I got my Nikon 28-80mm f/3.3-5.6 G Wideangle-Telephoto Autofocus Zoom Lens with the Nikon N55 camera I bought recently. The lens came in the same color as the camera (silver), but Nikon also produces it in black finish. The filter size for this lens is 58mm. The lens utilizes Nikon "F" AF/G mount.

Focusing

The camera (N55 and others) lets you switch between auto focus and manual focus for AF lenses. Since the lens in question is an AF lens, it has motorized focus ring, which you can also use to focus manually when the camera switch is set to MF.

If you select MF position for manual focus, you can rotate the ring around the lens until the subject you want to focus on is clear. I want to point out that the lens has no distance markings on the focus ring and thus I cannot use the depth of field tables to figure out where I need to focus to get the depth of field I need at the given focal length.

And since the camera I have has no Depth of Field (DOF) preview, I have to “guesstimate” depth of field. The focus ring itself feels ever-so-slightly flimsy. But for the price, I have nothing to complain about.

The focusing ring has the tendency to rotate if you are using a polarizer and have to adjust it by rotating it (in MF mode). In this case, you have to hold the focus ring with one finger while rotating the polarizer ring with other two.

The minimum focusing distance is 1.1 feet.

Zooming

One of the reasons I bought a camera with this lens was the fact that I wanted a wide-angle-capable lens (28mm focal distance). This lens zooms from 28 to 80mm, which is what I need. The zooming is by the wide well-textured ring, which feels well damped and has no zoom creep. The lens lets you zoom from 28mm wide-angle to 80 low-telephoto.

Aperture Control

This Nikon 28-80 f/3.3-5.6 G is, as the name implies, a G lens – it has no aperture ring and the aperture is set using camera controls. I would like to have an aperture ring, but that would probably raise the price of the lens. The aperture of this lens has seven rounded blades for improved Bokeh (“Blur” in Japanese – for improved control of out-of-focus highlights).

The maximum aperture of the lens in f/3.3 at 28mm wide-angle and f/5.6 at 80mm telephoto. The minimum aperture is f/22, which can provide you with DOF of .75 m to infinity at wide angle (if you have enough light and/or use a tripod).

Performance

I mostly like modes where I myself can choose either aperture (to control depth of field) or the shutter speed (to control blur caused by handheld camera operation or the moving subjects). The lens worked flawlessly.

The pictures came out sharp, with excellent detail level, contrast and colors. The sharpness was excellent, however I try not to use f/3.3 aperture setting at night (available light pictures at night seemed to have slight vignetting (edges darker than the center) at 28mm).

Shots at f/5.6 and smaller apertures were excellent. The portraits shot at f/5.6-f/8 apertures came out with perfectly blurred background and nice bokeh.

Reliability

As of 1/2011, I have used this lens for over 6 years with both film and digital Nikon SLR cameras and it still works perfectly well and produces stunning results.

Bottom Line

The Nikon 28-80 F/3.3-5.6 G AF is an excellent lens for the price and I highly recommend it.

Recommended: Yes