This is the kit lens that comes with the new Nikon D700 digital SLR. It is a midrange 5x zoom that goes from wide angle to telephoto. This is not going to be a technical review of the lens. For that, try this Lab Test Report on photozone. This is just my impressions using it. (Although I did use the lens for some gray card exposure tests and noticed vignetting in the corners.)
I have just been using this as a walking-around lens to take travel photos. For most of the shots the camera was set on full auto mode. The main reason I got it is because it came with the kit and seemed like a good deal.
Cheap Plastic Lens Shade
My main complaint lens shade is plastic and always rotates which results in vignetting at wide angles. The lens shade doesn’t really lock into place solidly. It is always kind of loose. I don’t know why they don’t use a real metal lens hood that positively locks into place. Maybe I need to tape the hood in place or something.
Another limitation is that it is a variable aperture zoom so it is not really useful for shooting with studio strobes, unless the widest aperture is f/5.6
It is also too slow for indoors and low light situations. I would prefer an f/2.8 constant aperture zoom.
VR in the name stands for Vibration Reduction. Nikon claims that you can shoot with 3-stops slower shutter speed without seeing camera shake blur. I will take that at face value.
Pros
Wide angle to telephoto (5x zoom)
Vibration Reduction
Cons
Variable-aperture zoom
No apeture ring on the lens barrel
Cheap plastic lens shade that is alwaysloose
Not the greatest specs
Recommendation: If I had it to do over again I would get a different lens. Maybe a wide zoom with constant aperture like the Nikkor 17-35 f/2.8
