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Best Nikon Lenses

Best for: FX DSLR   DX DSLR

FX Mirrorless   DX Mirrorless

Manual-Focus for 35mm Film   Classics

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March 2020 All Nikon Reviews: Mirrorless   Mirrorless Lenses   All Nikon Lenses   Nikon Flash   All Reviews

Best Lenses for FX DSLRs (D850, D780, D610 etc.) height

FX DSLR   DX DSLR

FX Mirrorless DX Mirrorless

Manual-Focus for 35mm Film   Classics

28-300mm VR (2010-today)          pinnacle

Nikon 28-300mm VR.

For Nikon FX DSLRs. 77mm filters, 28.1 oz./796g, i.vi'/0.5m close focus. Check Price.

As a guy who'due south endemic probably every Nikon lens ever made, fifty-fifty for Nikon's 1940s-1960s rangefinder cameras, I'm astonished at how this one lens replaces every other lens I used to utilise, with the exception of ultra-ultra wides.

The 28-300mm VR is my liberty lens. It lets me get rid of my onetime fashioned "camera purse" total of lenses that I used to carry.

While people who haven't shot it don't trust that information technology's sharp, it's newer and sharper than all the fixed lenses I used to booty around, and I can get whatsoever focal length with a twist of my wrist. Await at my Nikon 28-300mm sample images and see for yourself:

The 28-200mm VR replaces all the lenses nosotros used to booty effectually. The only thing information technology doesn't exercise is replace an ultra-wide lens similar the 16-35mm VR, or allow us to shoot sports in dim low-cal like the seventy-200mm f/2.8 VR FL. If you lot need anything longer, you lot'll get better photos by getting closer with the 28-300mm VR than y'all will by using a longer lens like the 600mm VR from farther away.

Every bit you lot can encounter, VR works smashing, letting me get ultrasharp results paw-held at ane/20 of a second. Not merely does this lens permit me leave my bag dwelling house, I tin leave my tripod dwelling house, likewise.

Vivid Yellowish Tree by the Merced River, Yosemite Valley, October 2017. Nikon D850, Nikon 28-300mm VR at 36mm at f/eight mitt held at ane/twenty at Machine ISO 400, Perfectly Clear v3.5. bigger or full-resolution.

Full review.

The merely other lens I sometimes carry with my 28-300mm is my 16-35mm VR:

16-35mm f/4 VR (2010-today)          pinnacle

sixteen-35mm VR.

For Nikon FX DSLRs,

The xvi-35mm is sharp, sharp, sharp, even wide open, and fifty-fifty in the corners.

I've shot a lot of fixed 24mm, 20mm, 18mm, 17mm, 15mm and 14mm lenses in my days, and this zoom is sharper.

The Nikon fourteen-24mm f/2.8 AF-S is the precursor to the 16-35mm VR. I detect the 16-35mm a little sharper and much smaller and much more practical, but consider the fourteen-24mm if you need f/2.8 or 14mm.

If you desire a actually fast lens in an even smaller package than either of these, Nikon'southward 20mm f/1.8G AF-South is a unique ultra-speed ultrawide. None of Sony, Canon, or Fuji make a lens this wide and fast; it's also platonic for photographing the Milky Manner. I bring my 20mm f/1.8 when I'm travelling low-cal instead of the 16-35mm VR.

Brand sure that you know How to Use Ultrawide Lenses.

Full review.

70-200mm f/2.8 VR FL (2016-today)          summit

70-200mm f/ii.viii VR FL .

For Nikon FX DSLRs. 77mm filters, 50.three oz./1,425g with tripod collar, 3.half dozen'/1.1m close-focus.  Cheque cost.

While I adopt my 28-300mm because I prefer to bear less, most total time pros would never leave the house without their lxx-200mm f/two.8 VR FL, which is the world's best seventy-200mm lens.

For lighter weight at a much lower price, also consider the 70-200mm f/iv.

