The 18-200mm sits squarely in Nikon's mid-range family of zooms, and the build quality is therefore noticeably superior to the lower-end kit lenses such as the 18-55mm. The lens feels nicely solid; the barrel is made from metal and high grade plastics, and the metal mount is surrounded by a rubber gasket, which should provide some protection against dust and moisture ingress into the camera body [note however that Nikon don't advertise this lens as weatherproof]. Sure it's not up to the standards of the top professional-grade lenses, but that would add additional size and weight [not to mention cost], and in my opinion Nikon have struck a near-perfect balance between build quality and portability, which after all is the whole point of a superzoom.
Serious photographers will undoubtedly welcome the inclusion of a proper manual focus ring and distance scale, especially as Nikon's 'A/M' focusing mode allows manual tweaking of focus even when the camera body is set to AF.
On the camera
The lens feels ideally balanced on larger dSLRs such as the D300, but can feel a little front-heavy on the smaller bodies such as the D40/D60 range [although still perfectly usable]. Controls are well-placed; the zoom ring is positioned perfectly for operation by the thumb and forefinger, with the slim manual focus ring then operable by the middle finger. The various switches are also placed within easy reach on the side of the lens barrel. Overall, it's a well considered, easy-to-use design.
One note of caution though; on smaller SLR bodies such as the D60, the lens will block the built-in flash at focal lengths wider than 24mm, resulting in a shadow in the lower center of the image.
Autofocus
This lens features Nikon's compact silent-wave motor for autofocus, which performed extremely well; it's almost silent in operation, and we saw no evidence for any systematic focusing errors. We found focusing to be fast and accurate in everyday use on both the D300 and D60 test bodies, however it must be noted that focus speed and accuracy is dependent upon a number of variables, including the camera body used, subject contrast, and light levels.
Zoom creep
Zoom creep is a common user criticism of this model, and refers to a tendency for the lens either to extend under its own weight to the telephoto position when the camera is held pointing downwards, or conversely to collapse back to the wide angle position when pointed upwards. The effect of this ranges from merely annoyance, when the lens spontaneously extends to telephoto simply from being carried over the shoulder, to a downright nuisance, when the camera is pointed at an angle up or down for shooting and the lens won't maintain its focal length [especially problematic when using a tripod].
Our review sample showed zoom creep between the 24mm and 135mm settings, but only with the camera held near-vertically; however it seems reasonable to expect that the problem will worsen as the zoom ring loosens up with age. This is clearly an issue about which potential users need to be aware, but I wouldn't consider it a deal-breaker except under exceptional circumstances.
Lens body elements
The front element extends an impressive 65mm on zooming, with only a little lateral play even at 200mm.
The lens's angle of view widens very noticeably on moving from infinity to close focus, especially at the telephoto position. Such behavior is common with internal-focus lenses, but rarely to this extent.
Reported aperture vs focal length
Here we show the maximum and minimum apertures reported by the camera at the marked focal lengths.
Focal length 18mm 24mm 35mm 50mm 70mm 135mm 200mm Max aperture
F3.5
F3.8
F4.2
F4.8
F5
F5.6
F5.6
Min aperture
F22
F25
F29
F32
F32
F36
F36
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Nikon has today announced an impressive 11.1x DX format optical zoom lens with Vibration Reduction. The AF-S DX VR 18-200mm F3.5-5.6G IF-ED Zoom-Nikkor [try saying that three times quickly] provides an equivelant field of view range of 27 to 300 mm on a DX format digital SLR [such as the newly announced D200]. In addition to the big zoom range you get a silent wave motor for high speed focusing and Vibration Reduction II [pretty essential at 300 mm equiv.]. It is expected to be around €749 and should be available at 'the end of December 2005'.
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