Nikon AF-S DX 18-140mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR Lens - Black

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The Nikon 18-140mm VR DX is an optically, practically and ergonomically great lens. If you think you want one, by all means, get one. The nature of macro shots is that depth-of-field is almost nothing, so the more you can stop down, the better. I shoot my macro shots at f/32, and use studio strobes so I have enough light. I use a clear Nikon 62mm NC (No Color) protective filter instead of a cap so I'm always ready to shoot instantly. I only use a cap when I throw this in a bag with other gear without padding — which is never. The UV filter never gets in the way, and never gets lost, either. There's a bit more chromatic aberration present in images than we've seen in previous offerings from Nikon, but probably not so much to be objectionable; the corners of all of our test images exhibit a slight amount of dark blue fringing around areas of high contrast. One curiously good thing is that the telescoping front part of the lens has no play. Try to wiggle the front of the lens, and it doesn't move. This is much better than many much more expensive lenses, whose front sections often have a lot of play if you try to wiggle them.

I have even bought a second, refurbished 18-140, so I can also carry one in my D610 bag to use with that camera in DX mode. It works well that way, and usually produces sharper images outdoors than the 24-85 on that camera. Of course, with the lower pixel count cropping of DX mode images is not as flexible. It does work very well, though, as all my DX lenses do on the D610 in DX mode. Everything works perfectly on every digital Nikon ever made, except that you're wasting most of your sensor with FX cameras.

The Nikon AF-S DX 18-140mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR kit zoom lens for DSLRs works well for travel photography

if you shoot raw and then use non-manufacturer software to process that data into images then there is the possibility that there might be some, but I doubt it. The Nikon Z DX 18-140mm F3.5-6.3 VR lens utilises a stepping AF motor that produces almost silent, smooth and quite snappy auto-focusing, making it well-suited to shooting both stills and video, with the overall lens length remaining constant during focusing. Coma ( saggital coma flare) often causes weird smeared blobs to appear around bright points of light in the corners of fast or wide lenses at large apertures. In lenses that have it, coma goes away as stopped down.

Autofocus is as fast as most other current Nikon AF-S lenses. There's no surprises here; AF speed is more than fast enough for everything I shoot. Nikon's Z cameras correct for any or all of distortion, diffraction and falloff (vignette control). Distortion control cannot be turned off, while diffraction and falloff (vignette control) correction can be changed. A potential handling disappointment, compared with the older F-mount lens, is that auto/manual focus and VR on/off switches are omitted. You therefore need to resort to in-camera menus to make any changes, which can be relatively time-consuming and a bit of a bother. An upside shared with other budget Z-mount lenses is that the control ring nominally used for manual focusing can be assigned to various other functions when in autofocus mode. In-camera menus make a variety of options available, including control over aperture, exposure compensation and ISO setting. It’s particularly useful for applying stepless aperture changes when shooting video. Nikon Z DX 18-140mm f/3.5-6.3 VR: PERFORMANCE Linear distortion is a problem. The lens has a strong case of barrel distortion at 18mm (almost 3% average) and beyond 24mm we're already hitting pincushion distortion. which peaks between 50-70mm (about 3%), but is still highly visible at 140mm (about 2.5%). With this much linear distortion, correcting it in software will almost certainly reduce overall resolution towards the edges, unfortunately, as you're moving a lot of pixel data around. Coupled with edge sharpness that is already down a notch from the center, this poses a bit of a problem in getting lots of clean detail in corners, obviously. Chromatic aberration is decently controlled, and really only shows up into clear visibility at the extremes (as in focal length and corners of the frame). All recent Nikon DSLRs correct for CA in camera for JPEG images, but they're probably not having to do a lot of correction.

Nikon 18-140mm f/3.5-5.6G ED DX VR AF-S Nikkor User Reviews

Apochromatic lenses have special lens elements (aspheric, extra-low dispersion etc) to minimize the problem, hence they usually cost more. My only complaint is that the sample I bought did not mount or unmount well. It felt very gritty whenever I rotated it in the mount, even worse than Sigma and Tamron lenses usually feel. I'm unsure if I got a dud, or if Nikon is cheaping-out on us. Most people rarely change lenses, so I'd not worry about this. I'm used to shooting one camera with a bag full of fixed lenses and having to change lenses for every other shot; today with this lens' huge zoom range, most of us will never change lenses. It makes only the slightest hum as it focuses, You won't hear it unless you hold the camera closely and listen for it. This lens is a competent performer, producing decent sharpness throughout its zoom range, with low falloff and CA. However it appears to be priced quite highly, and probably doesn't perform well enough to justify being a choice as an upgrade from a similar lens, like Nikon's 18-135mm lens, that is no longer available. However, if it is bundled as a kit with a camera body for a decent price in the future, it should be a choice most photographers, after a convenient zoom lens, should be happy with. Just grab the electronic focus ring at any time for instant manual-focus override anytime the camera is awake. It moves with just fingertip.

Designed with consideration for dust- and drip-resistant performance *, enabling users to take it anywhere with greater confidence. The short minimum focus distance of 0.2 m/0.66 ft at the maximum wide-angle position is ideal for close-up shots. This Nikon 18-140 DX VR is a great do-everything lens for DX cameras. It's sharp, focuses well, covers every focal length a good photographer needs and works great. If you shoot raw data rather than JPG images, whatever software you use to create visible images from raw data may or may not correct the distortion as is done in-camera as JPGs. You're on your own there; I don't bother with raw data. The lens is very similar in size and weight to the 18-200mm VR. It's a little slimmer and doesn't, as yet, suffer from any zoom creep, something that has always been a pain on my 18-200mm lens.If this 1,200×900 pixel crop is about 12" (30cm) wide on your screen, the complete image would print at 36×54" (0.9×1.4 meters) at this same magnification. This lens only ships with front and rear lens caps - there is no lens hood or any kind of case included in the box. Focal Range It's interesting to note here that the Sigma is sharper at f5.6 than it is at f8 and even more obviously so than at f11. This is as it should be because of loss of resolution due to diffraction and is a reminder that you really don't want to be shooting at apertures much smaller than f11 on a DX camera unless you absolutely have to. So the 18-200mm VR is sharpest at a point where diffraction is notably softening it! Not a good trait. The Nikon 18-140mm VR is pretty much the same at f5.6 and f8 in the centre, maybe a very slight reduction in contrast at f5.6 but nothing that would matter in a real world situation.