Nikon Nikkor AF-S DX 16-80 mm f/2.8-4E ED VR

5x zoom range ; Fast f/2.8-4 maximum aperture ; Compact, lightweight design ; Fast, consistent autofocus ; Good image quality for a kit lens

VR less effective than advertised ; Heavy vignetting, distortion ; Standalone price a bit steep

This is one kit lens we certainly wouldn’t mind keeping in our Nikon camera bag. It may be a bit pricy to purchase on its own, but if you pick it up in a kit, we wager you’ll hang onto it even after you acquire higher-end glass. It’s simply one of the...

very useful parameters ; excellent image quality in the frame centre ; imperceptible longitudinal chromatic aberration ; moderate lateral chromatic aberration ; lack of problems with spherical aberration ; slight astigmatism ; sensational image...

slacks on the manual focus ring ; image quality on the edge of the frame should have been better ; high distortion not only at 16 mm ; noticeable coma ; not reliable, slow autofocus work ; exorbitant price

High brightness ; Perfect vibration reduction: 5 stops’ profit ; Beautiful bokeh ; Good build quality and not too heavy

Visible vignetting at full aperture ; Less sharp in the corners in comparison with the center

In our test, the Nikon 16-80 vibration reduction realized 1 stop more profit than the—already not too shabby—4 stops that Nikon claims.

Good image quality (compare with other mid range DX zoom)- Hardly any noticable aberration- Useful zoom range- Relatively large aperture- Have very good VR, effective and quiet- Allow full time manual override of the focus- Light and small

Slow and noisy AF, sometime misfocus - unpleasant bokeh- High distortion at all range- Weak against bright light- "3 pieces" design when zoom, slight wobbling of the lens barrel after using it few times.- Rear of the lens is not properly seals, you can...

Still testing. However, this lens, so far, is nothing but amazing. I would say it might be one of the best DX lens Nikon has made to date - at least at the long end. At 10' the 80mm covers 2' x 3'. Some very slight pincushion distortion. Very slight....

I see some barrel distortion at 16mm - maybe 3-4%. Pretty typical for almost all 16mm lenses out there and ALL wide angle zooms. At 80mm there is also a very small amount of pin cushion distortion - certainly less than 1%. There is also some vignetting...