Nikon 24-70/2.8E VR

[Erik Lund]

How short is your RRS rail?

[Ilkka Nissilä]

The scale is to 160mm.

[Erik Lund]

Thanks ! I have the 180mm version

[Erik Lund]

Finally got my lens and weather was perfect for testing VR,,, Winter Darkness and Storm 20ms,,,

Anyway so far so good, the lens seems to perform very well, contrast and color seems very nice on D3X with VR on

F/8 and 1/30 to get movement DOF and kep ISO low for crispness ISO 360
_EGL4621 by Erik Gunst Lund, on Flickr

Swirl Bokeh...  Well even the latest VR has its limitations,,,
_EGL4623 by Erik Gunst Lund, on Flickr

F/11 1/13 ISO 800 focus at the grass right
_EGL4646 by Erik Gunst Lund, on Flickr

F/11 1/50 ISO 800 Just love this capture, Grass is blowing all over the place but the bench is etched into the sky
_EGL4648 by Erik Gunst Lund, on Flickr

F/5.6 1/50 ISO 800 Workshop at the company rowing club, badly in need of tender loving care...
_EGL4670 by Erik Gunst Lund, on Flickr

So far really happy with the lens!

[Erik Lund]

I know your all waiting for Bjørn's thorough review of this new Nikkor Standard zoom until that happens my initial thought on it

All external parts are more or less the now well proven space plastic that is really good at withstanding knocks and bumps - Mount is held in place by four screws and it doesn't have the steel insert for the locking pin. The little rubber gasket keeps rain out of the contacts in the rain, worked yesterday

The newly developed/improved ring type AFS focus motor is extremely fast, the feel is very similar to for instance 300mm 2.8 or 200mm 2.0 AFS There is no sound from the motor itself - The first generation of these Ring type AFS motors had some high pitch sound sometimes due to Speed of rotation and the 'stators' being equal in size and thus generating sound waves as well as rotational motion.

The focus motor has a little bit of hard sound as it is so powerful that it 'throws' the elements on their way.

The focus throw is linear; The movement of the focus ring follows the turning of the focus scale. Not like the 1.4 G lenses that all are geared. There is no slack or looseness at all - the feel is similar to an IF MF lens like 500mm 4.0 Ai-P or 300mm 4.5 IF ED Ais

VR is ok silent and operating smoothly so far no ill side effects detected in VR Normal mode I will have to try out Active when we go for the helicopter ride in Scotland.

The new E-Type aperture just works,,, Very silent quick and smooth - 9 rounded blades circular opening,,,

The zoom ring has a very nice smooth solid feel - No slack and no rough points except maybe a tiny tiny bit more resistance rotating from around 30mm towards 24mm.

Focal length marks are not engraved so let's see how long they last, they are positioned along the front of the zoom ring like on the 28-70mm 2.8 AFS so more easy to see than the 24-70mm 2.8 AFS Mark I- If you sometimes use your zoom as a set of fixed focal length lenses,,, I do. For the look of the focal length or when using a panorama head for stitching.

The Lens hood fits very nice, tight and secure seem like it is designed for strength and stability around the bayonet, and there is a cleaver ridge around the unlock button to avoid accidental release. Marked Nikon Made in Japan to justify the high price tag

The lens is sharp, it has this transition to oof that I have seen in some 'very' sharp lenses - It's masked a little here but still visible so be careful where you put depth of focus for 'artistic' shots...

Look at the workshop window shot - Pretty obvious where the focal plane is - Looks very flat btw.

Colours seems saturated and nice but they should be with the Nano Crystal Coating.

[Fons Baerken]

Well really curious how it compares to the 1st 24-70mm/2.8G, read some notes on it
https://photographylife.com/nikon-24-70mm-f2-8e-vr-preview

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Cannot see that article lists much not already covered by Erik's treatment.

Erik points out an aspect also immediately noticed by me: the zone of actual focus is so crisply defined that the transition from in- to (slightly) out-of-focus is very distinct. Thus the make-believe illusion on which "DOF" tables and calculators are based, simply shatters to pieces. We have seen this before in the digital photography domain once resolution reached sufficiently high levels, but the new 24-70 VR ranks amongst the less DOF-compliant lenses out there. If you focus at a subject at say 2 m distance, stuff around 2.5 m already are visibly unsharp even at f/5.6. You need to stop down to at least f/11 to bring back the 'DOF' illusion.