For more reach, consider the fourscore-400mm VR, and again, I adopt my 28-300mm over all the balance of these because I don't need f/ii.8 and I adopt my 28-300mm'southward all-encompassing zoom range.

Total review.

200-500mm VR (2015-today)          summit

200-500mm VR .

For Nikon FX DSLRs. 95mm filters, 81¼ oz./2,300g with collar, 73¾ oz./two,090g without collar, seven.2'/2.two g close focus. Bank check cost.

The 200-500mm is unique in being super-long, super-sharp, and very inexpensive. It'due south a steal!

It doesn't focus closely (vii/2'/2.2m) and it doesn't zoom wider than 200mm, which are how Nikon is able to brand this and then inexpensively and have it work so well as an ultra tale.

The 80-400mm VR is more versatile as a full general-purpose tale. The 80-400 focuses much closer and zooms much wider, just it too costs much more. If you get this 200-500mm, you'll still want a regular tele like the 70-200mm f/2.viii FL or even my favorite 28-300mm VR.

Full review.

24-70mm f/2.viii VR (2015-today)          top

24-70mm f/ii.8 VR .

For Nikon FX DSLRs. 82mm filters, 37.half-dozen oz./i,067 g, 1.3'/0.iv m close focus. Bank check price.

I prefer bringing just my 28-300mm VR, simply if y'all need f/2.8 and don't mind bringing more than lenses along, the 24-70mm f/2.eight E VR is a flawless state-of-the-art lens, a favorite of professionals.

If y'all don't demand VR, the older 24-70mm f/two.8G is nevertheless sold new and is an equally first-class professional lens.

Full review.

50mm f/1.4G AF-South (2015-today)          top

50mm f/1.4G AF-S .

For Nikon FX DSLRs. 58mm filters, 9.eight oz./278g, one.5'/0.45m close focus. Cheque toll.

For low-light and/or low weight, personally I and many prefer the 50mm f/1.4G AF-S. Information technology's small, light, super precipitous even wide-open and reasonably priced.

It has the best eyes of any 50mm f/1.4 ever sold by Nikon or Canon. It'south a much newer design than Catechism's, which dates back to the 1970s!

Total review.

Best Lenses for DX DSLRs (D7500, D5600, D3500, etc.) top

FX DSLR   DX DSLR

FX Mirrorless DX Mirrorless

Manual-Focus for 35mm Moving-picture show   Classics

eighteen-300mm VR DX (2014-today)          pinnacle

18-300mm VR DX .

For Nikon DX DSLRs. 67mm filters, 19.iv oz./550g, 1.6'/0.5m shut focus. Check price.

This lens is fantastic considering information technology gives the states every imaginable focal length nosotros'd ever demand for a DX DSLR in just one lens, and information technology's sharp. Heck, I sold an image to McDonald's shot on the older version — and they used it on a billboard!

Full review.

For a DX DSLR, this is the but lens you'd ever demand, unless you as well demand an ultra-ultra wide lens:

10-20mm DX (2017-today)          top

Nikon 10-20mm DX VR.

For Nikon DX DSLRs. 72mm filters, viii.0 oz./227g, 0.7'/0.22m close focus. Check price.

This tiny and cheap lens wows me with its fantastic operation and ultra low price. Very few people know How to Use Ultrawide Lenses, but for those who practise, this is Nikon'due south best DX ultrawide yet.

Be sure that this new AF-P lens is compatible with your photographic camera; if not, become the older x-24mm if you have an older DX DSLR.

Full review.

35mm f/1.viii DX (2009-today)        top

Nikon 35mm f/ane.8 DX .

For Nikon DX DSLRs. 52mm filters, 7.0 oz/197g, 1 pes/0.3m close-focus. Check price.

This lens is a steal. It's my favorite DX lens, since when I shoot a DX DSLR, I'm traveling bones and light (I bring my Full-Frame DSLR If I'thousand shooting something serious). I'll grab this one lens and leave everything else at habitation, and this is also a great lens to add to the 18-300mm for people photography in depression-light.

