Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 8
Pros:
sharp corner to corner @ f/8 and above, good contrast, very little flare when sun in or near frame, nice bokeh @ 85mm wide-open.
Cons:
zoom creep sometimes when tilted down
Found this little beauty tucked away on a shelf at fotofile in Bangkok for $bht 8,800 (circa. $265 US). I was looking for a second-hand 35-70mm f/2.8 but decided to give it a look and boy am I glad I did. This is a great all-rounder on my D700. No de-centring and sharp into the very corners at f/8 (no corner USM required). Capture NX2 handles automatic correction of any distortion and chroma and with the high ISO of the D700 for all practical purposes this lens becomes a no-compromise lens for GP photography.
NOTE 1: According to the MTF data the bokeh should be best at 85mm wide-open.
Note 2: All samples were shot as JPEG fine and processed in Picasa i.e. these samples are not the best they could have been had they been shot in RAW and processed in Capture NX2.
So if you see one of these sitting on a shelf in some second-hand camera shop give it a try, sample variations aside, it just might suprise you
