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© 2004 KenRockwell.com Lens Test Glossary About these reviews
Introduction This lens was introduced in 1999. It sounded like a great general purpose lens by it's specs, so I ordered one with the hope that it could improve slightly on my 15 year old 28-85mm f/3.5-4.5AF. The 28-105 is plastic on the outside, with a flimsy 62mm plastic filter thread and painted markings. This is pretty much standard today, and hey, what do you expect mechanically in a $300 USD retail lens with the quality of optics this has? For $300 you have to cut some corners, and Nikon cuts the right ones. If you want a metal lens then Nikon offers the 28-70 AF-S for five times as much. I returned this new 28-105 in favor of keeping my old AF 28-85. The new 28-105 has some focus errors that cause the AF system of my F100 into giving poor sharpness at the 28mm end. My old lens gives much sharper results at 28mm and 85mm. These focus errors could be a sample-to-sample variation or a consequence of the design; the rest of the performance was so-so enough for me not to want to try another sample. Specifications It has 16 elements in 12 groups. One element is a hybrid aspherical element. A hybrid aspherical element is an aspherical piece of plastic glued to one of the glass elements. It takes 62mm filters in its weak plastic threaded front. It takes an HB-18 hood. It is 2.9" (73mm) around by 3.2" (82mm) long and weighs 17 oz (480 g). The one I bought measured 455g or 16 oz, naked. It focuses to 1.7' or 0.5m at all focal lengths, and by moving an annoying mechanical switch will allow focusing to 0.7' (0.22m), at focal lengths between 50mm and 105mm. Maximum Reproduction Ratio, Normal: 1:5.2. Maximum Reproduction Ratio, Macro mode: 1:2 (105mm), 1:2.74 (50mm). IF changes focal length slightly to get the crazy close focus capabilites. It has a wonderful 9-bladed diaphragm (manual incorrectly says 8 blades). Case: CL-49 hard case and pouch 62, both optional. Hood: HB-18 bayonet, optional. Teleconverters: TC-200, TC-201 and TC-14A. Weight: 1 pound or 455g, specified. Performance This lens has among the lowest levels of distortion I've seen in a mid-focal-length-range zoom lens. That's good, and a credit to Nikon's clever designers. It has reasonably good resistance to ghosting when pointed into the sun. That's good. It's better than the old 28-85/3.5-4.5AF. It is a little soft in the corners at 105mm wide open, and soft all over at 28mm wide open on my F100 when autofocus due to AF system errors. That's bad. It's pretty sharp all over at other focal lengths, but why settle for so-so? I didn't, and sent it back in favor of keeping my older lens. The AF action is relatively slow because there is a lot of reduction in the mechanical gear drive. One full turn of the AF screw focuses the lens from infinity to 8.' The zoom ring is congested at the wide end and unresponsive at the long end. It doesn't give equal percentage change in image size per unit of rotation, unfortunately it's incorrectly designed to give relatively uniform change in millimeters per unit rotation. Close-Up At 2 feet there is obvious barrel distortion at 28mm, and no distortion at 50mm and 105mm. The corners are soft at 105mm at 2 feet. In the macro mode (closer than 2') there was no distortion, however it was soft in the corners even stopped down. The macro mode switch is a pain. You have to preset the lens to between 50mm and 105mm in order to move the switch in to macro mode. You have to move the switch out of macro mode to get to shorter focal lengths than 50mm, but you can't do that until you have prefocused the lens to beyond 2 feet. In other words, the close-up ability is handy, but no replacement for a real macro lens. In fact, its softness would be obvious even in 1-hour lab prints. Recommendations Nice try, but thankfully there are better choices for a midrange zoom if you demand sharpness. Of course any good photographer can still make great images with this or any lens, regardless of sharpness. The focus errors I saw were important to picky people like myself who need to shoot at full aperture with 50 speed film. Most people would never even see the defect I saw, and other samples of this lens will differ. If you are buying a new lens you should try it out. You may love its combination of features, and it's especially good if distortion bugs you. There are no perfect zoom lenses yet, so don't let me discourage you. |
