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Customer Reviews:- Great walk-around lens.
I really didn't care much for the 18-55mm lens that came with the Nikon D60 I was using before I upgraded to the new D90. My friends who owned Nikon's 18-200mm told me that lens wasn't very sharp at many focal lengths. So, when I got my D90 I made sure I purchased this lens, which is a great compromise. It provides a useful zoom ratio, isn't heavy, and performs well at all its focal lengths. The VR is great. I've taken pictures as slow as 1/8 second at 105mm, and gotten very sharp results....more info - Decent but not stellar
This lens is decent and versatile for everyday or recreational use. It's light and covers a good range. However, the picture is a bit soft and less than fulfilling, but good enough for family recreational shots....more info - Good General Lens
I purchased this lens as a general purpose lens for use on a Nikon D60. The results have been good and I would recommend this lens to anyone seeking a good lens at a reasonable price....more info - lens review
Amazed at how fast it came- like within a couple of days aft ord. Was as described- still in box & brand new condition. Recently went to Fla & used the lens- performed beautifully- it's fast, precise, user-friendly & best of all- most people are saying these pix are award-winning! I am completely satisfied in every way & would definitely do business with these vendors again. ...more info - Nikon 18-105mm VR review
Overall, I would have to say this lens does what it is supposed to do. It is an excellent general purpose zoom, with the added benefit of VR. Just to make things clear, I am not the type of person who compares the minute details of lenses; but I do notice the differences between them. After using this lens and selling it to purchase the nikon 17-55mm f/2.8, I have noticed a few differences between them. Obviously, build quality is no competition, with the 17-55 easily winning (feels like one solid machined block!) There is one thing that I definitely miss from the 18-105mm though--VR! Yes, over the course of time that I had the 17-55mm, I learned to love VR, and trust me--you don't know what you've got til it's gone, especially in the case of VR. VR aside, however, the 17-55 has the benefit of a constant aperture, along with better contrast and color in my opinion. then again, it costs three times what the 18-105 does (I bought mine off of craigslist for $900--don't pay $1220 new, that is a ripoff. if you're going to pay that much get the new 24-70mm.) For what it is supposed to do, however, the 18-105mm does just fine....more info - Great
This lens has had some tough reviews... but I don't know why?
Affordable - I bought mine refurbished for 220 (looks and works like new).
Great Quality Images - Better zoom range and sharper than the 18-55vr (another great affordable lens)
Built in manual zoom ring - This is a must have if you are shooting DSLR videos as there is no auto focus on the D90 Video.
This is obviously not a "pro" lens, but it takes great photos and is priced reasonably. I highly recommend it....more info - Good overall lens
This lens covers some of the most used shooting ranges the the general photographer will need. I recommend it....more info - 18-135 vr nikon lense
I bought this lense for my Nikon d 80 camera.I already have the 18-55 vr lens as my standard lense.I wanted telephoto capability for scenery and to go on vacation.I recently visted San Antonio and Austin Tx and I only took this one lense with me.It turned out to be a great decision because my pictures of the Alamo and the Riverwalk came out great plus the added bonus of having to take only one lense on vacation was great.This lense is very compact and very easy to use.I love the VR feature and it worked very well.I know it was a little expensive but i got it for a little less than $300.00 on E-bay....more info - 18-105 gem
very good all around lens...tho now wish i had spent approx double for the 18-200....ended up with the 70 to 300 also, which is super....no complaints...A rating...more info - Great
It was exactly what I was expecting and it works great. I had an 18-55mm lens that got broke and this is the replacement. It has more range so I don't have to keep changing lenses for things at a greater distances. I still want to get a longer lens at a later date....more info - nikon upgrade fro 18-70mm
The lens is well built, similar to 18-70mm. There is some distortion, but it is acceptable for lens at this price. The VR really works, making it more useful than 18-70mm. ...more info - Good starter lens, but not at this price.
This lens has many positives going for it: it's light, has a great range that would cover most amature use, quiet, resonable AF speed, resonable image quality, and resonable light gathering with VR.
It would be a perfect kit lens for the D40 (or Nikon's entry SLR line).
The main problem is cost, at this price (about 330 to 400 new) I'd expect better optics, or higher durability (metal mount, less plastic), or both. The 18-55 lens and the 55-200 (either VR/non-VR) have better optics and are *much* cheaper.
This lens really makes you wonder if you should just save more and get the 18-200 intead (a much better lens optically and durablity, but *heavy*)
I do like this lens, it makes it much easier to just grab my camera and go. I just wish it were at the 200 to 250 price point....more info - A great compromise between the 18-55mm & 18-200mm VR
I recently traded the 18-55mm VR lens from my D60 kit for this lens. I wanted something with more range than the 18-55 offered, and with VR, so it was a choice between the 18-200mm VR and this lens. Between the price of the latter, and the reports of worse distortion, zoom creep, and poor feel of the zoom & focus rings of the 18-200, I decided this was the best choice. The fact that this lens is a tad shorter and a good bit lighter (420g vs. 560g) make it an even better choice for a walkaround (or even only) lens for normal use.
