KAKKNAR STORMHAMMER

★★★★★  This flexible and lightweight lens is convenient for eco touring
Date posted : Saturday, Aug 10 2019

I am pleased with this lens for its low weight and compactness that rides easily in my spiderholster. For a reasonably, but not super-, sharp lens that is a good package. It gives you a 300mm reach at a reasonable cost. I use it on bird watching trips. A 300mm lens isn't really up to the task, but anything longer would strain my back on long hikes, so it's a compromise I am willing to accept. My subject is usually at the center of the image, so although I wish it were a tad sharper, sharpness is adequate. If I were buying this lens today, I would take a close look at the new Nikkor 300mm f/4 PF as a substitute. It is equally light and might be a superior lens.The auto focus is super fast. However, when photographing birds, focusing is usually a two step process and the second step is difficult with this lens. Step 1 is Autofocus to get an approximate focus. Step 2 is Manual focus to fine tune. If you are photographing polar bears, there is no need for step 2, but with birds, step 2 is often necessary because the autofocus gets tricked by leaves and branches. The fine tuning is very difficult and very often impossible before the bird flies away. Such difficulty is to be expected when attempting to photograph birds, which are notoriously uncooperative subjects. However, at f/5.6 there is not a lot of light to work with and it is very difficult to tell when the subject is in focus even if it is perfectly still. The tiniest of nudges seems to turn the focus ring from under-focused to over-focused and the focus ring has a tiny free play whereby it moves a bit before it engages. This manual focusing difficulty might be an issue with digital photography in general rather than with this particular lens. The old manual lenses were by comparison a pleasure to focus.The 28-300 works very well as a macro lens as well.For nature travel, this lens allows you to capture landscapes as well as distant animals. For the price and weight, it is well worth having.

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J. Duider

★★★★★  Great lens all around
Date posted : Tuesday, Jul 9 2019

This lens is great! It’s lighter than what I expected based on the reviews. It focuses great with my D750. I would have to agree with the others that have also reviewed it about it being more along the lines of 275mm but it’s still phenominal even with a subject at close range.

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Island Guy

★★★★★  Great all around lens
Date posted : Sunday, Jul 7 2019

I like the focal range. It made a great all around lens. It is not a featherweight but it’s is small and light (for full frame 300mm lens). It is not a fast lens but the image stabilization (IS) helps out here and IS also helps for hand holding at longer focal lengths. But it is 5.6 at the long end and good light is helpful for that. I have been using it on my Z7 with the FTZ adaptor. Pixel peeping and comparing to my 24-70 F2.8 or 70-200 F2.8, or 70-300 f4.5-5.6, this lens, the 28-300 is not quite as sharp as the others. But that is only noticeable when magnifying the image, to almost the pixel level, very very close to the image. “Normal” people don’t look at photos in this manner. Side by side without magnifying the image, there are no visible differences between the lenses I cited above and this lens. I am happy with the results I get and this lens seems to have found a resident home on my Z7. I take it along on walks and for indoor events like parties. I only need one lens. It has a handy slide switch that locks it at 28mm. That is helpful when walking around because when walking with hanging lens down, it will creep out to 300mm. The lock keeps if from doing that. Build quality is good for this category of lens. It is a plastic lens, that keeps the weight down, it has a metal mount. I don’t plan to take it out in a driving rain storm. I think this is a good value lens, good quality for a reasonably low price. Like I said it has found a home on my Z7.

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Doug P.

★★★★★  Nikon AF-S FX Nikkor 28-300mm F/3.5-5.6G ED
Date posted : Monday, Jul 1 2019

I bought this to go with a Nikon D750 witch needed some extra reach. I already owned the DX version 18-300 F3.5-5.6 for my D7100 and was very satisfied with that lens. The 28-300 did not disappoint and performed very well. If you are a pixel peeper then maybe you need primes instead. For me the lens performs threw out its range extremely nicely.This range for me is exactly what I need for a walk around lens. It is a little heavy but I am used to its weight.I would recommend this lens for out door daylight shots. It shines in good light situation. If you need low light then look for a faster 2.8F stop.

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AGuy

★★★★★  great lens
Date posted : Wednesday, Apr 17 2019

Fantastic lens. This is a replacement for my old 28-300 lens non VR lens from 10+ years ago. Its not the fastest lens at 3.5/5.6 but its not designed to be super fast. The focusing motor is almost dead silent. The first time I tried out the lens it was out of focus but with a deep DoF so the view finder image as not that out of focus, when I had the lens focus I thought it didn't work since I heard nothing. I manually took it out of focus and let it autofocus back while paying attention for the noise and barley heard anything. The fact the front element does not spin with the focus is great if you are using filters that are polarizing or graduated. Color fringing is not an issue with the lens. It does have considerable distortion at both ends but this is correctable and predictable. The lens correction values are available. Its a superzoom, you have to expect issues like that with a zoom of this range.

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Barry Moskowitz

★★★★★  Awesome lens, of course its not quite as sharp ...
Date posted : Wednesday, Apr 3 2019

Awesome lens, of course its not quite as sharp as my 300mm F4, but then thats the pit fall of a zoom lens. However, Im quite happy with the results so far on my d750 camera body. I wanted a good all around lens for my ski trip out to SLC. This lens fits the bill perfectly. Nice wide angle for scenic mountain shots, and the telephoto for close up action shots.

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mike g.

★★★★★  Jammed less than 1 yr old
Date posted : Sunday, Mar 24 2019

This WAS my go to lens, I loved it, then the telescope mechanism jammed, no fault of mine, I sent it in for repair to get a bill for $411.00...I was a Nikon person for 45 years, hello Cannon

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Douglas W. Taft

★★★★★  Great lens with a lot of latitude!
Date posted : Wednesday, Mar 20 2019

I love this lens. It's not light, but if you're shooting a full-frame DSLR, you're not putting weight at the top of your needs list. The latitude from 28-300 frightened me, but it seems to shoot great through the range. Adobe Camera Raw has recognizes this lens and the adjustments that need to be made and they're just a radio button away.I like the ability to zoom and also shoot landscapes. It's not going to be the best at either end of the range, but it takes great photos and the autofocus and VR work great. So much quieter than my Sigma 105mm macro (which I still love, too). In a pinch, it takes decent macro shots. You can't open it wide enough to get really blurry bokeh, but that's not what this lens is for.

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