Nikon Nikkor 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G ED-IF AF-S DX Lens

This lens is ultra sharp at all lengths. I am a professional portrait photographer and this is a terrific all-around lens. I used to have to buy three lenses to give me what this one lens does now. With the cost at about $250 on Ebay, This lens simply cannot be beat.

Somewhere else on this site is my review of the Nikon AF 28-105mm Zoom for FILM cameras - a focal length range which has often been considered ideal for the average photographer. In the course of that review I alluded to the fact that the digital shooter has to contend with the fact that the sensor on most digital SLRs are not the same size as a frame of 35mm film. This smaller size produces a couple of eccentricities when mounting film lenses on digital cameras - good or bad depending on your point of view. The digital sensor only actually "sees" the central portion of the image circle projected by the film lens. Effectively this narrows the angle of view, producing a digital image equal to that produced on film by a lens of 1.5x longer focal length. In addition, the central portion of the circle is where a lens characteristicly performs best with regards to sharpness or distortion.
These eccentricities are great if you "see" better with longer lenses but what do you do when you are looking for that wider angle of view? My "superwide" 20mm f2.8 AF Nikkor becomes a rather uninspiring, expensive, effective 30mm when mounted on my D100.
Prior to the introduction of Nikon's digital only 18-200 Zoom the 18-70mm ED-IF AFS DX was the answer to that question. Effectivly giving the same angle of view digitally as a 27-105mm film zoom it was aimed squarely at the travel or home photographer who needed moderate true wide angle to "portrait" focal length short tele. The relatively slow f3.5-4.5 maximum apertures are not as much a problem for digital shooting as for film since most sensors start at ISO 320 or thereabouts and do not begin to experience image degredation due to excessive "noise" until ISO 800 or higher.
Being several years newer that it's film counterpart, the 18-70 benifits from some trickle down technological advances. The most important being the inclusion of the AF-S "silent wave" focusing motor. Focusing on my D100 is lightning fast and, initially disconcerting for an old film user used to whirring AF, completely silent. In addition, the ability to over ride or fine tune the focus manually without removing the camera from your eye is a real plus.
Optically, images are contrasty and sharp at all apertures when used at sensor settings of ISO 320-640 and distortion, while not as well controlled as its film cousin, is fairly typical for wide to tele zooms and can be corrected in an image edititng program like photoshop.
Mechanically the lens is NOT constructed as ruggedly as a Nikon pro-level zoom but is not as lightly constructed as some "kit" lenses. It falls somewhere in between and should be able to withstand regular use and a certain level of abuse as well.
The 67mm filter size - unique in Nikon's lens line up - is a real pain however. Most Nikon lenses these days use 52, 62, 72 or 77mm so 67mm is a real standout oddball. In truth, most digital photographers probably carry far fewer filters than film photogs in the days before digital imaging and editing, but still...... a new circular polarizer can add a bit to the cost factor.
Finally, with the advent of Nikon's 18-200 digital zoom last year I suspect the sale and resale value of these optics will rapidly decline as tons of advanced amateurs look to upgrade. This brings them into the realm of attractive alternatives for the budget minded without sacrificing utility or image quality.