I personally know a lot of Nikon full-frame photographers, who were hoping for a high performance wide-to-short telezoom for their FX camera. Eventually Nikon has introduced the AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED.

I had the chance to try the lens on a Nikon D3s, which by itself is an awesome camera, if you don’t mind the weight and its size.

The 24-120/4 isn’t exactly a small lens, but on a D3s or a D700 (both rather big and heavy cameras) it handles very well. It’s smaller and lighter than the 24-70/2.8 and I bet many will prefer the 24-120 over the 24-70 because of its weight, size and flexibility. I have produced tons of image samples during my 5 days with the lens and I can tell you, I would definitely miss it, if I owned a D3s or a D700.

I was quite impressed with the image quality of the lens. I have assembled a couple of comparison shots at different focal lengths and f-stops. Distorsion and vignetting is a problem. There’s no focal length without distortion. But it can be corrected in post processing pretty easily. Vignetting is an issue from f4 to f5.6 and vanishes at f8 or f11. As you can see from my samples, the lens reaches its best performance for sharpness and detail between f8 and f11 on an FX-camera.

Now look for yourself!

Here are a couple of samples for distortion and vignetting (click to enlarge):

And here the samples for sharpness and detail at different f-stops. I haven’t included all f-stops, since sometimes there are hardly visible differences (as at 24mm between f8 and f11):

24mm (first center, then corner performance – click on the images to enlarge to 100%):

35mm (first center, then corner performance – click on the images to enlarge to 100%):

50mm (first center, then corner performance – click on the images to enlarge to 100%):

70mm (first center, then corner performance – click on the images to enlarge to 100%):

120mm (first center, then corner performance – click on the images to enlarge to 100%):

I bet by now you have realised, that the lens is ok at f4 at all focal length, but gets better to about f8 or f11.

The 24-120/4G is a great universal lens. It’s not a macro, but it can get close enough to serve as an emergency macro. It’s not a real tele, but it can serve as an emergency tele. It’s not a fast lens, but on a full frame sensor it’s able to deliver a shallow depth of field. And with the high-ISO performance of Nikon’s FX-cameras, you’re good with f4 as max. aperture in many shooting conditions, not to say that it offers VR too.

The big question for many FX-zoom-lens byers today is, should I go for the 24-120/4 or the also new 28-300/3.5-5.6? I can’t answer that question, because it really depends on your personal needs. The 24-120 maybe does better in terms of sharpness, detail and distortion – but more scientific tests will have to reveal the truth. As always I only try to give you an impression of the lens.

More important than the test samples are realworld samples. To give you an idea of how the lens performs in a realworld environment, here are a couple of images at different settings (all post-processed from RAW in LR3, click to enlarge):

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 120mm, f4, 1/15s, ISO 10.000

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 120mm, f4, 1/30s, ISO 2.200

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 120mm, f4, 1/30s, ISO 1.100

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 86mm, f4, 1/80s, ISO 200

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 85mm, f4, 1/1.000s, ISO 200

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 120mm, f4, 1/160s, ISO 400

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 75mm, f4, 1/400s, ISO 400

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 120mm, f4, 1/50s, ISO 400

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 24mm, f8, 1/80s, ISO 400

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 120mm, f8, 1/250s, ISO 400

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 24mm, f8, 1/100s, ISO 400

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 24mm, f8, 1/100s, ISO 400

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 24mm, f8, 1/320s, ISO 400

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 24mm, f8, 1/250s, ISO 400

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 100mm, f4, 1/200s, ISO 400

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 112mm, f4, 1/250s, ISO 400

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 120mm, f4, 1/320s, ISO 400

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 24mm, f4, 1/400s, ISO 400

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 24mm, f8, 1/125s, ISO 400

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 86mm, f8, 1/60s, ISO 400

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 120mm, f4, 1/1.000s, ISO 400

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 75mm, f4, 1/800s, ISO 400

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 120mm, f4, 1/125s, ISO 400

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 120mm, f4, 1/30s, ISO 320

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 85mm, f4, 1/80s, ISO 640

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 38mm, f4, 1/80s, ISO 5.000

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 58mm, f4, 1/20s, ISO 5.000

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 82mm, f4, 1/80s, ISO 3.200

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 50mm, f4, 1/1.600s, ISO 200

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 120mm, f4, 1/500s, ISO 200

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 100mm, f4, 1/25s, ISO 1.250

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 24mm, f8, 1/800s, ISO 200

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 78mm, f4, 1/80s, ISO 3.200

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 120mm, f4, 1/1.250s, ISO 200

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 120mm, f7.1, 1/1.000s, ISO 200

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 120mm, f4, 1/1.000s, ISO 200

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 30mm, f4, 1/1.600s, ISO 200

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 120mm, f4, 1/800s, ISO 200

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 120mm, f5.6, 1/640s, ISO 200

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 24mm, f11, 1/160s, ISO 200

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 105mm, f11, 1/80s, ISO 200

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 120mm, f11, 1/80s, ISO 450

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 66mm, f4, 1/1.250s, ISO 200

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 120mm, f4, 1/1.600s, ISO 200

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 82mm, f4, 1/200s, ISO 200

^ Nikon D3s, AF-S VR 24-120/4G ED at 85mm, f4, 1/250s, ISO 200

Thanks for reading!