27.06.2017

Beast is the correct term when it comes to dimensions and the weight of this lens: over 1 kilogram of weight (1070 gram). You realize this once in your backpack or photobag and in your hand when it is mounted to the camera. But stay strong, it’s all about the training. And it is really long with 15.4 cm without (!) the lens hood at 50 mm. At 24 mm it reaches 18.4 cm and with the lens hood the focal length doesn’t matter it has 21.1 cm. These two characteristics can be seen as disadvantages but these are only disadvantages when you don’t have enough space in your bag and if you don’t like to lift heavy things.

The Performance

The image quality is in my opinion outstanding. The expectations are fulfilled, because it is a (expensive) prime lens. It is absolutely sharp from the smallest focal length to the longest. If you photograph with 24 mm a landsdcape you’ll get a reliable result, where you can see no difference between this lens and the Nikkor 14-24 mm f/2.8 at 24 mm. The other focal lengths are working excellent too, for landscape and nature shots. Of course you can use the 50 mm and the 70 mm focal lengths for the standard tasks: portrait. On this field the widest aperture delivers crisp and sharp pictures. Of course it gets much sharper with a smaller aperture but f/2.8 is already usable. I used this lens for some sport photography jobs, and there comes next big advantage of this Lens visible: the auto focus. I never saw such a fast focus. It is really impressive how reliable and fast it catches the wanted content of the picture, even when the light situation is almost too dark or difficult to handle.

The VR is also wonderful addition when you are in low light situations or you just need a small aperture. It allows to take free handed photos under the recommended exposure settings. For example the aperture automatic shows 1/30 of a second at 50 mm with activated VR – in normal mode – you will get a sharp result on the camera screen. I wanna be honest I never activated the “Active” mode of the VR. This setting is recommended when you take your photos from a moving platform, says the manual. Didn’t needed it until now

The most important discipline for me is how far can I get with the editing of the images because sometimes I just want to get a perhaps unrealistic but really dramatic atmosphere. The answer is simple very far. The contrast and the dynamic range of the 24-70 mm are huge. It produces great living colors, wonderful lightning and deep and strong depths. Of course in raw. You can see the final results down below and a bigger impression in the gallery section.

The Downer

For me there is one. When you take a picture at 70 mm at f/2.8 at the closest focusing distance (41 cm) you will get an image what is far away from sharp. Since I’m using this lens there were if I’m correct two situations where I needed this “settings”. The old version of this lens does this job better what I have saw in other reviews. But in my opinion I can neglect this downer, because this is no macro/micro lens and I made some wonderful photographs with it and would still recommend it.

An irrelevant characteristic for me is the material. The quality and feeling of it is great but you will get no metallic lens body. There are no information about the used material for this lens. On Nikon’s website you can only find that it is a robust and reliable construction. And yes it is robust though their used a kind of plastic for the body. But keep in mind: Nikon was one of the first manufacturers who used plastic for their products. So they know how to build a prime lens.

The Conclusion

At this time you have to pay 2100.00 EUR here in europe (the U.S. prices are one to one) for this prime lens. This is a lot of money, especially when you realize there is an older version of this lens what price starts about 1600.00 EUR. So you put 500 more on the table for a bigger and heavier lens AND a Vibration Reduction. Is it worth it? For me it is, especially the VR. I’m shooting very often in low light situations and don’t want always use a tripod. You shouldn’t be scared of this unhandy dimensions and volume of this lens will get used to it. I’m using it on a Nikon D750.