Nikon 18-105mm VR Reviews, Samples and References

First published on: Tuesday, 28 April 2009

This post is a compilation of links to Nikon 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-S DX VR ED Nikkor lens professional reviews, user opinions and experiences, tests, ratings and conclusions.

I also link up to images, sample photos and galleries of pictures taken with this lens.

Full attribution is given by linking to the source.

The Nikon 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G VR (vibration reduction) Nikkor lens was introduced on 27-August-2008 as a kit lens for the Nikon D90, which was also announced on the same day.

Nikon 18-105mm VR

Go to the bottom of this DC Watch page for some photos of this lens.

Key specs:


  1. Weight: 14.8oz. (420g)

  2. Dimensions: 3.0x3.5in. / 76x89mm (Diameter x Length)

Articles

Nikon 16-85mm vs Nikon 18-105mm — Thom Hogan’s opinion

Reviews and opinions

Thom Hogan’s rating of the 18-105mm AF-S VR — Thom Hogan assigned an overall rating of four stars for the Nikkor 18-105, and states the following as reasons to buy the lens:

Very good all around; no significant optical faults.

Review at SLRGear.com — The conclusion is positive:

The Nikon 18-105mm ƒ/3.5-5.6 definitely raises the bar for Nikon’s current lineup of kit lenses; consistently sharp, even at large apertures, with good resistance to chromatic aberration. Corner shading is prevalent, but it’s not a noticeable problem. Distortion is evident and irregular, but again, you’re probably only going to notice it if you need your straight lines to be absolutely straight.

Compared with the Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 G ED-IF AF-S VR DX Zoom-Nikkor Lens:

The VR employed in the 18-105mm isn’t as robust as that seen in the 18-200mm, offering only one setting for VR (on and off). The VR2 system allows for ‘active’ and ‘normal’ VR usage, allowing for panning shots which compensate for vertical shake only.

Sample photos and examples, image galleries

An official, full-resolution sample photo taken with the Nikon D5200.

Nikon 18-105mm VR plus Nikon D5200 -- Full-resolution sample photo

Fourth of July Photos — Very nice carnival and fireworks images by abdoozy, who used the 18-105 VR, Nikon D90 and a Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S VR Zoom Nikkor lens to shoot the pictures.

Four Nikon D5000 flower photos, and an ISO6400 full-resolution image — Jeff Klofft shared four flower macros / close-ups, and one ISO 6400 image in this forum post. The 18-105 VR lens was mounted on Jeff’s brand new Nikon D5000 for the shoot. This is the link to the full-sized version of the ISO 6400 test photo.

Miscellaneous 18-105 photos at DC Watch — Here are the links to images shot with the Nikon 18-105 lens. You’ll need to scroll down a bit to see the pictures:

Full-sized image samples at Photo-cafe.jp — There are tons of full-sized photos here, all shot with the Nikon D90.

Lizard Close-up — This 100% crop of the reptile was photographed by cmvsm with the Nikon D90. Focal length was 105mm, and the aperture used was f/5.6.

Resources

The official websites for the 18-105mm Nikkor lens are at:

Nikon Lenses – Main page.

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