The fit & finish is much better than that of the kit lens, and while it is a bit heavier than the 18-55, it's not appreciably longer, if any. I'm not a good enough photographer to tell you how it compares on distortion to either the 18-55 or the 18-200, so I won't even try. But it produced a number of wonderful images for me today, under low light and handheld, without noticeable distortion, and they were very clear except if I was shaking badly (this is with shutter speeds of 1/40-1/10). I purchased it for $300 new, about half of the price of the 18-200mm VR. In all, I am quite satisfied with this lens as an all-around, do-everything lens....more info - Great zoom lens
This is a great zoom lens from Nikon. With the vibration reduction the pictures are sharp and the zoom range is great. This may be the only lens that you need from wide angle to a medium telephoto. I'm very happy with this lens....more info - Probably the ideal affordable compromise between range and quality
If you take photographs for fun then this is a great lens. I am using it on the ultimate fun camera, a Nikon D40 and the lens completes it very well. I usually don't analyse things to death like photographing text from a Newspaper or grid patterns to measure sharpness or distortion. I just use it to take pictures and observe the results like a normal person would. Having said that I am quite critical and have had really good cameras with excellent optics.
Overall this lens feels like it is a really good product and feels very robust and well made. It is well finished and shows good attention to detail and quality control. The two rings (zoom and focus) feel and glide very well. albeit with a very slight plastic sliding sound. The switches feel fairly OK and generally everything seems like it will last a very very long time. Of course it cannot match a mid 80's Nikon prime lens but it is hard to make such a comparison. Firstly they are built differently with different numbers of components and secondly they are used differently.
Personally I don't understand the difference that a steel camera mount would make over the plastic one this lens has. I suppose if you remove and replace the camera lots of times then it could make a difference. Although having said that a plastic surface on the lens would be kinder the steel mount on the camera. Plastic being self lubricating would prevent both from being scratched. I don't sleep less well at night because of it.
Visually the lens looks a bit plain and lacks the silver ring that the 18-55 came with. It also lacks an writing on the forward business end of the camera. There are also no markings for focal length.
One thing about this lens that I do find very annoying is the extremely fiddly lens cap. Because of the way they moulded the cap the two surfaces you press together to unclip it from the lens front are very short and smooth and have an angle on them that makes the fingers slip off. As a consequence the lens cap has fallen out my hand onto the floor a few times. That is something to remember if you are standing on a grate, a dirty floor or on a clifftop. This is a common problem with the 18-135 and 18-200 lenses.
Now to the lens' performance. It focuses extremely fast and very silently. It has a very useful reach. I have found you can overcome the smaller minimum aperture with a higher zoom and this gives really good bokeh for portraits. The VR works a treat as well. In combination with the camera's really good performance at high ISO it makes it very capable at photographing the insides of restaurants and houses without the need for flash to ruin the colour balance.
The lens is very sharp. The photographs I took came out very well. I have no issues with them whatsoever and anything that went wrong in taking those images I would put down to my relative inexperience.
The lens did not have any negative effects on the colour, I didn't notice any purple fringing or anything other than really pleasant results. Overall I am actually very happy with the sharpness and detail this lens captures.
I am wondering whether to use a UV filter and am not sure about using the petal design hood. There are all sorts of views about the advisability or otherwise of these items.
Other products I compared this to are the 18-55 lens my D40 came with. In its own right it is an excellent lens and seems sharp. It does feel a bit on the lightweight side compared to the 18-105. The 18-135 I tried felt a little bit crude in how the zoom ring moved. It didn't feel as well finished compared to the 18-105 and made plastic sliding sounds when operating the zoom ring. That lens was very sharp too but holding it steady at 135mm was a bit difficult.
I used a 50mm 1.4 manual focus lens from the 80s that had awesome bokeh but was otherwise a pain to use. The other lens I tried was the 18-200mm which was an awesome lens. It had a focus that seemed even faster than the one on the 18-105 but it was a little too big and made the camera feel very front heavy. Because of that it lost a bit of the fun factor. Along with the fact that it was almost 3 times more expensive I am glad I bought the 18-105.
I paid A$385 at Ted's in Highpoint. $385 would equate to US$246 in November 2008. An 18-200 sells for A$1045. Even the 18-135 often sells for more so I feel I got something of a bargain. The people at Ted's are fantastic for customer service and I'm sorry I didn't buy my D40 from them.
Anyway I hope this review helps someone....more info
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