I just acquired what would seem to be Nikon's most unexciting lens since the all-plastic 35-80mm f/4-5.6AF-D that usually came bundled with the F50...
And, in the same vain as it's lightweight ancestor, the 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED is part of a kit containing Nikon's most basic DSLR, the D50. Unlike the older lens which came in two versions - a little stunner with aspheric element, metal mount and proper focusing ring, replaced later by a simpler optical design and all plastic construction - the 18-55 seems to have skipped the initial phase of a respectable shell and moved straight to the vomit inducing mechanical design.
However, Nikon has not dulled down the optical design, and threw in an aspheric and an ED element. I suppose, after all these years these would have become cheap enough to make.
Why did I buy this lens? I haven't owned a zoom in over ten years and I'm a big fan of fast primes. This, in fact, was the reason I deferred my digital transition until I could afford a body that would play nice with my precious (mostly) AiS glass. I ended up getting a used but very nice D2H.
Therefore, a cheap slow zoom surely is the odd one out in my bag. Yet, going digital I had just lost my wide end and needed to fill the void quickly. My trusty 24/2.8 was one of my most used lenses, before it effectively became a 36mm and lost its edge.
Something needed to be done. Not having a big budget at my disposal I could only drool over over the 12-24 Nikkor, or even the 12-24 Tokina. Reading Bjørn's lens reviews I decided that the 18-70 kit lens might be a good stop-gap, but I couldn't find any good deals on it.
Then, I ran across this unused, as new 18-55 for $150, and bought it on a whim. I've been known to waste a lot more on lemons, so what the heck?
Today it arrived, and what can I say? It feels crappy but looks slightly more respectable courtesy of its gold ED labeling. The focusing ring is still a disgrace (like on the later 35-80).
Another disgrace is that Nikon doesn't include the HB-33 lens hood! What are they thinking?? Those are not easy to find, but HK Supplies were selling them through eBay. Looking at their images I found it looking awfully similar to the good old metal screw-in hood HN-3. Of which I had one surplus. Low and behold, the HN-3 works perfectly without vignetting. Big smiles. You know, I'm a religious believer in lens hoods
What's more, the lens hood doubles nicely as grippable focusing ring (the front element *is* the focusing ring on this lens).
So, ahead I went and mounted the lens on my D2H. It fitted...
The next positive surprise was that the position of the M/A switch on the lens communicates across to the camera, so I don't have to set M twice.
I went on to shoot things, brick walls, objects around the house, garden etc. My first impression is this:
Being the slow lens it is, I'm much interested in its wide open performance. My preliminary verdict in this discipline is that it performs ok from 35mm up, usable from 24mm, but is quite soft at 18mm, even in the centre. The 18mm softness seems to completely disappear by f/8.
The lens also has a clearly visible amount of barrel distortion at the wide end, though not as much as the old (metal mount) 35-80.
I'm going to give it a work-out at close range indoor/party shots with flash, as well as sweeping close to infinity landscape shots. None of which are likely taken wide open anyway.
Should anyone be interested I shall take a series of illustrative if unscientific test shots and link them here.
Summarising my first impressions, being an engineer, equipment nut and ungifted perfectionist, I'd have to say this lens performs much better than it feels. I'm not sure I'll keep it but it certainly wasn't $150 wasted. PS: Hey, Ken Rockwell says this lens is excellent, so what am I wasting my breath for...?
