From Nikon lens literature) Nikon Inc. has announced the latest addition to its legendary NIKKOR lineup, the new AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-300mm f/3.5-6.3G ED VR telephoto zoom lens. Designed for the DX-format photographer looking to get more out of their D-SLR camera, the versatile NIKKOR 18-300mm is a compact and lightweight 16.7X all-in-one telephoto zoom lens that delivers high performance and superior image quality. Whether capturing still images or HD video, the 18-300mm lens is built to help users capture content with vibrant colors and sharp details, plus shoot sports, vacations and wildlife with confidence.

MPB puts photo and video kit into more hands, more sustainably. Every month, visual storytellers sell more than 20,000 cameras and lenses to MPB. Choose used and get affordable access to kit that doesn’t cost the earth. For a lens covering such a huge zoom range, this lens is relatively compact and lightweight, only weighing 550g. In fact, size-wise, it is no larger or heavier than Nikons' 18-200mm lenses, which makes it a much better candidate as a walkabout than the previous 18-300mm lens. It feels right at home on the Nikon D7100 body used for testing, and will make a good companion for Nikon's smaller, entry level bodies as well. As is the case with Nikon's other consumer-grade lenses, high quality plastics have been used for much of the lens' construction and a rubber gasket surrounds the metal lens mount, to help prevent the ingress of dust and moisture into the camera body. The lens's angle of view widens dramatically on focusing from infinity to 0.45m, especially at the telephoto end. This is a common trait with superzooms, and the Nikon 18-200mm, Sigma 18-250mm and Tamron 18-270mm behave in just the same way. The result is that when the lens is focused to 2m, the 300mm telephoto end has an effective focal length that looks much closer to 200mm. In context, it's worth bearing in mind that long telephotos generally tend to used more for distant subjects, in which case the lens naturally behaves as a 'true' 300mm (as you can see from the comparison above). Meanwhile at short distances you merely have to move a little bit closer to compensate. Lens body elements Nikon’s first 18-300mm lens was a big and heavy affair that was less than ideal for a travel or holiday lens. This is the second one to come to market and, while it has a narrower aperture rating at the long end, of f/6.3 instead of f/5.6, it’s much more manageable. It’s noticeably smaller than the older lens, the latter also being 50 per cent heavier. Overall, the lens sharpness is not bad for a superzoom when compared to the 18-200mm, but certainly nowhere close to the sharpness and contrast of pro-level lenses like Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G or Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II. You can see lens sharpness tests with comparisons to the 18-200mm and 28-300mm later down in the review. Color rendition is pretty good, I would say on par with the 28-300mm. NIKON D800E + 18-300mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 300mm, ISO 100, 1/250, f/8.0 Vibration Reduction – VR IIf/3.5-5.6 VR DX zoom Nikkor versus 18-300mm f/3.5-6.3 VR DX zoom Nikkor Nikon has two 18-300mm DX zooms. How do they compare, and which is right for you? Nikon’s 18-300mm DX lenses. Left: 18-300mm f/3.5-6.3 AFS G DX. Right: 18-300mm f/3.5-5.6 AFS G DX lens