The 35mm f/1.8 is super-sharp, focuses instantly, information technology's fast, it's tough (metal mount), and simply works perfectly for a super low price.

What more can I say? Get i before Nikon catches on and raises the toll.

Full review.

70-300mm AF-P DX VR

lxx-300mm DX VR AF-P.

For Nikon DX DSLRs. 58mm filters, 14.5 oz./412g, three.7'/1.1m close-focus. Check price.

If you have the 18-300mm VR DX yous don't need this lens, but if you need ultra-fast autofocus or prefer to utilize the smaller 18-55mm lens or the fantabulous 16-80mm well-nigh of the time and thus demand a divide telephoto zoom, , this new lxx-300mm has the fastest most instantaneous focusing of whatever Nikon DX telephoto.

Exist certain that this new AF-P lens is compatible with your camera; if not, use the 18-300mm VR DX or older 55-300mm DX.

Full review.

All-time Lenses for Full-Frame Mirrorless (Z6 & Z7) meridian

FX DSLR   DX DSLR

FX Mirrorless DX Mirrorless

Manual-Focus for 35mm Picture   Classics

Z 24-70mm f/2.8 (2019-today)          top

Z 24-70mm f/ii.eight .

For full-frame mirrorless (Z6 & Z7). 82mm filters, 28.three oz./803g, ane.15'/0.38m close focus. Bank check toll.

The Z 24-70mm f/two.viii is a fast, ultrasharp lens. The Z 24-70mm f/4 that often comes included with a Z6 or Z7 is just equally precipitous, and much lighter and less expensive. Personally I adopt the Z 24-70mm f/4, while gear hogs prefer this Z 24-70mm f/2.8. Both produce magnificent images.

Full review .

Z xiv-30mm (2019-today)          top

Nikon Z 14-30mm.

For full-frame mirrorless (Z6 & Z7). 82mm filters, 16.9 oz./479 chiliad, 0.nine'/0.28m close focus. Bank check cost.

The Z 14-30mm stands out because it'southward the first-ever Nikon lens wider than 16mm that can take a normal screw-in forepart filter. Older lenses, like the huge xiv-24mm f/two.8, had bulbous front elements that were completely unprotectable.

No only does the Z14-30 take filters, it's the sharpest ultra-ultrawide ever from Nikon, and it's also minor and collapses when non in utilize. Bravo!

Brand sure that you know How to Employ Ultrawide Lenses.

Full review.

Best Lenses for DX Mirrorless (Z50) summit

FX DSLR   DX DSLR

FX Mirrorless DX Mirrorless

Transmission-Focus for 35mm Film   Classics

These lenses as well work on full-frame mirrorless (Z6 and Z7), merely you're throwing away over half of your full-frame sensor area, and be sure to update to at least version ii.i firmware in the Z6 or Z7 for VR to work with these lenses:

Nikon Z 16-50mm VR DX (2019-today)        pinnacle

Nikon Z DX xvi-50mm f/3.5-5.6 VR, collapsed.

For Nikon Z cameras, 46mm filters, 4.6 oz./131g, 0.seven'/0.2m close focus. Check price.

This is a tiny lilliputian lens not much bigger than a lens cap. It collapses simply by turning the zoom past 16mm, and it's ultra-abrupt, focuses super fast and shut, has pretty skillful sunstars and has no baloney as shot on the Nikon Z50 with which it was introduced.

It excels because it's so tiny and cheap, and has better performance than many more exotic older lenses. Nikon has learned a lot, and puts all their tricks in this collapsible lens.

Full review.

Nikon Z fifty-250mm VR DX (2019-today)        elevation

Nikon Z DX l-250mm f/4.5-5.half-dozen VR, collapsed.

For Nikon Z cameras, 62mm filters, 14.one oz./ 400g, 1.6'/0.5m close focus. Check price.

Similar the Z DX 16-50mm above, this lens stands out as an fantabulous optical performer, every bit precipitous, if not sharper than 2016'due south (but however current) lxx-200/2.8 FLE and sharper than the fully professional 70-200/ii.8 VR II, and information technology's lightweight, collapses for travel, focuses super fast and close, and sells for next to nada.

