Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-120mm 1:4 G ED VR N Lens (f/4)

Overall Rating:

This lens is 14 years old when the Nikon D700 — a 12MP camera — was modern. The lens is made in Thailand. Its debut price was $1100 (USD). It has a gold ring on it possibly signaling that it is a pro caliber lens. (There are high expectations for this lens.) It does have nine aperture blades and perhaps this is also why it has a gold ring. What stands out with this lens is that it is a constant aperture zoom. Though slow, it does have Nikon's Vibration Reduction.

This lens is a varifocal zoom in that it changes focus as it is zoomed. It features two ED elements with one being a large element in the front group, and three aspherical elements. It is a constant aperture design but one cannot help but wonder if it could have been designed as a 24-120mm f/2.8-4. By making this a constant aperture lens, wider angles (like f=24mm) have better corners because the diaphragm closes a little thereby not using the extreme edges of the lens elements.

This lens replaced the very popular 21 year old AF-S 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6 ED VR IF which replaced the AF 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6 D IF of 1996.

Performance

There is moderate color fringing and some significant vignetting to be found. Concerning vignetting, the lens has some wide open 24mm-28mm and then again 50mm-120mm. Stopping down helps with this. Distortion is heavy with both barrel on the short end (1%) and pincushion on the long end (0.75%).

Around the 85mm mark there is some softening in the corners otherwise the lens performs well particularly on the short-end (24mm). The lens must be stopped down to f/5.6-8 to mitigate this softness at 85mm. This is a shame because of the useful range that would go well with the AF-S 70-200mm f/4.

The autofocus is decent and it is silent. Not a sports/action lens but good nonetheless. The VR takes a few seconds to spin up, so be patient.

Diffraction has begun by f/8.

Color fringing detail at 3-to-1:

Not suprisingly, there is much color fringing at f=24mm, but what is semi-surprising is that there is some at f=120mm. The sweet spot of this lens is in the middle, before f=85mm and after f=35mm.

Compactness Compared

Here is a comparison with its little brother the Nikon Nikkor AF-S 24-85mm 1:3.5-4.5 G ED VR.

This lens is often compared to the Nikon Nikkor AF-S 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 G ED VR.

Ghosting & Flaring

The flaring is somewhat controlled, and ghosting is well controlled.

Bokeh

The bokeh is fair. It's kind of busy at the short end. There is longitudinal chromatic aberration (LoCA) present.

Infrared

The infrared is poor with a heavy hotspot at smaller apertures.

Compatibility

Because this is a "G" lens, it is compatible with all Nikon DSLR's.

Construction

This lens is large for what it is. This is due to the constant f/4 aperture.

This is an all plastic lens, however, it is very sturdy feeling. The manual focusing feels good and there is no slop in either the focus or zoom collars. It does focus beyond infinity possibly accommodating the UV wavelength.

This lens has a focus scale but no depth of field scale because it's a zoom. The focus scale is useful as it is not too small and has more travel than a prime but it could have more travel still. For example, the greatest indicator on it is ten feet which is not very useful at f=120mm.

The 77mm filter threads do not rotate.

Specifications

Images

Related links:

• Nikon Nikkor Lens Reviews
• All Lens Reviews