I spent a weekend with this lens. I shot a roll with it through my F100 on Saturday and Sunday afternoon on a D610.

I knew this would be a fun lens despite its size and weight. I wasn’t wrong. I also thought I would be heavily comparing it to my Nikkor AF-S 28-70mm f2.8 D lens, but it’s definitely a different lens. While there is some usage crossover, they are different lenses.

I was thinking about buying this one, but I decided against it, I have too many lenses as it is.

What I liked

The focal range is extremely useful. 24mm on the wide end and 120mm on the long end. It’s great. This is probably the reason anyone would really buy this lens. The image quality is not Nikon’s best, but it’s well above average. I would argue that what ever shortcomings optically this lens has, is overlooked by this lenses usefulness.

The handling is very good despite its weight of 1.5 lbs. (710 g). The autofocus is fast and accurate on both of my cameras.

What I didn’t like

It’s a G lens. It doesn’t have an aperture ring. It can’t be used on my FM2.

That’s it. That’s the only thing I don’t like.

It’s pretty heavy and the length changes as you zoom. The lenses VR good be a little better.

Other thoughts

This would be a great lens for photojournalists and event photographers. With a flash, this thing could be handy indoors. I could also see using this for travel photography.

Shot with a Nikon F100 and D610