The build quality of the lens is very good. It's based on a metal mount, while the lens tube feels more like plastic. At 35mm on FX at infinity, the sides and last couple of millimeters of the corners are a little less sharp wide open, and they improve as stopped down.

on small-format DX (don't use on DX; use the 18-55mm VR instead for better performance for a lot less money.) Supplied accessories: LC-77 Snap-On Front Lens Cap 77mm, HB-66 Bayonet Lens Hood, LF-4 Rear Lens Cap, CL-1118 Soft Lens Case If you love taking photos of flowers then this lens is for you. I think it’s great for moderate magnification. Rendering is nice but it’s not on-par with Micro-Nikkors that were made for 35mm photography. Despite being labeled as an f/1.8 lens you won’t get similar results as you would with a full-frame system, I think it’s practically closer to f/2.8 if you ask me. The Nikon 18-35mm f/3.5-4.5G lens is equipped with the silent wave motor, which means that autofocus will work on any modern camera, even on entry-level cameras like Nikon D5200 without an autofocus motor. The AF-S motor is also very quiet, especially compared to its AF-D predecessor. Autofocus speed is pretty comparable to other modern AF-S lenses, but the AF-D version seemed to be a little faster. The nice thing about AF-S lenses, is the ability to override focus by simply rotating the focus ring. On old AF-D lenses, including the Nikon 18-35mm f/3.5-4.5D, one had to switch to manual focus before being able to rotate the focus ring. As I have already mentioned above, the front element of the lens does not rotate during AF operation, making it a good candidate for use of polarizing filters. It won't autofocus with the cheapest new AF 35mm cameras like the N55, but if you focus manually, everything else works great. Even if you lose autofocus, these cameras have in-finder focus confirmation dots to help you.The 1 Nikkor 18.5mm f/1.8 was sold from 2012 and it was discontinued when Nikon retired the Nikon 1 system. It was a popular lens when it was still being sold, that remains true even today as almost every Nikon 1 shooter owns one. Since this is 18.5mm you’ll get an equivalent field-of-view of 49.95mm which is practically the same as what you would get in a 50mm lens when shooting the 35mm or full-frame format. Despite that, you’ll still get the same characteristics of an 18.5mm lens when shooting with it and the nominal f/1.8 constant aperture will probably get you something closer to f/4.5 in real-world use. Even with that, this is still a “fast” lens and only the expensive 1 Nikkor 32mm f/1.2 will allow you gather more light to help the tiny sensor of the CX format in lowlight situations. Of course the all-in-one 'superzoom' concept isn't new; the first such lens was Tokina's 35-200mm from 1982, but early designs were plagued by excessive size and weight, poor optical quality, and unacceptably long minimum focus distances. Indeed it wasn't until the mid-1990s that the likes of Sigma and Tamron introduced truly practical superzooms which substantially overcame these issues, and delivered acceptable quality across the range (for the casual vacation photographer at least). Since then, the rapid progress of computer-aided lens design has resulted in continued improvements in optical quality and extensions in zoom ranges, whilst shrinking lens sizes still further, making the superzoom concept more tempting than ever before.

A close focus distance of 8.4" (0.2m) doesn’t give you a lot of “macro-ness” to the lens; maximum magnification is a measly 1:8.3. Starting from diaframa 11, the sharpness dops off visibly, due to diffraction. No problem: because the depth of field of the Nikon 1 system is large, you don’t have to stop down any further than f/8. Since it is a “G” type lens, there is no aperture ring anymore. As with all the latest Nikkor lenses, the 18-35mm also has a rubber gasket at the lens mount to reduce potential dust and other debris from entering the lens and the camera. While this is a good measure for basic protection against dust, the lens itself is not weather sealed. The lens ships with a plastic petal-shaped hood, which sits pretty securely once attached and does not wobble. NIKON D7100 + 18-35mm f/3.5-4.5 @ 18mm, ISO 100, 1/80, f/8.0 What is it about this lens that makes it so special in the Nikon 1 realm? It is a relatively fast standard prime, which comes at a reasonable price point. At the time of writing the price in EU is around €170. I’ve paid €200 in February 2013 and found the price more than justified considering the very fast autofocus action, the very good optical performance at wide open apertures and some unique features of the N1 cameras which increase the usability of this lens greatly in comparison to any other standard prime. I will go into more detail on that later, the point that I’m trying to make is that people who compare the 18.5/1.8 to a much larger and material intensive 35/1.8, and whine about its price, are simply wrong. The 18.5/1.8 is one hell of a lens, which is worth every penny.MELVILLE, N.Y. (September 13, 2012) – Today, Nikon Inc. announced the latest addition to the Nikon 1 system, the compact and lightweight 1 NIKKOR 18.5mm f/1.8, a fixed focal length addition to the 1 NIKKOR family of lenses. The 18.5mm f/1.8 gives Nikon 1 System shooters a fast prime lens that is consistently able to deliver outstanding image quality and sharpness for stills and HD video, whether shooting awe-inspiring landscapes, flattering portraits or documenting the family vacation in glorious HD video.

