Nikon 18-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR DX AF-S Nikkor

SLRgear Review
July 23, 2012
by Andrew Alexander

Nikon released the 18-300mm ƒ/3.5-5.6 VR in June of 2012. The lens does not appear to replace Nikon's popular 18-200mm travel zoom lens, as at the time of writing both are still available for purchase.

The lens was designed to fit on camera bodies fitted with an APS-C sensor, and while it will mount on FX bodies, massive vignetting will result. The lens uses a variable aperture, in that as you increase the focal length, both the maximum and minimum aperture sizes decrease. The following table reflects the change in aperture with focal length:

The lens takes 77mm filters, and ships with the HB-58 petal-shaped hood. The lens is available now for around $1,000.

Sharpness
The Nikon 18-300mm ƒ/3.5-5.6 offers decent results for sharpness, but there are some curious results that are worth specific mention.

Wide open at 18mm and ƒ/3.5, the lens offers decent results for sharpness, with a sharper center and very light corner softness. This improves very slightly at ƒ/5.6 - the central area gets somewhat sharper - but corners are never tack-sharp. Zoom in to 28mm and you get much softer corners, while the center is about the same. I would say if you wanted to isolate a subject in the center of the frame this is actually an effect you might like, but if you wanted everything to be in focus, avoid the 28mm setting. Stopping down at 28mm offers some slight improvements, but again, corner softness is never mitigated at this focal length.

Sharpness is excellent at the 50mm setting, with a very curious about-face compared to what we noted a few millimeters previously at 28mm. Even wide-open at ƒ/5.3 the results are almost tack-sharp; in fact, stopping down does nothing to improve overall sharpness at this setting, it just gets very slightly worse as you do so.

At the telephoto settings - 105mm and longer - we see a return of corner softness when used at the widest aperture settings (ƒ/5.6) with worse central sharpness as you zoom towards 300mm. At 105mm it's not so bad, even offering better results stopped down to ƒ/8, but at 200mm and 300mm results for sharpness are only average, making us think that some design concessions have come in to play to offer the extra-long telephoto ability.

Diffraction limiting sets in at ƒ/11 for this lens, meaning that any sharpness advantage obtained from stopping down is very limited, especially at the more telephoto end of the lens where the maximum aperture starts at ƒ/5.6. Performance at ƒ/16 is fairly good up to 105mm, but at 200mm and 300mm it's mediocre at best. At any focal length setting stopping down past that is best avoided, as you get some severe generalized softness: at 50mm and longer at the lens' minimum aperture, ƒ/32, we note some truly soft and fuzzy results.

Chromatic Aberration
The results for chromatic aberration are a bit misleading in this case, as our testing software evaluates RAW images and the sample images show JPEG in-camera conversions. In this case, the D7000 offers automatic chromatic aberration removal, and in this case (when viewing the sample images) we can see the D7000 has done an excellent job in removing CA. Untouched, the Nikon 18-300mm has some notable chromatic aberration, both in the corners and across the frame; but looking at the sample images, I can only see some trace magenta fringing in areas of high-contrast.

Shading (''Vignetting'')
Corner shading is really only an issue for the Nikon 18-300mm ƒ/3.5-5.6VR when the lens is used at its widest apertures (ƒ/3.5-5.6), and in the worst case we note extreme corners which are almost 3/4EV darker than the center, at 18mm and ƒ/3.5. At any other setting, corner shading is negligible.

Distortion
The complex array of lens elements that allows such a vast range of focal lengths in one lens leads to some dramatic results for distortion. When used in the wide angle configuration, the lens provides uniform barrel (''bloat'') distortion up to around 18mm, with dramatic distortion in the corners (1.25%, quite significant). After around 24mm, distortion across the frame remains consistently barrel-distorted, but at a moderately low level (around 0.25%, on average) and the extreme corner distortion turns into the pincushion (''squeeze'') style. The worst pincushion distortion is noted very early on at 28mm and continues all the way through to 300mm, where the corners show on average -0.6% pincushion distortion. Post-processing would be required to correct for these effects.

Autofocus Operation
The Nikon 18-300mm is fairly quick to autofocus - the lens takes just over a second to slew through the entire range of focus. Small changes in focus are conducted extremely quickly. As an AF-S lens, autofocus results can be overridden by just turning the focusing ring at any time.

Macro
The lens does not offer exceptional results for macro, with a magnification of just 0.15x. Minimum close-focusing distance is 45cm (just under one and a a half feet).

