Damn DPReview people. Some perspective please.
Thursday, December 27th, 2007While trawling the tubes this morning, I came across this DPReview Discussion.
For those who don’t really want to read it, it discusses an unannounced new Nikkor, the AF-S VR DX Zoom-Nikkor 16-85mm f/3.5 - 5.6 IF-ED (I think that will be the official name). From what I can see, this does appear to be a real lens that will probably get announced before PMA near the end of Jan 2008. It will replace the 18-70mm f/3.5 - 4.5 as “the kit lens that’s not built like ass”. Its role in the F mount stable will be similar to what the Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4 - 5.6 USM IS does for the EOS system and the Carl Zeiss Sony DT 16-80mm f/3.5 - 4.5 does for the Alpha.
All of this is not particularly interesting. There will always be well designed mid range zooms because that’s what people are most used to. This one adds VR and a 24mm equivalent wide end to the last model at the expense of 2/3 stops of light at the long end.
What is interesting/annoying is how unrealistic people’s expectations are. The forums are rife with people being disappointed that this is not a full frame lens. For comparaison, till 3 month ago, the widest full frame Nikon zoom lens was the 17-35mm, a 2.1x zoom that weight a kilogram, took 77mm filters and costed a whole lot. Now, people are honestly expecting a 5.1x zoom to start wider , weigh half as much, cost less than a third and have a smaller filter size than the old champion. I think some people are still waiting for that AF-S VR Zoom-UV-Micro-Nikkor 10-1000mm f/1.0 IF-ED.
Technological progress moves fast, but not that fast. Really now.
On the other hand, there’s a few lenses that could be useful and are feasible… but I’ll resist joining the bunch of wish-list-makers on the web.