Has anyone used the Nikon 35-70 f2.8D lens? I am considering the purchase of an F-100 body and I am thinking about this lens as a first lens to go with it. Any opinions?

-- Glenn (swan@ampex.com), March 15, 1999

Answers

This is a truly outstanding lens, probably the sharpest zoom you can find between 35-70 according to many tests. There is only one drawback:

The zoom range is not 28-70, it is a little limited around 50mm. Therefore, it is better for many to get a 50/1.4D to take advantage of the faster aperture and the smaller weight.

If your style is such that small changes in perspective are important and you do not want to move around too much then buy it. If you already have or plan to buy a fast lens, especially a 85/1.8 or a 85/1.4 or a 28/1.4 then you'll probably find it more useful than an 50mm prime in the long run. The only sure thing is that this lens is a lot cheaper that what the 28-70 AF-S will be.

-- Costas Dimitropoulos (costas@udel.edu), March 15, 1999.

A very good lens. Probably the best general purpose lens you could buy.

-- Ron Shaw (shaw9@llnl.gov), March 15, 1999.

For years the 35-70mm, f2.8AF(D) lens has been the only short focal length Nikkor zone which compares favorably to the Contax/Zeiss and Leica 35-70mm zooms. The Nikkor lens comes very close in performance for half the cost of the german lenses.

-- Charlie Robbins (robbnsc@hotmail.com), March 17, 1999.

I suppose it depends on how you plan to use this lens. IMHO 35mm just isn,t quite short enough and 70mm isn,t quite long enough. A super sharp, fast lens lens with limited useful focal zoom length.

-- Jeff Hallett (franjeff@alltel.net), March 19, 1999.