Full review.

Best Lenses for Manual-Focus 35mm Cameras          acme

FX DSLR   DX DSLR

FX Mirrorless DX Mirrorless

Manual-Focus for 35mm Pic   Classics

Nikon made its name with its manual-focus lenses. They fabricated a zillion different types. These beneath are the specific lenses I deport when I shoot a manual-focus camera like my F, F2, F2S, F2AS, F3, FA, FE, FE2, FM, FM3a & etc. Any of the manual lenses work great; these are just what I prefer to comprehend everything.

See as well How to Shoot Film and Why Stock-still Lenses Have Amend Pictures.

Ultrawide

20mm f/4 AI or 20mm f/3.5 AI (both have 52mm filters) or 20mm f/two.8 AI-south (62mm filters).

Carry but one of these depending on which you happen to take and which filter size you lot adopt.

Normal

35mm f/1.4 AI-southward (52mm filters).

50mm f/1.four AI-s or 55mm f/2.8 MICRO-Nikkor AI-s or 55mm f/3.5 MICRO-Nikkor AI. All take 52mm filters.

Behave only i of these 50 or 55mm lenses at a fourth dimension. The MICRO-Nikkors are sharper, fifty-fifty at infinity, than the f/ane.4 and f/1.viii lenses.

Tele

If I need speed for low-light, I may carry a trio of 85mm f/2 AI-s (52mm), 135mm f/2.8 AI-s (52mm) and 200mm f/4 (52mm) or 180mm f/ii.8 ED. Only conduct the 180 or 200, never both.

- OR -

In daylight, I just carry a 80-200mm f/4 AI-s (62mm) or 80-200mm f/4.5n AI (52mm filters), again depending on which you lot accept and your preference in filter size. Don't carry one of these zooms at the aforementioned fourth dimension equally any of the fixed teles.

When shooting picture, using filters is disquisitional, and you should select lenses which share the same size filters so yous merely take to bring one prepare of them.

Archetype Lenses (1946-today)          top

FX DSLR   DX DSLR

FX Mirrorless DX Mirrorless

Manual-Focus for 35mm Film   Classics

50mm f/1.8D AF (versions from 1978 - today)

Nikon 50mm f/1.8 D.

Nikon's to the lowest degree expensive lens is also among its sharpest. It has no baloney, focuses almost instantly, and information technology'southward Nikon's smallest and lightest lens.

It is among Nikon's fastest lenses, and covers picture and the total FX frame.

Except that the D40, D40x and D60 tin can't autofocus with it (neither can the F3), there is no reason not to own one of these, unless you lot opt for the twice as expensive 50mm f/i.4 D.

All the earlier 50mm f/1.8 lenses since 1978 are besides all excellent, including the 50mm f/1.8 AF (not-D), 50mm f/one.8 Nikkor manual focus, and the 50mm f/one.8 Series E.

Full review.

135mm f/2 DC AF (1990 - today)       top

Nikon 135mm f/2 DC AF

Americans just don't go this lens, because Nikon messed upwardly its name. The 135mm DC, or "Defocus Control," lens, is amid Nikon's sharpest lenses always. Defocus control doesn't mean soft focus, it ways "background softness control." The DC characteristic is really Bokeh optimization.

The DC feature e'er keeps the subject ultra sharp, and allows the photographer to defocus just the groundwork (or foreground) into the softest, smoothest, dreamiest and creamiest pastels e'er.

The 135mm DC is Nikon'southward best mitt-held portrait lens always, besides as a killer-precipitous 135mm lens for everything.

Total review.

85mm f/i.iv AI-s (1981-2006)         pinnacle

Nikon 85mm f/one.4 AI-s.

The eyes of most of Nikon'due south before AI-s transmission focus lenses accept been exceeded in Nikon'south newer AF lenses. This isn't the case here.

