Do AFS lenses get noisier with their bulk?

<p>I'm curious. My 18-200 is the only AFS lens I have. It's quite quiet. I can hear it's slight wooshing/clicking as it's focusing when I have the camera to my eye.</p>

<p>I just tried out my cousin's 35 1.8 last week. I was amazed how deathly silent it was! I literally had to put the lens right next to my ear and make it focus near-far to hear anything. When i looked through the viewfinder the first few times I thought it was broken because I couldn't hear it focusing.</p>

<p>Are other afs lenses like the 50 1.4 60 and 105 micro, 70-200 etc. so silent? I wonder if it is a function of the size/weight. The 35 1.8 DX has very little glass inside it afterall.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>I believe what you may be hearing with your lens is the VR, not necessarily the autofocus.</p>

<p>to test if its the VR, shut it off and see if it gets quieter. </p>

<p>Oh no the VR has it's own high pitched whiney noise, which is probably just a hair louder than the focusing sound from the 18-200.</p>

<p>I have an f/4 300mm and when it's scrambling to find focus it's pretty noisy. When I use my 1.4 Af-S teledapter it's even more pronounced. By noisy, I mean audible... Hasn't chased away any bugs or birds though. When I shut off the focus beeps I'm usually good to go. I have the 17-55 f/2.8 and it's really quiet as is my 105 Micro VR. I am using all on a D300 BTW. ps... I'm just sending my 18-200 to Nikon for servicing. The rubber gasket on the mount surface is raising up for about 1/2". Anyone else have this issue???</p>

<p>I have the 17-55mm f2.8 and find it pretty quite - sometimes its so fast an so quiet that I do not think it has focussed at all. I have certainly not noticed any increase in noise with lens size</p>

<p>I tried a friend's 24-70mm AF-S yesterday, it's focus 'noise' was barely perceptible, even focusing close to near infinity in a single sweep, my 70-200mm AF-S is nearly just as quiet on a long focus throw like that.</p>

<p>hmm thanks, have any of you used your lenses compared to a 18-200 or 35 1.8 ?</p>

<p>Peter K,</p>

<p>I have used the 18-200 AF-S which I sold and immediately part replaced with the 17-55mm AF-S. Both lenses focused with whisper quiet function unless they were hunting like mad for focus. In addition I have the previously mentioned 70-200 AF-S and also 300mm f/4 AF-S and also the 17-35 AF-S, all of them are nice and quiet when the focus throw rotates.</p>

<p>Try describing the wooshing sound a little more detail. If there is no shrieking or crunching noises I'd expect a slight 'swish' sound to be acceptable for this lens. I don't think the size / weight / length of my AF-S lenses makes the least bit of difference to thier inherant focus 'whispering'. Switch the lens to M only and rotate the focus throw right through the range and see if there is any sound involved with that. I'd expect the focus to be absolutely dead silent when throwing the focus ring manually on the 18-200 AF-S ........?</p>

<p>The "cheaper" true-AFS lenses, like the 18-200, seem to get noisier over time, but still not so bad. Mine is just a little noisier than the 35 AF-S, but that might also be that with the 35, a whole lot less stuff is moving around in there.</p>

<p>Both are quite quiet enough. he 17-35 I used to use (a pro lens, of course) was noticeably quieter as I recall.</p>