark and dingy here today so I had to use a flash on the magazine and the room shot is high ISO but it still might give you an idea of sharpness etc.

So far it seems very good especially for the price.

These photos are jpg straight from camera and apart from resizing for forum no other work done

F8 - 1/80 - ISO 200 and using flash (60mm)
28-80_sample1.jpg


100% Crop
28-80_sample1%28close%29.jpg


F3.3 - 1/30 - ISO 1100 No flash (28mm)
28-80_sample2.jpg


100% Crop
28-80_sample2%28close%29.jpg



So not brilliant but not bad either especially for £25 :thumbs:
 
I have seen most go for around £40 I was just lucky. The actual cost was £20 the £5 extra was postage and its in lovely condition

When it was first listed I asked if he would do buy it now and I would have offered around £40 but he refused so I got it for £25 instead
 
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