Review: Nikon DX 16-85mm
By
Andrew Alexander, The Imaging Resource
(Sunday, April 6, 2008 - 12:01 EDT)
Released in March 2008, the 16-85mm ƒ/3.5-5.6 can be considered the ''designed-for-digital'' spiritual successor to the popular 24-120mm ƒ/3.5-5.6 VR.
The 24-120mm Nikkor gained much popularity with its combination of a convenient range of focal lengths and vibration reduction (VR) technology: however, it was considered by many to be unacceptably soft, and the maximum aperture of ƒ/5.6 by 85mm and longer to be unacceptably slow.
With the 1.5x crop factor inherent in a Nikon APS-C sensor, the lens gives an effective field of view of 24-128mm. Apart from reducing the size of the individual lens elements to fit the smaller sensor, Nikon has made some changes to the layout of the elements themselves; the 16-85mm features two additional lens elements (up from 15 to 17), one of which is an additional aspherical lens element. To keep the lens affordable, Nikon actually hasn't packed the lens full of its latest technology: the most it boasts is Nikon's Super Integrated Coating to reduce lens flare and ghosting, however, it does integrate Nikon's VR2 vibration reduction.
As a DX lens, it's not designed to cover the full 35mm imaging circle, and unlike some other lens designs which will work at some zoom settings, the 16-85mm will always vignette to some degree when mounted on a film body or a FX sensor body. The D3 will work with the lens, automatically setting itself to DX mode. The lens is a ''G'' style lens, so there is no aperture ring; on older film bodies the lens would be limited to shooting at its smallest aperture. The lens is available now with a MSRP of $649.
For more, read our Nikon 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR DX AF-S review.
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