Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR Lens

An important lesson in photography is that it doesn't matter how expensive your digital camera is, the pictures you take will only be as good as the quality of your lens. In fact, I would rather own a cheap camera / decent lens combo, than own a top-of-the-range camera and a cheap lens. One of my favourite reasonably priced lenses at the moment is Nikon's 18-105mm VR, a versatile and lightweight model which outperforms its economy price-tag. The lens is compatible with all of Nikon's current crop of digital SLR models, and many of their older shooters. The lens features a zoom range of 18-105mm (equivalent to around 7x), which makes it extremely versatile - it allows me to take wide-angle shots, and also get fairly close to my subjects when needs be. As a result, the lens represents a decent option for nature photographers, suitable for both landscape and animal spotting.

The 'VR' part of the lens's title stands for Vibration Reduction - a feature activated by flipping a small switch on the side of the body. In general, Nikon's vibration reduction is superb, and in practice you can get away with using a slower shutter speed that you normally would at full zoom. A switch above the Vibration Reduction allows you to choose between Auto and Manual focus modes - and here's one of the main issues I have with the lens - the manual focus ring feels flimsy, plasticky, and generally cheap. That said, let's not forget this is a budget model, and apart from this particular issue, the lens is rather good. It features Nikon's top quality ED glass, designed specifically to increase sharpness and minimize any chromatic aberrations.

The lens is comfortable to hold (and pretty light), with the zoom ring coated in a large rubberized grip. The zoom is spaced out nicely, and a decent turn is required in order to navigate through the entire range. This makes accurate zooming really easy, and thankfully, there isn't any 'lens-creep' (when the lens moves by itself via the power of gravity as you angle it vertically), which is something I find to be particularly annoying. Although it features a plastic lens mount, the build quality (apart from the focus ring as mentioned earlier) feels well made, and is arguably of a better quality that Nikon's other budget zoom, the 55-200 VR.

The aperture range (amount of light that enters the lens) starts out at f/3.5, and reaches f/5.6 by the time you get to around 85mm - for this reason the lens isn't especially good for low light photography (check out Nikon's cheap 50mm f/2 if you want an excellent and pin sharp low-light shooter) although the autofocus speed is pretty snappy in dim conditions. All the focusing is done inside the lens, meaning that the actual lens barrel doesn't ever rotate, which is good for those who like to use polarizing filters. Speaking of filters, if you're intending to use one with the lens, you'll need it to be of the 67mm variety. I generally leave a UV or skylight filter on all my lenses, so the glass at the front is protected at a times.

The closest focusing distance is around one and a half foot, meaning it really isn't best suited as a macro lens. That said, it can produce good results from this distance at full zoom - I've shot a few insects in this manner to decent effect. Finally let's look at the image quality - surely it can't be any good for such a reasonable price? Well actually, I have found the 18-105 to produce sharp results throughout the entire zoom range. That said, there is a little softness at the extremities - but nothing out of the ordinary for a budget model. Similarly, there is a bit of vignetting at full zoom (darkness in the corners of the image), although again, it's not something that I am particularly concerned about.

Overall then, Nikon's 18-105 VR is a really good lens, which I would wholeheartedly recommend if the finances dictate that you can't purchase a more expensive model. Personally, I would love to own Nikon's 18-200mm VR for the increased versatility, but it costs a hell of a lot more, and the image quality isn't any better. Although this particular model may sound fairly expensive, in the world of Nikon lenses, this is the equivalent of pennies - a real bargain at the price and a decent buy.

This is just the lens to cope with portraits,wide angle shots and general usage. It also gives
sharp images and is the kind of lens that can stay on the camera for the majority of shots.

I bought one of these pretty much on an impulse recently to use with my Nikon D90 as a general purpose walkabout lens.

I must admit that although I really wanted to like it, I never quite had much affection for it when compared to what I was using previously. It's now sold on again, so here's my opinion of it:

Good points:

Good price for a wide range of focal lengths.

Vibration Reduction. This works exceedingly well. I was able to get very sharp hand-held shots down to one quarter of a second with a little practice (and controlled breathing!) but at 1/15th and 1/30th (which are the more usual slow shutter speeds) this lens will produce extremely sharp, wobble-free pictures with no special effort at all on the part of the photographer.

Bad points:

Distortion at the wide end. This is very noticeable. If you're at 18mm and snapping buildings for example, they come out with a big "bulge" in the middle. Okay, so you can correct this in post-processing, but why would you want to put up with this when cheaper lenses don't suffer from it anywhere nearly as badly?
It goes away when you're past around 24mm, but then again what's the point in buying a wide lens when you can't freely use the widest setting?

Build quality is not up to much. It just feels quite "cheap" and not especially well made when compared to other Nikons, even ones in the same price band. The rubber coating was quite sloppily affixed, and there was a rough piece of moulding flashing left around the camera end of the lens.

Plastic lens mount. If you're unlucky enough to drop this setup then you can expect the lens to break off at the mounting. I've seen one or two for sale as "spares or repairs" where exactly this scenario has occurred. Don't pick the camera up by the lens either, especially if it's attached to a heavy body.

Speed. When zooming, it reaches its F5.6 setting long before the 70mm mark, where the better and cheaper Nikon 18-70 F3.5-4.5 is obviously faster.

But mainly, its images just don't seem to have that indefinable "spark" which marks out a great lens from the also-rans. Pictures just seem a little flat and lifeless. I've been using the older 18-70 non-VR as described above, and I must say that it's a better lens than the 18-105VR.
For one thing, it has a metal mount. For another, it's far better built and seems to focus faster. Finally, it just looks better in the finished pictures.

If you got one of these with your camera it would probably be a reasonably satisfactory all-rounder, but when you know what else you could get for the same or similar price it's not especially good value in my opinion.

I would have these instead:

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6G ED II Lens Black

Truly great value for the money, produces outstanding quality pictures and is an ideal DX format walkabout lens. Or, if you need better in low light, pick up a used one of these for around £60-90:

Nikon AF-S DX 3,5-4,5/18-70 G ED

Now this is an excellent zoom lens for sports and wildlife:

Nikon 55-200MM F/4-5.6 AF-S VR DX Black Lens

This is part of the same series as the 18-105VR, yet it just works better and even seems better made despite coming from the same place. I bought one of these for my old D40 and on the new D90 it works even better. The superior camera really unlocks the potential of this outstanding lens.

So, as the headline says, the Nikon 18-105VR is not exactly a bad lens, but it's pricey for what it is and you could create far better quality pictures with any of the options above for less outlay.