Build Quality and Handling
The 18-300mm extends the lineup in Nikon's 18mm+ range of consumer zoom lenses, exceeding the previous travel zoom with an extra 100mm of telephoto reach.

The 18-300mm is a solid lens. Compared to the 18-200mm, it's longer, wider and (significantly) 9 oz heavier, no doubt to accommodate the increased focal length. It features a metal lens mount and uses plastic 77mm filter threads which don't rotate during focus or zoom operation. The lens features a distance scale under a plastic window, marked in feet and meters, but there's no depth-of-field scale (not surprising for a zoom lens) or an infrared index marker. Focal lengths are marked on the lens near the zoom ring. Two control switches are available on the lens' left side: one which enables or disables autofocus (A or M) and one which enables or disables vibration reduction (ON or OFF).

The zoom ring is the major feature of the lens, mounted forward of the focus ring. It's over 1 1/4 inches wide and is composed of a thick ribbed rubber texture which is very easy to grip. The zoom action of the lens is not internal, so the lens will extend a whopping 3 1/2 extra inches at the 300mm end. The zoom ring travels roughly 100 degrees in its range. There is a nice resistance in the zoom action, and zoom creep was not a problem with this lens; however Nikon has seen fit to include a zoom lock switch on the odds that over time, this action will loosen up and zoom creep may become an issue.

The focus ring of the lens a comparative afterthought, only 1/2 of an inch in width. It does have a nice rubber texture though, with raised ridges, and the difference in sizes means you won't accidentally turn the wrong ring (provided you remember which ring does what). The focus ring ends in soft stops to let you know you have reached the end of the focusing range.

The lens comes standard with a plastic, petal-shaped lens hood that attaches via a bayonet mount and can be reversed for storage. The lens isn't flocked on the inside but does a decent job shielding the front element from sun coming in at oblique angles. The lens hood adds an additional 2 inches to the overall length of the lens.

Be sure to check out our IS Test section tab to view our image stabilization testing for this lens.

Alternatives

Nikon 18-200mm ƒ/3.5-5.6G IF-ED AF-S DX VR ~$750
The perennial and long-standing Nikon travel zoom, the two lenses are very comparable with the obvious difference that the new lens offers slightly more telephoto reach. In terms of numbers the 18-200mm is very, very slightly sharper, but not so much so that for the purpose, it would be a clearer choice over the 18-300mm.

Sigma 18-250mm ƒ/3.5-6.3 DC OS HSM ~$500
Sigma's offering in this category is in the same realm as the Nikon zoom, while not offering quite as much reach (250mm instead of 300mm) and quite as fast (ƒ/6.3 instead of ƒ/5.6) the performance is almost as good and certainly the price tag isn't as high.

Tamron 18-270mm ƒ/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD AF ~$650
For a long time Tamron held on to its travel zoom crown with the longest reach of DX-style superzoom lenses. Performance is in the same ball park as the Nikon, but again, the price tag isn't quite as severe.

Conclusion
There is definitely a wide array of options in the travel zoom department, but it comes down to the age-old concession between image quality and convenience. The performance you get out of the Nikon, or any travel zoom, at its extreme telephoto range, is not going to be comparable to any dedicated zoom lens. But if you can only bring one lens, then it's probably better to have the all-in-one than miss the shot because you couldn't get close enough. As for whether you should go with Nikon or less expensive Sigma or Tamron: the third-party lenses are good, but small things like build quality and image stabilization performance are where Nikon justifies its existence. If these things aren't crucial to you, then you can certainly save some dollars, but you won't be wasting your money if you decide to spend the premium price for the Nikon.

Product Photos

Sample Photos

The VFA target should give you a good idea of sharpness in the center and corners, as well as some idea of the extent of barrel or pincushion distortion and chromatic aberration, while the Still Life subject may help in judging contrast and color. We shoot both images using the default JPEG settings and manual white balance of our test bodies, so the images should be quite consistent from lens to lens.

Still Life shot

VFA target

As appropriate, we shoot these with both full-frame and sub-frame bodies, at a range of focal lengths, and at both maximum aperture and ƒ/8. For the ''VFA'' target (the viewfinder accuracy target from Imaging Resource), we also provide sample crops from the center and upper-left corner of each shot, so you can quickly get a sense of relative sharpness, without having to download and inspect the full-res images. To avoid space limitations with the layout of our review pages, indexes to the test shots launch in separate windows.