At 18mm on FX at infinity, the last couple of millimeters of the corners are a little less sharp wide open, and they improve when stopped down. Having a hybrid-type AF system employing both contrast and phase-detect sensors, Nikon 1 cameras and lenses are known for their super-fast and precise focusing. The Nikkor 18.5mm f/1.8 is no different. It focuses fast, very fast. People who own many of the other N1 lenses claim that it is one of the fastest. I can’t comment on that, since I only own the 10-30mm and a couple of MF C-Mount lenses. What I can say is that the 18.5mm is faster than the 10-30mm and much faster and much more confident in low light. If you are familiar with the way C-AF works, which is the mode N1 cameras switch to under low light, you will most likely never encounter a situation, in which the 18.5mm won’t be able to acquire focus. Just place your focus-point on vertical lines with strong contrast and you will be fine. Autofocus is a bit slower than I'd expect for an ultrawide, but as an ultrawide, still plenty fast. It was the world's sharpest and a world-changer at its introduction in late 2007, but the 16-35mm VR is slightly better and this 18-35mm is just as good, too — without all the weight and expense.

lens distortion filter using these factors below. These aren't facts or specifications, they are the results of my research that requires hours of photography and calculations on the resulting data. Three times the price, but ten times the range - the 10-100mm also offers VR. The 18.5mm prime is sharper and offers the faster working aperture of ƒ1.8; however, the zoom lens gives you the convenience of multiple focal lengths. Otherwise, the 10-100mm is similar when it comes to distortion, corner shading and chromatic aberration. Personally, I like this focal length. If you like the Nikon 1 system, I think this lens is a vey nice addition. Together with the 10mm f/2.8 it forms an interesting set of primes. A normal, 18.5-mm (angle of view equivalent to 50 mm in 35-mm [135] format) fixed focal length lens for the CX format with the fastest maximum aperture, f/1.8, in the 1 NIKKOR lineup. Supports extremely fast shutter speeds (up to 1/16,000 s) for capture of images at maximum aperture to utilize the beautiful blur characteristics, even outdoors under very bright lighting. The fast aperture also supports capture of sharp, blur-free images of darker scenes, such as indoors under dim lighting, with hand-held shooting without increasing ISO sensitivity. My only misgiving about this new 18-35 is it being made in China. I wouldn't spend this much on anything offshored to a Communist country, but that's just me. I'd rather buy genuine Chinese products (those made by Chinese companies designed in China) or other Nikon products like the 16-35mm VR, 14-24mm, 20-35mm f/2.8 or even the lower-priced original 18-35mm f/3.5-4.5 AF-D, all made domestically in Japan.

Vignetting: Again, a surprising amount with there being more than a stop and a half wide open, and still about two-thirds of a stop at f/2.8. Then again, if you’re shooting JPEGs, turning on the in-camera vignetting control will remove about half that, which puts us in the reasonable realm. Basically, if you don’t like vignetting, you’ll need to get down to f/4 to keep it down to mostly imperceptible levels. It’s still compact even when mounted to the Nikon 1 J4, it makes for a great “standard-lens” equivalent. There are lugs at the front so it is able to accept the Nikon HB-N104 which is sold as a separate item, it has a conical shape so people gave it the name “barnacle-hood”. The attachment ring is 40.5mm which seems to be the standard for 1 Nikkors as far as I know. The 20-35mm AF-D works on all FX digital cameras and its focus ring doesn't rotate by itself during autofocus as does the older 18-35mm, but the 20-35mm still requires one to move a lever to get between auto and manual focus. The Nikkor 18.5mm f/1.8 is one very light, small and capable lens. The build quality is great, the image quality excellent keeping the price point in mind, the AF among the speediest and the usability factor unsurpassed by any lens and camera combination on the market. To top it all off, with a price of around €170, this lens is a bargain and a must-have for any Nikon 1 user. The pictures below illustrate the focal length range from wide to telephoto. The 18-200mm appears to be just slightly wider at 18mm than the 18-55mm VR.

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The lens is slightly smaller and lighter than the standard 10-30mm kit zoom, and balances perfectly on the V1. It has just enough size, protruding out from the camera body, to hold comfortably. And it’s light enough not to be noticed.