Nikon 18-70?

Hello,

 

I am planning on getting a Nikon D70 soon, and was wondering what people thought of

the new 18-70mm lens? I already have a nice 24-85mm lens for my film slr, and now

wonder if buying the new 18-70 is worthwhile? Beyond the focal point differences, is there

a major difference between these lenses? thanx

 

Bryan

Just keep in mind that the 18-70 DX is designed to project an image only big enough to cover a 23.7 x 15.6mm digital SLR sensor frame. On a film SLR, which has a film frame of 36.0 x 24.0mm, you'll get heavy vignetting. So if you have no plans to use this lens on your film SLR, you should be fine.

I played with one in-store, it just arrived as a kit lens with the D70 the other day. I haven't

run any comparisons with other lenses, but it feels like a winner. The build quality is far

superior to, say, the 28-100 kit lenses Nikon is shipping with the N-75 and N-80. (And

compared to the 18-55 EF-S lens that Canon is shipping with the Digital Rebel, the

difference is truly night and day in term of materials and construction.) Is it worth the

$300? Definitely, as long as you realize in adavance it will only ever be usable one a

reduced-frame SLR.

its actually a pretty sweet lens, its buily well and takes really good pictures, i debated getting it also because i just ordered a Sigma 24-70 F2.8 for my film camera, but i ordered it anyway because if i found out i wanted it later it would have cost more to buy alone then with the kit

Thanks for all the info. What I was really wondering is, does the 18-70 lens have any

significant advantages over my 24-85 lens? I know the 18-70 was made specificially for

the D70, but what does that really mean?

 

Bryan

Slightly off the point, but related, I was wondering how it would work on a Fuji S2 or the S3 when it arrives. I assume that it would be fine as they have the smaller sensors too, but was wondering if nikon had done something to the electricals to stop this and boost their own sales with a range of made for digital lenses. HAs anybody tried or heard for sure. Any DX lens will do!

Unlike Kodak's new DCS Pro SLR/c, which is a Canon EF mount DSLR apparently manufactured by Sigma with digital parts from Kodak and with<B>out</B> Canon's blessings, the Fuji FinePix S2 and S3 are manufactured by Fuji with cooperation from Nikon. Fuji is actually getting top portions of the F80/N80 from Nikon and adds its own digital bottom portions. It is very much in Nikon's interest that the Fuji cameras are successful so that customers stay within the Nikon mount family and continue to buy Nikon lenses and perhaps Nikon bodies in the future, although the Fuji S2 and S3 also compete against Nikon's D100 and D70. Since the S2 and S3 are genuine Nikon bodies with Fuji sensors, compatibility with Nikkor lenses should not be an issue.

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Canon and Kodak are, on the other hand, not in good terms because of problems from their previous cooperation in DSLRs from the late 1990's.

<i>It is very much in Nikon's interest that the Fuji cameras are successful so that customers stay within the Nikon mount family and continue to buy Nikon lenses and perhaps Nikon bodies in the future, although the Fuji S2 and S3 also compete against Nikon's D100 and D70. Since the S2 and S3 are genuine Nikon bodies with Fuji sensors, compatibility with Nikkor lenses should not be an issue.</i>

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I don't quite buy this argument. Anytime a user buys a Fuji body instead of a Nikon body, Nikon has lost that sale. And the purchase of Nikon lenses is not going to make up for that because they were going to buy Nikon lenses anyways. In truth, Fuji is as much a competitor with Nikon as any other company. It's just that allowing Fuji to use Nikon body parts is a necessary evil. It's better that they lose body sales to Fuji, rather than lose body sales (along with lens sales, too) to Canon. I'm sure that if Nikon could go it alone, they would just as well prefer that Fuji wasn't a player at all. That's probably why Nikon is limiting Fuji to using only N80 parts, and notably the new S3 has no i-TTL compatibility. So as you can see, Nikon is not allowing full compatibility to Fuji. Otherwise, if Fuji's had all the capabilities of any Nikon, that would pose a greater threat to Nikon. While the relationship may be cordial, it probably isn't very cozy. After all, Fuji is competing for the same DSLR sales as Nikon.

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