The Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED AF-S VR DX Nikkor was introduced in November 2005, and rapidly became a much sought-after lens for the Nikon shooter's armoury. With its hugely useful 11.1x focal length range, 'silent wave' focusing, and Nikon's second generation vibration reduction system to combat camera shake, this lens aims to be the ultimate single-lens 'walkaround' solution, which photographers who wish to travel light can simply leave on the camera all the time.

It could render beautifully but there’s something missing, I think this has more to do with the limitations of a smaller sensor. There is no “magic” to speak of despite this photo being nice in the technical sense. This lens does not have built-in image stabilization. In view of the high brightness that’s not so bad. Being an Internal Focus (IF) lens, the front of the lens does not rotate during focusing like most of the screw-drive AF-D lenses did in the past. The length of the lens also stays constant while zooming, with only the front element traveling slightly in and out. The focus ring located on the front of the lens is pretty narrow and does not feel as dampened as on pro-level lenses. The zoom ring was a little stiff in the beginning, but got much smoother after about 2 weeks of use. The 77mm filter thread at the front of the barrel is far enough not to touch the front element at 18mm, which is the focal length where the element extends the most. The lens handles perfectly. Again, it’s small and super light, so you hardly notice it, which is one of the pluses of the Nikon 1 system. The lens never gets in the way of itself. Since this is basically an 18.5mm lens with the field-of-view that mimics a 50mm lens you’ll get loads of distortion as expected. It isn’t the best tool for taking photos of architecture or anything that requires straight lines to remain straight.At 24mm on FX at infinity, the sides and last couple of millimeters of the corners are a little less sharp wide open, and they improve as stopped down. There’s not much else to say. It comes with the usual 5-year Nikon USA warranty, which is great. It’s solid, light and doesn’t rattle or move when you shake it. It takes the usual 40.5mm filters, which are slightly hard to find, and the plastic Nikon HB-N101 lens hood fits snugly (I can’t say that about all lens hoods for other systems), looks cool and works perfectly. Hint: i’m using UV Filters on all my lenses to protect the front element, the 40.5mm UV Filter XS Pro with

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You’ll see some chromatic aberration here, I wasn’t expecting to see much of it in this photo since I’m used to shooting with larger formats like 35mm and 6×6. This 18-35mm lens is always super sharp, even on a 36 MP D800E. If you're not getting sharp pictures, you're doing something wrong, something moved or was out of focus, or you got stupid and bought one at retail where anyone could have played with and damaged it before being sold to you.