NIKON 24-85mm F/3.5-4.5G ED VR AF-S Nikkor Lens - White Box (New) (Bulk Packaging)

I purchased this lens because it was recommended by angry photographer on you tube. I have to say his recommendation was spot on. His comments were basically, this is the sharpest mid-range zoom. Meaning for this price you wont find a sharper lens than this within this focal length range. I shot a few landscapes with this, i know its not a lens I would normally use for landscapes. I have a Tokina 11-16mm that I normally use, but i just wanted to test it out. They came out sharper than my Tokina which i was very impressed with. Ive tried a few portrait shots and again, very sharp. Overall Im very happy with it. I was shooting it on a D7000. Ive uploaded some images. Of course amazon probably compresses the images so they obviously wont be as good as raw. the images are HDR, 3 bracketed shots stacked in Photomatix.

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This has been a great all-purpose lens for me- photography has always been a love/hobby and occasionally Id take pictures for others when asked. Im just starting to grow a small business & delving into shooting a few weddings/smaller scale functions for family friends when asked (I am by no means a professional wedding photographer at this point but am learning & growing through practice & study) having typically stuck mainly to outdoor family sessions, children etc before, I have a Nikon D610, a zoom lens (70-300) & portrait lens (50mm) but needed something that would work for group shots and a wider angle, shots of the ceremony etc while Im still building my business and working up to afford a wider array of lenses- I really didnt know whether weddings would be something Id want to pursue more of so I didnt want to invest a lot (yet) in a lens that I wouldnt technically "need" much outside of that function (Id love a 24-120mm but just cant afford it yet)- this lens is useful for anything from just pictures of my own family/kids events and I ended up using it throughout the wedding day on the 3 weddings Ive shot so far. It works well on auto as well for fast focusing when you dont have time to do a bunch of manual adjusting in a fast paced event. It even did well with lower light action shots of the reception. Id still consider myself an amateur but this lens is working well for an assortment of different pictures both personal and for my small business use.

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WOW this is the most versatile lens in my bag. I have a f/2.8 version that is a wonderful lens but it is bigger and heavier. This lens is much lighter and a lot more fun to use. It is one of those lenses that hardly ever comes off the camera body to be replaced by a macro, wide, or telephoto. I highly recommend it as a starter lens and wish Id had it when I started.

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All-around I think this is a excellent general purpose lens. Its optically pretty sharp, functions very well mechanically, not heavy, and easy to use. Ive gotten some night sky Milky Way shots with it, wide open, that Im very happy with. The stars at the corners of the frame on my FX camera look as good as the stars near the center of the frame.

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I was looking for a zoom lens to take on an upcoming trip to Washington, DC that would be great in a multitude of settings without compromising the photo quality and this lens far exceeded my expectations. Its not a replacement for a prime lens on portrait or wide angle photography, but it is a perfect travel companion when you only want to take one lens along instead of an arsenal of primes. It is lightweight for a zoom lens and fits perfectly in my small camera bag. A great travel lens for sure!!

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Amazingly sharp, lighter than the pro level, and fast. A nice travel lens when you don’t need 2.8. Several favorable reviews (Thom, Nasim, Ken) prompted me to give this lens a try, and with Amazons’ terrific return policy I had nothing to lose. Using it with a Nikon DF, and D500 where it has a 36-120ish range.

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I was like many folks who wanted a good mid range zoom for the newest breed of Nikon FX cameras but felt the 24-70 to expensive,big and no VR, the 24-120 overpriced relative to the expected quality, and the remaining kit lenses not up to current standards. I have the D800 and thought I would give the 24-85 a test. I am so glad I did. I already owned the 24mm f2.8 prime, the 50 mm f1.8 prime, the 14-24 f2.8 and the 70-200 f2.8 so I did some sharpness tests using all of the above. The results were surprising to say the least. At 24mm focal length, this lens out performed the 14-24 and the 24mm F2.8 in the center and in the corners. The 24-85 was sharp in the center at F4 and by F8 the corners also became sharp. Yes, this lens has barrel distortion but that can be corrected for. Very low CAs, and not much flare. Color saturation very good as well. At 50mm focal length this lens performed very well against the 50mm f1.8. Though not ever quite catching up to this prime lens, by f8 it got very close. At 70mm performance was down when compared to the 70-200 F2.8 but still pretty good considering the price difference between this lens and the 70-200. If you are careful in setting your aperture, you will get very sharp results with the D800. Adding the VR into the mix makes this lens a keeper. I will be selling the 24mm F2.8 on Ebay! I travel extensively, and the light weight of this lens will be greatly appreciated. The VR will more than make up for the smaller apertures and frankly, large apertures are far more useful on telephoto lenses where backgrounds often need to be out of focus. I never saw a great need for f2.8 on wide angle lenses. My experience says go for VR to get sharper photos under trying conditions. Sharpness is the one thing you cannot fix in post processing. Get this lens!

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Mount this lens onto the D810 and you now have a behemoth of a camera. Ive been using the Olympus OM DEM5 and OM DEM1 cameras with electronic zoom and focus controls, so when I actuated the zoom ring on this lens it was quite a surprise as to how stiff it was to do so. Im sure I ll get used to it, but by comparison, it is very stiff. the lens stabilization is a great feature and I just used it this past weekend to take a really sharp headshot of my in-laws in pretty low light. The lens performed well, giving me a enviously sharp image in comparison to the Olympus cameras. Im sure I will love it. Havent used the buttons on the side of the lens yet. Glad it comes with a lens hood, Olympus could take a lesson in how happy that makes its lens customers!

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I didnt buy this lens with my Nikon D600, because all kit lenses suck, right? Wrong. I bought this lens separately because I read the rave reviews. I wish Id gotten the D600 kit with this lens included and saved money. The 24-85mm VR is edge-to-edge sharp -- it seems as good as a fixed-focal length lense in that regard -- and the VR works as well or better than any Ive used. The lens is surprisingly sharp wide open, although there is light fall-off -- which basically goes away by f/5.6. The lens is a reasonable size and weight (about 17 oz.), focuses quickly and quietly, and I really value the extra 24mm width. The unit I bought focuses a little behind the subject, but that was easy to compensate for with the adjustments on the D600. You can keep your massive 24-70s -- as far as Im concerned, this is THE great all-around lens.

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I am giving this 5 stars for what it is...its a great walk around lens. There is a lot of distortion at the low and high ends when the lens is wide open. More than I am used to seeing. I bought this because I wanted something I could use as a walk around, and having some experience with hauling the monster (f2.8 24-70), I decided to lighten things up. No contest between those two lenses in terms of quality of build or results...but huge differences in terms of price and weight. For what I bought it for...its great.

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