18-55mm f3.5-5.6G ED II AF-S DX zoom Nikkor

[John Gulliver]

After reading Ken Rockwell's glowing review - he rates this amazingly cheap lens among the 10 best Nikon has made - I bought a used one to use on land as a general-purpose lens. However, there are evidently, or have been, enough people who use it under water to make it worth Sea & Sea's while to make a zoom gear for it, so I wonder if anyone here has experience of using it under water and, if so, how they rate it.

 

[Larry C]

Haven't used it, but here's a previous thread with a couple of pictures taken with the 18-55 in the last post.
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/nikon-niche/215792-d80-18-55mm-lens-underwater-2.html

 

[John Gulliver]

Thanks Larry!

 

[AussieByron]

It was one of my first lenses I used when I bought my D80 and I actually have the port with zoom gear for my Ikelite housing. I used it a couple of time but once I bought the 60mm Macro and 10-17mm Tokina I never used it again. I also have the Sigma 17-70mm Marco which I might use once in the blue moon. I really dont like the mid zooms as I prefer to either be wide angle with the 10-17mm or macro with the 60mm or 105mm.

Regards Mark

 

[dbh]

I'm with Mark on this one. Mid-Range zooms aren't real good on either end. The 60mm is an all around great lens, focuses fast and is tack sharp!


Dave

 

[mike_s]

After reading Ken Rockwell's glowing review -

when has Ken Rockwell not written a "glowing review". ? [sarcasm implied]

I think his reviews are good, but they all seem to say that everything he tests is great (to polish his image).... just my opinion.

I'd love to have his camera, lens collection though. He gets some great new toys.

the Nikon 18-55mm is a great lens at a cheap price. It's out there everywhere since it comes as the 'default' lens with many of their cameras such as the D40

 

[John Gulliver]

Thanks all for your coments. I do have the 60mm lens (also the 105mm and Sigma 10-20mm), just wondered if it was worth looking for the zoom gear for the 18-55mm.

 

[AussieByron]

It depends on how much the zoom gear costs. If you think its affordable....well why not try it out. The 17-70mm macro Sigma lens is a much better mid zoom and honestly I rarely use it also. I think in the end it will end up gathering dust like my 18-55.

Regards Mark

 

[Warren_L]

Mid-range zooms may cover a lot of territory reasonably well, but I don't believe that it does anything exceptionally well - which is the drawback of having a lens that attempts to cover the spectrum. 18mm on the wide end is not bad, but it doesn't compare to something like the 12-24mm or 10.5mm fisheye. For the longer end of that range (presumably for portraits), 55mm isn't bad, but I'd opt for the 60mm micro which can do both macro and portraits (I'm not sure if the 18-55mm can do macro or not but I don't seem to recall that it can).

 

[Mariozi]

I am with Mark as well... but a zoom ring for it might come handy on some well dived spots if you want to do something different. S&S has a port for it because it comes as a kit on some DSLRs.