Happy Birthday Me

January 2014; a new tax year, and perfect timing to fulfill my full-frame prophecy with the Nikon D610. Especially since my birthday is the 24th.

Along with that purchase comes a whole new set of lenses, one third wider, at no extra charge. Manual focus in the digital space will take on a whole new meaning with auto exposure capability. My Lensbaby will finally be all it can be. But the lens I’m most excited about is this one:

AF-S NIKKOR 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5 G ED VR

It’s a “kit” lens that really shines. In fact, I hesitate to call it such. It’s more like a “bundle” lens. Substantially better performance than others in its class at a reasonable price that gets even more so when you buy it with the camera. It's both faster and has VR. And a metal mount. 

Don’t get me wrong; I love the DX format. APS-C is here to stay as far as I’m concerned. But this new shift towards full-frame lenses makes things so much easier and opens up so many opportunities. Like these gems...

AF NIKKOR 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6 D

The 28-200mm D lens is a steal at around $150.00. The only catch is the 6 foot minimum focusing distance at all focal lengths. Otherwise, this is a sweet walkaround lens, especially if you need some reach.

AF NIKKOR 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 D

Here’s another sweet lens. Slightly shorter at the long end, but also smaller, lighter and faster. At 105mm, it’s only f/4.5, two-thirds of a stop faster than most lenses. And, it focuses to within 1.7 feet at all focal lengths.

AF NIKKOR 28-70mm f3.5-4.5 D

The tiniest of them all, this little gem is just as fast at the long end as the 28-105, if not as long. I have a Canon FD lens with the same specs except that it only goes as wide as 35mm, and isn’t autofocus.

All of these lenses are sharp and have metal mounts and aperture rings. But there’s another that has neither an aperture ring or a metal mount…

AF-S NIKKOR 28-200mm f3.5-5.6 G ED

This incredibly compact lens has both a far reach and close focusing distance of 1.4 ft at all focal lengths, at the expense of a metal mount and aperture ring. It’s also not nearly as much of a bargain, being a recent offering replaced by the current 28-300mm version. Still it can be had for about half th price of that lens if you don’t need the range. This latter lens is more of a kit lens than the new 24-85mm G. Interesting is the fact that it has a windowless focus scale, but no index mark, and the zoom ring goes in the opposite direction to the new G lenses.

I'm partial to the 28-105mm D myself. It seems a good compromise in terms of utility and price, and I can use it on my F3, N80, D50, D90 and D610. So if one comes my way, I’ll grab it just to have. Besides, it’s actually a really good macro lens as well.