[Erik Lund]

Here is a shot wide open that show the front and rear Bokeh; It's very nice and untroubled - the trees against the sky would make issues for many lenses...

F/2.8 1/80 ISO 100
_EGL4618 by Erik Gunst Lund, on Flickr

f/2.8 1/80 ISO 800
_EGL4496 by Erik Gunst Lund, on Flickr

Here the same shot stopped down

F8.0 1/80 ISO 800 lifted 3 stops
_EGL4495 by Erik Gunst Lund, on Flickr

All looks good - Very satisfactory performance.

As to comparing it to the 24-70mm 2.8 AFS Mark I; Similar performance but the new lens is very much improved in corner performance around 24-28mm end and a much more flat field of focus also close up at that end, the old lens vas poor in performance in that respect that's why I sold it and kept on using the 28-70mm 2.8 AFS until now, the 28-70mm 2.8 AFS and new 24-70mm 2.8 AFS E VR are much more similar in most areas,,,

Basically most people will never notice these issues I guess...

The bottom line is that the new lens is much more useful for shooting when you have the subject in the periphery of the image,,, And in my case that is often for events portraits and architecture etc.

The barrel distortion is so easy to auto correct in Raw and with high MP cameras there is almost no loss in image acuity and the images appear crisp and sharp enough for my work.

Of course I have seen the reviews stating that the new lens is not as sharp as the old one - What to say - It depends what you will be using it for

[Jørgen Ramskov]

Thanks for posting your findings. I'm personally still pretty happy with my old 24-70mm, but my demands aren't that high

[Erik Lund]

Thanks Jørgen,

This image show very well what Bjørn also points out;

f/5.6
_EGL4616 by Erik Gunst Lund, on Flickr

The focus is on the bridge about 2-3 meters out and already at 5-6 meters the sharpness vanish,,,

The image with the grass and the big red building at f/11 and focus on the grass, but the sharpness deteriorate along the middle of the  house.

With this lens it's vital to place the depth of focus right just like the 1.4 G series of lenses; 24, 35, 58 and 85mm since they are sharp over the whole focal plane - Actually very similar to 125mm APO Lanthar as well since so many here now know this lens and the look the images have

[Erik Lund]

The lens hood not only has the best bayonet mount design so far, the hood is also flat at the front so you can put down the lens down without risk of the lens tumbling over, a serious design flaw of the 70-200mm 2.8 AFS Mark II.

I wish they would make all the new lens hoods like this one, the new 300mm 4.0 AFS PF is not nearly this nice and just has the twist lock, not really locking at all,,,

The Index mark for mounting the lens on the camera is of the big type, clearly visible and even easy to feel in darkness.

[Tristin]

Looks to be quite a winner!  I could especially appreciate the flat field and quick DoF roll-oft.  The sharp DoF transition makes for enhanced subject isolation, while the flat field makes landscapes reliably sharp corner to corner.  A great balance in my opinion.  I probably wouldn't think so if I was a portrait photographer though

[Jørgen Ramskov]

The lens hood not only has the best bayonet mount design so far, the hood is also flat at the front so you can put down the lens down without risk of the lens tumbling over, a serious design flaw of the 70-200mm 2.8 AFS Mark II.

That has always annoyed me with the 70-200mm.

[Erik Lund]

I really like the rendering on the D3X; Transition and roundness of the texture is rendered soft and organic - Few details that are in focus are kept in place by the VR at 1/6 sec...

f/5.6 1/6 ISO 400
_EGL4634 by Erik Gunst Lund, on Flickr

f/5.6 1/30 ISO 100
_EGL4633 by Erik Gunst Lund, on Flickr

Focus on the trees, the whole image is just pleasing to my eye; The trees against the winter sky, reflections in the glass and the wet granite surface,,,

I really can't find any flaws on this lens - It's a keeper.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

"I really can't find any flaws on this lens"

It hot-spots in IR ....