I decided to forego the 18-105mm kit lens, and order my D90 body with a lens having a metal mount and more conservative range (The AF-S DX Nikkor 16-85mm f/3.5-4.5G ED VR). My thinking was that since this lens is going to be on my camera 90% of the time, quality was more important than convenience. With a full-frame range of 24-127mm, this is my dream lens.
The 18-105 would have given me a top end of 157.5mm, and the hugely popular 18-200mm (which is like having 4 lenses in one) would have given me 300mm. So, in a fleeting moment of lens-envy, I took a photo with the 16-85mm at full zoom and used Photoshop to crop it as I would have with the 18-200mm. The quality was so good, so void of noise and aberration, that I easily resampled it to match the original pixel dimensions. The results surprised even me.
The secret is to set Photoshop’s interpolation preferences to bicubic smoother, and sharpen afterward at a huge percentage (400%!) but at a very small radius (0.5 px). This reduces the aliasing during enlargement, and sharpens only fine detail, resulting in a better image.
So if I need to zoom in that tight on a whim, I can take care of it in post. No more lens-envy. And if I need to do any serious telephoto work, There’s always the AF-S Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED VR, which would be a nice complement to this lens, and is 100% compatible with the N80. And on the D90, it tops out at 450mm!
View the full tutorial on how to enhance low-res images >
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