Nikon AF-S DX 18-140mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR Lens - Black

Product Information

It's a little bit soft wide-open at these crazy-close distances, but so what; depth of field is nonexistent this close so it's not that important: You won't usually care, but the design of the 18-140mm VR DX is such that air, and thus dirt, are pumped in and out into both your lens and your camera. Although this lens isn't available as part of a kit yet, it seems like the logical home for this will be sold bundled with an SLR. Whether it will be added to a kit with one of Nikon's current SLRs, or a new one remains to be seen.

The scale on the left side is an indication of actual image resolution. The taller the column, the better the lens performance. Simple. I also did some tests at 75mm and the same general pattern is there. The 18-200mm is better at 75mm than it is at 140mm but is still way behind the 18-140mm in the centre and is also worse in the corners. Zooming to 70mm narrows the maximum aperture to f/5, and the lens performs well here—its center-weighted average score is 2,385 lines; only the outer third is soft (1,424 lines). At f/8 the center-weighted average is about the same, but the edges sharpen to 2,000 lines. The older 18-105mm is sharper on average at its f/5.3 maximum aperture (2,591 lines), and its edges are about the same as the 18-140mm; it maintains average performance at f/8, but its edges don't sharpen up as nicely, scoring just 1,567 lines. When used on DX cameras, it sees the same angle of view as a 28-210 mm lens sees when used on an FX or 35mm camera. Finally, at 140mm, sharpness is very good in the centre of the frame and good towards the edges of the frame at maximum aperture. Stopping down to f/8 produces outstanding sharpness in the centre of the frame with very good clarity towards the edges.

Autofocus

Optical Image Stabilization (OIS, IS or VR (Vibration Reduction)) is great. I see a four-stop real-world improvement on my internally stabilized Z9.

Closest focus distance is 45cm, and focusing is performed internally, so the 67mm filter thread does not rotate, which makes this lens ideal for use with graduated filters and polarisers. Based on CIPA Standard. This value is achieved when attached to a DX-format digital SLR camera, with zoom set at the maximum telephoto position. This lens is a competent performer, producing decent sharpness throughout its zoom range, with low falloff and CA. However it appears to be priced quite highly, and probably doesn't perform well enough to justify being a choice as an upgrade from a similar lens, like Nikon's 18-135mm lens, that is no longer available. However, if it is bundled as a kit with a camera body for a decent price in the future, it should be a choice most photographers, after a convenient zoom lens, should be happy with. Something else I have seen comments about online is that this lens suffers less from focus breathing than the 18-200mm VR. I'd say that's not the case, it seems to be pretty much the same. And why would it not be, it's a super zoom, the design constraints are largely the same as the 18-200mm VR.

Some might consider buying this lens to replace a pair of Z DX 16-50mm f/3.5-6.3 VR and Z DX 50-250mm f/4.5-6.3 VR zooms, often sold as part of a Z 50 kit. There are pros and cons. The Z DX 18-140mm doesn’t deliver a step up in image quality or all-round performance, and the build quality and handling aren’t really any better. On the plus side, the more versatile 18-140mm zoom range means you won’t need to swap the lens on your camera so often, if at all. It features a rounded 7-blade diaphragm which creates an attractive blur to out-of-focus areas of the image and an internal focusing mechanism which means the lens barrel doesn't move. For a Nikon design, one strange thing is that the falloff in sharpness from center to corner seems to be pretty much following the same curve throughout the focal range. The corners never get into the excellent range for me at any focal length or aperture combination. For the users this lens is destined for, that's probably fine, but don't think you're going to pull in really sharp corners on your 24mp camera without an AA filter.

The Nikon Z DX 18-140mm F3.5-6.3 VR lens utilises a stepping AF motor that produces almost silent, smooth and quite snappy auto-focusing, making it well-suited to shooting both stills and video, with the overall lens length remaining constant during focusing. This lens only ships with front and rear lens caps - there is no lens hood or any kind of case included in the box. Focal Range

Nikon Nikkor AF-S DX 18-140mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR Sample Photos

Of course diffraction always limits sharpness of all lenses at apertures smaller than about f/11. By f/22, all lenses are pretty soft.

Bit expensive for what you get, you need post processing as Jpegs out of the camera are not that good. The Nikon Z DX 18-140mm F3.5-6.3 VR produces quite nice sunstars when set to 18mm and stopped-down to f/22 or greater, as shown below. Flare is well controlled even when shooting directly into the sun without a lens hood fitted. Macro The optical path has no less than 17 elements and features one aspherical element and one ED (Extra-low Dispersion) element. Nikon’s conventional Super Integrated Coating is applied to reduce ghosting and flare.

The Nikon AF-S DX 18-140mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR kit zoom lens for DSLRs works well for travel photography

Nikon's Z cameras always correct for lateral color fringes (lateral chromatic aberration). This is part of Nikon's secret sauce and never appears in any menu. Linear distortion is a problem. The lens has a strong case of barrel distortion at 18mm (almost 3% average) and beyond 24mm we're already hitting pincushion distortion. which peaks between 50-70mm (about 3%), but is still highly visible at 140mm (about 2.5%). With this much linear distortion, correcting it in software will almost certainly reduce overall resolution towards the edges, unfortunately, as you're moving a lot of pixel data around. Coupled with edge sharpness that is already down a notch from the center, this poses a bit of a problem in getting lots of clean detail in corners, obviously. I have even bought a second, refurbished 18-140, so I can also carry one in my D610 bag to use with that camera in DX mode. It works well that way, and usually produces sharper images outdoors than the 24-85 on that camera. Of course, with the lower pixel count cropping of DX mode images is not as flexible. It does work very well, though, as all my DX lenses do on the D610 in DX mode. At the wider angle focal lengths (18-21mm), distortion is distinctly of the ''barrel'' type, with the center of the image pushing outward from the middle. This form of distortion is easier to correct in image post-processing software, as both the edges and the center of the image are barrel-distorted. At its widest point (18mm) the edges of the image show over 1% barrel distortion. We didn't experience very much"hunting", either in good or bad light, with the lens accurately focusing most of the time.