And here they all are again, this time fully extended (From left to right: Nikon 18-200mm, Nikon 18-300mm, Nikon 28-300mm): Chromatic aberrations, typically seen as purple or blue fringes in the peripheral areas of the image, are surprisingly well controlled on this lens. The examples below show what you should expect in the worst case. JPEG shooters won't even notice this much, as all modern Nikon dSLRs can eliminate chromatic aberrations very effectively. The Nikon 18-300mm is a very average lens with average performance overall. It is optically worse than the 18-200mm and it is much bigger and heavier in comparison. It has plenty of distortion, chromatic aberration, vignetting and other issues, but worst of all – its optical performance and focus accuracy at long focal lengths is disappointing. Personally, I would rather opt for the 18-105mm kit lens or the 18-200mm, both of which are cheaper and better optically. A petal-shaped hood is supplied with the lens, which does a decent job of shielding the front element from extraneous light that may cause flare or loss on contrast. Shooting into the light does result in a slight loss of contrast, especially at 300mm, but otherwise, this lens is quite resistant to flare. Not bad, I cannot see any apparent ghosting and flares in the image. As you zoom in towards the telephoto range, however, ghosting can become an issue. DistortionSubmit a valuation request and we'll provide guide prices with no delay. Plus, we'll collect your gear from your home or work for FREE. One of the key advantages of the Nikon 18-300mm lens is supposed to be its 9 blade diaphragm, which should result in better-looking round bokeh. In my experience, the number of blades on the latest Nikon lenses does not really matter, since the aperture blades are rounded. I have done some extensive bokeh tests and comparisons and I really could not see major differences between 9 blade and 7 blade rounded diaphragms. Now if you compare old straight aperture lenses with fewer blades to the new rounded ones, the difference is quite evident. In fact, I prefer rounded 7 blade diaphragm to a straight 9 blade one – try to test an older lens and see for yourself. At the 300mm end, the angle of view narrows to 5° 20', which is equivalent to that of a 450mm lens on a 35mm camera body (at least when focused at infinity). Ditto, last in respect to contrast. C is supposed to lose contrast at 300mm. But if it does, so does A. I see no difference. They're both good at 300.

Finally, at 300mm, sharpness remains very good in the centre of the frame between f/6.3 and f/11, although performance towards the edges of the frame never really exceeds fairly good levels at this focal length. A basic distance scale, marked in feet and meters, appears in a window just in front of the focus ring. The lens is not claimed to be weatherproof, but there is a rubber seal around the lens mount that should provide basic dust protection. Focal RangeNikon offers two 18-300mm zoom lenses for their DX (APS-C) format cameras. I had the brief opportunity to compare them and report my results. Specifications Nikon offers two DX “super-zoom” lenses that cover the 18-300mm range. That’s roughly the equivalent of a 27-450mm lens on a 35mm (FX) camera. This huge range is incredibly versatile for photographers who are traveling light and don’t wish to carry (or change) multiple lenses in the field. Both of these lenses offer image stabilization (VR), relatively fast internal focusing, and the use of Nikon’s extra low-dispersion (ED) glass. You’ve probably noticed my skeptical tone by now. I will be straightforward – I do not like this lens nor any other 18-300mm class optic. Why? Because they are too much of a compromise. Here’s what Nasim thought about the f/3.5-5.6 version of this lens in our review: At all focal lengths, subjects at 100 feet to several miles away, A and C are identically sharp. If there's any difference at all, I couldn't see it. While vignetting is easy to remove in Lightroom or Photoshop, it is still another process to run during post-processing. Take a look at the following worst-case scenario vignetting example, where the extreme corners are darkened by over 2 stops:

The lens suffers from similar problems as the other superzooms – sharpness and contrast vary by focal length and aperture, with the weakest numbers at the largest apertures. The performance of the lens at short focal lengths is pretty good, but anything above 105mm is average to below average. Contrast is quite poor wide open but gets better at f/5.6 and beyond. The 18-300mm is distinctly supersized compared to other DX-format superzooms, and indeed contrives to be larger and heavier than the full frame AF-S Nikkor 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR. Its design and construction are both typical mid-range Nikon, with extensive use of high-quality plastics for the lens barrel, and a runner seal around the metal lens mount to help prevent dust and water getting into the camera. The large barrel does mean that the zoom and focus rings are both generously sized.The pictures below illustrate the focal length range from wide to telephoto (taken from our usual camera position). Sell the kit you’re not using to MPB. Trade in for the kit you need to create. Buy used, spend less and get more. Buy. Sell. Trade. Create. The obvious question then, is how well do these two lenses compare in terms of optical performance? I mounted both lenses on my Nikon D850 to try them out, as I don’t currently own a DX Nikon DSLR. Supplied Accessories: HB-58 Bayonet Lens Hood, LC-77 Snap-on Front Lens Cap, LF-4 Rear Lens Cap, CL-1120 Soft Case