Nikon 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G ED-IF AF-S DX Nikkor Lens

Nikon 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G ED-IF AF-S DX Nikkor Performance

Sharpness in the centre portion of the frame at 18mm is already excellent at maximum aperture and the quality towards the edges is good enough. Stopping down improves clarity across the frame and peak sharpness is achieved at f/8, where the clarity is excellent across the frame.

A similar pattern of performance is repeated at 35mm, with excellent centre sharpness at maximum aperture, with the clarity improving towards the edges of the frame as the lens is stopped down. Peak quality across the frame is achieved between f/5.6 and f/8 at this focal length.

Finally at 70mm, the lens holds up well, maintaining excellent sharpness in the centre at maximum aperture and very good sharpness towards the edges of the frame. Peak quality is again achieved between f/5.6 and f/8.

Resolution @ 18mm		Resolution @ 35mm
Resolution @ 70mm		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 D300 using Imatest.

Chromatic aberrations may start to become visible in high contrast regions towards the edges of the frame at either end of the zoom range. Imatest recorded values approaching one pixel width, which may require some correction in image editing software.

Chromatic aberrations @ 18mm		Chromatic aberrations @ 35mm
Chromatic aberrations @ 70mm		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 D300 using Imatest.

Falloff of illumination towards the corners of the frame is reasonably controlled. At 18mm the corners are 1.36 stops darker than the image centre at maximum aperture and this reduces to 0.97 stops at 70mm. Visually uniform illumination is achieved at f/5.6 throughout the zoom range.

Distortion at 18mm can be quite noticeable for a lens of this focal length, with Imatest recording 4.22% barrel distortion. At 70mm 0.484% pincushion distortion is present, which is much less noticeable. Luckily the distortion pattern is uniform across the frame, so any curvature of lines should be relatively easy to correct in image editing software.

A fairly deep petal shaped hood is supplied with the lens, which does an excellent job of shielding the front element from extraneous light that may cause flare of loss of contrast. When shooting into the light, this lens is fairly resistant to flare and good levels of contrast are maintained.

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