Wow that’s a whole of of letters in a lens name! What do they all mean? Do we really care that much? Nope! All you want to know is whether this lens is worth you parting from your hard earned cash for. Firstly, I am not a pixel peeper, for one thing I’m not qualified, and secondly I haven’t got time. All I care about is whether this lens gives me consistently good results that I can rely on.
So here’s a picture of the beast.
Nice looking lens isn’t it? What’s more it feels like a pro lens should, heavy and smooth. Ok so it’s not a Nikon, but guess what, it’s cost’s about 60% of the Nikon! The zoom ring doesn’t slip, and it is wonderfully smooth. The lens hood is also good, and when mounted on a D800 (or D610), this looks the business, which is what you want when you are being paid! Half the battle is looking like a pro.
So what’s the autofocus like? Well, it’s isn’t quite as fast as the Nikon, but it’s still fast, quiet and accurate. Again, it comes down to value for money and justifying the cost of the Nikon. When someone is paying me several thousand for a wedding, sure I’ll go shopping at the Nikon store, but for my current needs this lens is outstanding value. One thing this lens has that the nikon doesn’t is optical stabilisation, which means you can shoot pretty slow and get decent results, again, this might be a major factor for you when deciding on this purchase. I have shot handheld as slow as 1/30 with no issues at all, and even at 1/8 results are useable with sharpening (and a steady hand).
As for optical performance, there are plenty of reviews already about that. I will say that I have noticed vignetting at F2.8 in some situations, and it is a bit softer in the corners, but I shoot portraits almost all of the time, so I am only worried about centre sharpness when shooting wide open! Now about that sharpness…this lens is razor sharp! I did a studio shoot the other day, this was shot at F8, using strobes.
Now have a look at a close up of the eye, this is straight out of the camera with no sharpening, shot in RAW.
Not bad eh?
I should add I was using a tripod, but still, I was blown away by this.
So, here’s the summary. It’s really really good, go buy it.