Nikon AF-S DX Nikkor 18?55mm f/3.5?5.6G VR II Lens Review

Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR II Performance

At maximum aperture and 18mm, sharpness falls just short of excellent levels in the centre and is good towards the edges of the frame. Stopping down improves performance across the frame, with peak sharpness being achieved at f/5.6. Here clarity is outstanding in the centre and excellent towards the edges of the frame.

Zooming to 35mm results in a reduction of performance at maximum aperture. Here sharpness is very good in the centre, but can only be considered fair towards the edges of the picture area. Stopped down to f/8, performance at this focal length is much improved. Here sharpness is outstanding across the frame.

Finally, at 55mm sharpness across the frame evens out and it is very good across the frame at maximum aperture. Stopping down to between f/8 and f/11 results in the best performance. Here sharpness is excellent across the frame.

MTF@18mm

MTF@35mm

MTF@55mm

How to read our charts The blue column represents readings from the centre of the picture frame at the various apertures and the green is from the edges. Averaging them out gives the red weighted column. The scale on the left side is an indication of actual image resolution. The taller the column, the better the lens performance. Simple. For this review, the lens was tested on a Nikon D3300 using Imatest.

Levels of chromatic aberrations are well controlled for much of the zoom range, only reaching levels that may cause issues when stopped down beyond f/11 at 18mm. Here fringing exceeds 1.5 pixel widths towards the edges of the frame, which may become visible in harsh crops, or in large reproductions of images.

CA@18mm

CA@35mm

CA@55mm

How to read our charts Chromatic aberration is the lens' inability to focus on the sensor or film all colours of visible light at the same point. Severe chromatic aberration gives a noticeable fringing or a halo effect around sharp edges within the picture. It can be cured in software. Apochromatic lenses have special lens elements (aspheric, extra-low dispersion etc) to minimize the problem, hence they usually cost more. For this review, the lens was tested on a Nikon D3300 using Imatest.

Falloff of illumination towards the corners of the frame is quite typical for a lens of this range and maximum aperture. At 18mm the corners are 1.7 stops darker than the image centre at maximum aperture. At 55mm the corners are only 0.625 stops darker than the image centre. Visually uniform illumination is achieved with the lens stopped down to f/8 or beyond throughout the zoom range.

Distortion is also quite typical for a lens of this type with 3.98% barrel distortion present at 18mm, which gives way to 0.427% pincushion distortion at 55mm. If straight lines are paramount, you'll be glad to hear that the distortion pattern is uniform across the frame, which should make applying corrections in image editing software relatively straightforward.

This lens is quite resistant to flare, and contrast holds up well when shooting into the light. This is a good job, as no hood comes as standard with the lens.

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