This manual focus lens outperforms its newer 85mm f/1.4 D autofocus sibling. In fact, its and so good that fifty-fifty afterward the f/i.4 autofocus lens came out, for about the about the same toll, Nikon kept making these for 10 more years!

It'southward sharper than the new AF lens, and it has much better bokeh than near other Nikon lenses.

If I'yard photographing moving people and kids, of grade I'll prefer the AF lens, simply if I'chiliad hugging a tripod, the King is however the King.

Full review .

28mm f/1.4D AF (1994-2006)        height

Nikon 28mm f/1.4 D AF . (blacked-out for national security purposes)

Nikon spent ten years perfecting this masterpiece, then discontinued it in 2006 from lack of market involvement due to its deservedly high cost. Collectors finally figured it out, and they now sell used for double what they sold for new.

This lens is special because its precipitous, even in the corners, even wide-open at f/1.4. It is worlds better than today's 35mm f/1.4 (which is a transmission focus lens made since 1969) or the manual focus 28mm f/2.

This lens allowed me to shoot things paw-held on ISO l flick that otherwise I could non.

Full review.

70-180mm f/4.5-5.6D Micro (1997-2004)        top

70-180mm f/four.5-5.6D ED AF Micro.

Another lens so great that the market never figured it out, this is the merely true zoom Micro (macro) lens e'er made by Nikon. It also sells used for more than than it sold for when new.

Unless you're photographing stamps, which makes yous silly considering you'll become better images sticking them in a scanner, shooting macro is a real pain having to move in and out all the time to frame products and chasing moving subjects like poisonous snakes. I know snake guys who pack heat to protect their seventy-180mm lenses; these lenses are that adept and irreplaceable.

All of my contempo product shots, like one-half the shots on this page, are shot with this lens.

Full review.

1 3mm f/5.6 AI-s (1976 -1998)          top

Nikon 13mm f/5.6. enlarge.

The 13mm f/v.6 was the earth's widest lens when it was introduced, and is still the widest non-distorting professional SLR lens ever made in all of history.

It covers FX; a DX lens would need a focal length of just eight.5mm to comprehend the same ultra-ultra wide angle!

Nikon 13mm f/5.half dozen swallowing a D300. bigger.

This beast is big and heavy: v inches (12cm) around and it weighs three pounds (1.4kg) with caps.

The 13mm is non a fisheye. Straight lines stay straight. In fact, just to show off, the 13mm has less baloney than zooms or almost other normal and wide lenses! Drop a ruler on lines in the image, and they're directly.

Information technology was made back when Nikon was still bang-up enough and crazy enough to brand things merely considering they could. It always cost a pregnant fraction of what the average American family earns in a year, and used ones today sell for about the same real price as when new: about $5,000 to $20,000.

I lusted after the 13mm ever since I was a child in the 1970s. I saw one on brandish at Nikon House in Rockefeller Eye in New York Metropolis in the 1970s, and saw one again in early 2008, from which I'll be penning a review 1 of these days.

Nikon simply made these to special social club, and only made a few hundred of them across 20 years. Customers who took mill delivery in Japan were treated to a anniversary where the lens was blessed past a Shinto priest. I've only seen ii in my life, both in captivity, and never seen 1 in the field.

Sigma makes an inexpensive 12-24mm zoom that may be wider, but it'southward non a professional lens, its not a Nikon lens, and it distorts slightly. Nikon'south 14mm f/ii.eight and fourteen-24mm AF-S are not quite as wide, and take more distortion.

This 13mm is too unusual in that it has piddling to no distortion of straight lines. Dissimilar zooms and most fixed lenses like the current 14mm f/2.eight and 14-24mm AF-S, make a photo of the horizon along the bottom or shoot a brick wall, and everything stays direct and square. Of form even the slightest tilt on your part throws everything into a bizarre angular array of converging and diverging lines, but that's the fun.

Don't wait always to come across one of these, since production was then depression. Only become the 14-24mm AF-S , which is a lot less expensive, two stops faster and a lot sharper.

Full review.

