Nikon 2216 AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-300 mm f/3.5-6.3G ED VR Lens, Black

I am a graphic designer and photographer; I am also a Nikon fanboy. I have used Sony and Canon, but always come back to my trusty Nikon D5300. I had an AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-105 mm but sadly smashed it while on a night shoot. I was looking for a replacement but couldn't find a new one, and when I did, they were extortionately expensive.I did some research and found this one on Amazon that I could get on 5, 0% interest instalments, which was a no brainer, I really wish Amazon did more items on the 5 easy payment, 0% interest instalments scheme. It is so helpful and is a peace of mind. I have literally, just ordered a 4K monitor that I found on their website too.The lens is a Nikon 2216 AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-300 mm. But more importantly it has a metal F-Mount, which is a big deal because I have had my plastic one’s break. So, for me that is a massive bonus!I bought a new 67mm hood for the lens and already had a good quality CIR-PL filter.On Friday, I used the lens for the first time on a night shoot for a client in the middle of nowhere with a crew of 50 people and tower lights and the lens was fantastic, the 18-300 zoom was so helpful as the job site was about 650 metres long. I did the majority of photos handheld I took a few on my tripod, but to be honest it was just easier.The lens is not light along with my camera the whole thing weights about 2.6lbs.I got some lovely bokeh shots and some nice clean close ups of the crews. There is a bit of noise but with lightroom I have setup a batch reduction on the RAW files.I have to say this is an excellent official Nikon lens, and for the money it is expensive, but if you are able to do the 0% interest payments. I would highly recommend.

I purchased this lens as an all round travel lens to save me having to carry multiple lens or changing lens while out and about. This lens is very compact and is about the same size as the 18-140. The mount is metal and has a rubber ring around it to help prevent dust getting into the camera but note the lens is not sealed. When you zoom the lens barrel extends outwards but focusing is internal which is great if you want to use any filters as the front does not rotate when focusing. The zoom ring has a ribbed rubber grip and has a nice smooth movement. There is a locking switch to lock the zoom at 18mm when walking about to prevent zoom creep but I so far have not had any issues with this and not used the lock. The focus ring maybe is a little small but does work well. It does have focus override so you can manually adjust the focus even if you are in auto mode.The lens also has Vibration Reduction which can be turned on or off by a little switch on the side. I find this to be quite effective.Picture quality from this lens is quite impressive considering the zoom range on the lens and I find you can still get sharp images even if fully zoomed at the full 300mm. As expected with a lens of this range it does have some barrel distortion at both ends of the zoom but this is easily fixed in post processing. If you want to use filters this lens has a 67mm thread.

If your after a good all round walkabout lens for Nikon then this is it ' i took this lens & my D7100 out yesterday for a test and was very pleased with the results.My two main lenses are the 105 vr and 300f4 for wildlife so this lens was up against some quality Nikon glass and it held its own. I only manage an hour of testing before the heavens opened ' but i manage three good shots of a buzzard (considering the light)then a good shot of a bee on a flower' if you go to Flickr and check out happy snappy you will see the four pics i have mentioned.Other points ' focus speed = faster than 55-300 slower than 70-300 but very accurate ' VR = the best i have used.This lens is also very light weight at 550g and is a true replacement for a 18-55 +55-300 combo imho.To sum up this lens ' if i was going out knowing i was shooting birds from a distance the 300f4 + tc gets the nod ' if i was going out knowing i was mainly doing macro the 105 vr gets the nod ' if i was going out doing both i would take the 18-300 'its lite weight 'covers a lot of focal range' no lens swapping' and the chance of a landscape shot should it arise.

This is what I wrote for DP review:I purchased the 18-300 f6.3 version because of its weight. I was going on the inca trail and didn't fancy lugging my favourite Sigma 50-500OS. I also wanted a reasonably wide lens to capture more of the scenery.Before going I had the lens on my camera for a couple of months to get used to its foibles.I use a Nikon D5200 - mainly because of it's light weight and high resolution.Image quality - the wide end was all I wanted, and I've enjoyed using this lens for landscape.The long end is fine as long as you do not want to crop hard. It also performs considerably better when subjects are close, by which I mean that below 20 feet I felt it was much sharper - above 50 feet things were much less satisfactory especially when cropped. I know I was pushing the abilities of the lens.Focus was good even in quite poor light - but you need to help it if going from near to far - the instant manual over-ride is good for that.I didn't notice any particular artefacts in my pictures - probably 5000 frames so far nor could I detect a sweet spot - I usually shoot at around f8 but the only differences I noticed were loss of sharpness at the smallest apertures. (Not a surprise.)In all I liked this lens despite its weaknesses at the long end - but it can't replace a higher quality (and more expensive) zoom.

As a relatively new photographer, with a Nikon D3500, I consider this lens a great all-rounder. Ideal if want to photograph a variety of close and distant subjects and don't want the expense, weight or hassle of using multiple prime (or more restrictive zoom) lenses. There is of course a trade-off in quality, however. This lens doesn't open to a very wide aperture, and will not be as sharp as dedicated prime lenses.