Nikon AF G series lenses

I would like to get your opinion on Nikor 28-80mm f/3.3-5.6G AF lens

and Nikor 70-300mm f/4-5.6G AF lens

I'm using Nikon D100 and thinking about buying these two

 

Thanks -

 

 

Mickey

I have no personal experience with the particular lenses that you're talking about but they're the lowest low-end of the lenses currently manufactured by Nikon. They may be "ok", but certainly given the expensive body that you have, I'd recommend something like the 28-105/3.5-4.5 and the 70-300 ED, at the very least. Also consider a 2nd hand 80-200/2.8 w/ tripod collar, it can be had used for a reasonable price and will be of higher quality than any of the 70-300 zooms.

I think that Bjorn Roslett has done some unbiased and according to my

experiences with some of the lenses he has has tested, accurate

assessments. Much better and more reliable information than what I have

seen anywhere else on the wwww. Here is a link to his site: <A HREF = http://

www.naturfotograf.com/index2.html> http://www.naturfotograf.com/

index2.html</A> . My experience overthe past year of photographing wt hboth

film and high end digital cameras (D1x, D100, Fuji S2pro) is that to get the full

potential capabilitiy out of a high end digital camera you need to use high end

modern lenses which are designed with digital imaging in mind. Digital

capture shows up the weaknesses of a lens in a way that film does not.

Indeed this "tolerence" may actually be a strength of film based photography.

<a href="http://www.naturfotograf.com/lens_surv.html"

target="new">http://www.naturfotograf.com/lens_surv.html</a></p>

 

<p><a href="http://www.naturfotograf.com/" target="new">Bjørn Rørslett's

first page</a>

While I generally use a F-100 with a 28-70 AFS 2.8, I got my spouse the N-65 with a 28-80 G lens. I was really surprised how sharp the photos were especially since the lens only costs about $80. The main potential downside is that the lens mount is plastic. I don't know how long it will last in medium duty use. You do get a lot of sharpness for a low price. However, if I was limited to only one zoom lens, I would go with the 24-120 due to its extended focal range. It also feels a lot more substantial.

If you've been using the D100 you probably know this already, but just in case: shooting with the 28-80 on this camera is kind of like having a 45-120 zoom on a 35mm camera, not a range that many people need but it has its uses.

 

Similarly, the 70-300 is comparable, to a 100-400, which is quite a nice range for some things.

 

By the way, if you could indicate what you are hoping to accomplish, I think people would be able to give you some better advice.

I have the 28-80G lens that came with my camera and the pictures came out sharp. I also have the 70-300ED lense and the pictures came out a lot sharper than the G lens. The 70-300ED lense is about $300 and the 28-80G lens is less than $100. Try renting both lens and compare the prints. And I just recently bought the 50D 1.8 lens and still finishing a roll of film in it.

I suspect the image quality of the two G-series zooms will be pretty darned good considering their combined price (gray market) of a whopping $200 or so.

 

Spending $2,000 on a camera body and 10 percent of that amount on the glass certainly runs counter to the conventional wisdom. You'll be putting up with Nikon's flimsiest build quality. People said the same thing about the Series E manual focus lenses 20 years ago... and most of those lenses have withstood the test of time and now are generally considered excellent values. So perhaps these G series lenses will become "bargain classics" eventually, too.

 

I wonder if you want to spend so much of your time at f/5.6 where you'll be using flash a lot, or high ISO settings, or both. Nikon's AF-S zooms with fixed f/2.8 apertures would solve that problem but for something like 15 times the price of the entry-level G-zooms. You could at least consider adding the lovely 50mm f/1.8 AF-D to your kit, for another $100 or so, to give you more options in available light shooting.

 

Have fun,