28-80mm K (2001-2006) and 28-200mm G (2003-2006)    superlative

Nikon 28-80mm Chiliad, in ghastly silver.

Nikon 28-200mm Grand

These are very cheap plastic-mount lenses that came out in 2001 and 2003 for sale with Nikon's cheapest picture cameras like the N55 and N75. No one paid any attention, because everyone was swapping over to digital cameras faster than Nikon guessed, leaving Nikon stuck with pallets of unsold N75s.

These two lenses incorporate every flim-flam Nikon has learned over decades and decades of lens blueprint and volume manufacturing. Each uses aspherical elements to improve performance and reduce size and weight.

Both are abrupt, even in the corners. Even the 28-80mm G is sharper than the far more expensive 24-120mm VR, which made my 10-Worst list.

Each of these lenses isn't quite equally sharp as Nikon'southward best, but pretty darn close. What gets them on my Best list is that they are this good at such a low cost, and that they are tiny and weigh nothing for easy carrying.

The 28-200mm Thousand is a miracle. Not only is information technology pretty precipitous in nigh cases, what gets it on my Best list is that information technology focuses and so closely at every focal length. It focuses down to 17 inches (43cm) at every focal length, much closer than whatever other Nikon tele, ever. Virtually teles, similar the 135mm DC, often can't focus closely enough for photos of baby heads. This 28-200mm does. The AF isn't that fast since it covers such a wide range, but its fast plenty.

The 28-80mm G focuses more closely than other Nikon lenses, often eliminating the need for a macro lens. It autofocuses faster than whatsoever other Nikon AF lens, including the AF-S lenses. Simply try 1; it's uncanny how instantly and exactly information technology focuses.

If I want a "practice everything" lens for my D3 or D700, information technology's not the 24-120mm VR. Information technology's the plastic 28-200mm G.

80-200mm f/4.5n AI (1977-1981) acme

Zoom-NIKKOR eighty-200mm f/4.5n AI.

Selling today for only nigh $l used if you know How to Win at eBay, this unassuming tele zoom simply happens to be the sharpest tele zoom I've ever tested. In my 105mm center, 200mm center, 105mm corner and 200mm corner sharpness comparisons, it's the most consistent performer.

All Nikon'due south 80-200mm f/4.5 zooms are fantabulous. I found the best is this AI "n" (new) version, which is recognized by the blackness rectangular plate on its rear mount as shown to a higher place.

The zoom and focus are supposed to be loose and slippery. This was the sports and activity lens of its mean solar day. No one was featherbrained enough to shoot zooms on tripods pointed downwards, so creep wasn't the effect.

This Nikkor lens was made with such incredible precision that it didn't need to be pumped full of grease to fill up upwards the internal slop of cheaper lenses of its day. It is so well fabricated that it works with little or any lubrication, so it tin work in temperature extremes and needs only a tiny flick to move the settings. Notice how it moves so hands, just that at that place is no play in any of the movement.

Total review.

300mm f/2.8 ED-IF (1977-1982, continues today) summit

NIKKOR 300mm f/2.8 ED-IF.

Nikon'due south first internal-focusing 300mm /2.eight lens of 1977 quickly became the news and sports photographers standard long lens. It was fast enough to shoot indoor sports, and the internal-focusing design let information technology focus from near to far with the moving picture of a finger.

The ED glass allowed superb optical quality in a super-speed long lens.

Run into the Nikon NIKKOR 300mm f/2.8 ED-IF review, and the History of Nikon 300mm f/2.8 lenses.

Today, this lens' spirit lives on in the Nikon Northward AF-S NIKKOR 300mm f/2.8G ED VR Ii.

Full review.

Older Articles

These are older, and nonetheless can be helpful.

Best lenses for DX SLRs

Best lenses for FX and 35mm SLRs

The Nikon FX Dream Team

More FX Lens Suggestions

Nikon Cheapskate FX Lenses

Best Macro Lenses

Don't forget to read the fifty-fifty funnier Nikon'south 10 Worst Lenses.

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