One of my fellow students in my digital imaging class has been a no show for two weeks. I found him on the local facebook groups selling... everything. Seems he has fallen on some hard times. He recently bought a nearly brand new D3100 with the kit lens and a 55-200 zoom. I looked up some used prices and offered him $5 over the lowest used price on amazon.com. $75!

The lens had never even been mated up to a camera before!

I have been testing it out since I got it yesterday. It's much sharper than my kit lens. I can see the individual threads in my daughters shirt on a head shot. This is what I have been wanting! I'm pleased with the way the background looks when taking portraits (bokeh). Its very compact and is barely longer than the kit lens.

The only problem I am having with it is that on auto settings it over exposes a bit, but I can fix that my setting the exposure compensation down by two stops.

It focuses fast and the VR helps by four stops so I can actually go below 1/200 at maximum focal distance.

My daughter hates posing for pictures. Attached File


What do you think about the sharpness? No post processing.

I'll post something from my other lens. The difference is staggering. Its not a shutter speed issue. I've been shooting for 20 plus years.

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18-55 kit lens examples. Only the first image was processed.

For important shoots I use RAW and the sharpening tool in Camera is very subtle compared to the filters in CS6. RAW itself seems to help so maybe part of the issue was the conversion to JPG in the camera.

I went out today in bright sun and did some testing with the new lens. I focused on cactus needles and they looked a little soft. When the AF ran I would see the needle focus, but then it went slightly past that point. Hmmm. So I took one shot manual focus, and one shot AF. AF was hsraper, even though in the view finder it looked soft. I focused on the same needle with the AF and fiddled with the diopter in the viewfinder until it looked sharp. Now what I see in the view finder matches what I capture. One click was all it took.

Some lenses are just better than others.  Looks like this is a good one.

Even within the same lens brand/type, there can be variations. Quality control issues, I guess.  I had a Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 (first version) that wasn't anywhere close to being as sharp as my old reliable 80-200 f/2.8.  Most likely just a lemon.  Kept it as long as I could stand it, but finally traded it off to B&H as partial payment on something else.  B&H sure has made a lot of money off of me.

The 80-200 f/2.8 is still going strong, though.

I've always adjusted the diopter without a lens mounted.  Just point at a bright space, and adjust until the focusing screen is sharpest.  Simple and quick, I always do it with a new camera, and randomly as an occasional check to make sure the slider/ dial hasn't been bumped through use.

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These were taken with my 55-200mm Zoom. Probably wide open, ISO400, Shutter speed above 1/200th with VR on.

Love that look you got in the b&w. If your camera is still in one piece, I am going to assume you were not within arms reach!