Super-zoom, excellent imaging performance, robust, at a fair price

In Detail

Processing:

Delivered it was in a separate bag and lens hood. The build quality is decent, with large parts are made of plastic. Nevertheless, it looks solid, the feel is true extent. The metal bayonet is valuable and will change countless survive. The lens itself is quite compact (145 mm long) and about 745 grams. A stand base (tripod recording as with larger lenses is standard) would make sense or have been desirable, but ok it also works quite well without.

4 stars for the fairly good processing.

Function:

The autofocus operates, quietly, quickly and accurately. Readjustment is almost never necessary. The built-in Vibration Reduction (VR with two functions, "normal" and "active") provides camera shake sustainably compensate, every now and then but can the movable lens groups easily rattle. Basically increases when using this lens in freehand operation significantly the risk of motion blur, so far is a tripod beneficial. The disadvantage falls on the very strong out-propelled when zooming tube made of plastic, which almost doubles the length. A "shorter" Zoom-way for that price honestly but hardly feasible. The minimum focusing distance of just over 150 cm is just ok, it's just not a macro lens. Fortunately, the front lens does not rotate with the Fokkussieren what is for the filter insert (67 mm) of advantage. All in all a good 3 star.

Imaging performance - taking into account the Cropfaktors:

Fantastic for the price: a word.

The sharpness is independent of the selected aperture setting consistently good and takes Fade to clear. The focus falls on the edges off only slightly. The sharpness is in the 70 mm focal length range excellently into the corners, at max. Zoom in 300 range it falls off slightly, but the center remains knackscharf - really good performance. The Bokeh is harmonious and vigorously in small (open) aperture, almost a novelty in zoom lenses! Opinions about this but apart. Usually really good Bokeh`s only be generated by prime lenses.

Vignetting (vignetting) I could not make out. Also distortions in the respective focal length range are less in`s weight, due to the so-called crop factor (factor by which the image to Klien Aspect Ratio "circumcised" is). Distortions are at this zoom anyway not a real issue. With a lot of imagination, you can at architectural photographs in the 70 mm range a tiny "ton" make and perhaps recognize the 300 mm range a "cushion", but honestly, you see just do not at first glance - what for me also a major reason for the purchase represented. Competitors (also made by Nikon), however, recorded partly violently.

Through the crop factor (also called form factor) is basically only an image section of the overall image, which can reproduce the lens relative to the image sensor, reflect. This means that Randverzeichnungen and -abschattungen in contrast to the small screen and / or Vollvormat play only a subordinate role because they are simply no longer the smaller sensor (APS-C) are recorded. There are also special in so far lenses for APS-C cameras (Nikon marked as DX), wherein the optics have been specifically calculated for this (small) size sensors. The image sensor of many digital SLRs by a factor of 1.5 to 1.6 less than the usual small format. This lens is designed for full-frame (ie small picture) expected cameras, but can be used without problems on DX sensors. Against pure DX lenses should not be combined with full-frame sensor cameras. Therefore, calculated according to the crop factor of this lens on a D90 (APS / DX = Cropf 1.5.) Instead of a 70-300 mm focal length, based on the defined small screen size, a "105-450 mm" focal length. A difficult subject I know ...

Chromatic aberration (color fringing, often in blue) are only at magnifications (from A4) and visible only when light lines meet on dark backgrounds, in principle, these are but the naked eye in normal photo enlargements not recognizable. So far okay, but not top class.

My, with this lens, obtained recordings are just fantastic, I am very zurfieden, hence 5 stars for the offered imaging performance.

Price-performance ratio: Such a good optical imaging performance at the offered price can also give 5 stars.

End-Result:

A classy 4 star lens (Appreciation 4.25), which boasts a fantastic sharpness, high color neutrality and very little distortion and also covers an enormous telephoto zoom range. For the offered price and processing a viable alternative to its high aperture models. For amateur photographers and semi-professionals, this lens should be the first choice, you do not need more. Professionals will probably 70-200mm 1 more for first-class Nikon AF-S Nikkor: 2.8G ED VR II grab what the whole puts on the crown when it comes to processing, sharpness, brightness and distortion etc., but just for 4 times the price (approximately 2,000).

Therefore, Buy!