Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-300mm f/3.5-6.3G ED Vibration Reduction Zoom Lens with Auto Focus for Nikon DSLR Cameras

Very fast shipping - item as described - very well packaged - perfect.

This isn't the sharpest, lightest, or best lens you will buy. But for the price, and for being an all-in-one from 18-300 mm, it's excellent. I have sharper lenses, but they're primes, and if I'm not shooting a wedding or corporate event, this is the one lens I put on my camera. Photos are very sharp, and perfect for sharing with friends, family, and even printing for my wife's scrapbooks.The low-light capability of this lens is very decent when coupled with my D7500. I've taken some very nice photos and video with this lens. I like that it is also lighter than my older 18-200 and the VR appears to function better as well. When used at the extremes (18 or 300), you will need to do some lens correction in Lightroom or Photoshop, but it's not so bad that if you skip it, it will look bad (unless you're taking photos of something that needs to be straight; then you will notice it). It's an easy fix, and well worth it.I highly recommend this lens as a good walk-around lens. Nothing else I've tried matches its versatility to price ratio.

I purchased this lens for use with a Nikon D3300 camera. I wanted a wide-ranging zoom lens to cover as much "territory" as possible without having to change (and carry) extra lenses. I read a number of online reviews before purchasing and I would encourage others to do the same. The chief competitor for this lens is the Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR (product 2196). Product 2196 differs from the lens being reviewed here (product 2216) in three significant ways: 1) it goes one f-stop faster (f/5.6 vs. f/6.3) at 300 mm focal length, 2) it weighs 9.9 oz. more, and 3) it costs about $100 more (as of this writing). Most reviews I've read indicated the sharpness and clarity of the two lenses are comparable. For me, the weight savings (and price) trumped the 1 f-stop. Saving a half-pound around my neck all day was more important to me. The $100 savings wasn't bad either. One real bonus feature of this lens is its great macro capability. At 300mm it will focus amazingly close and the image quality is superb. It is now my go-to macro lens. A minor downside is that as of this writing, there is no firmware (yet) for auto-correcting lens distortion for this lens. For me, this is not an issue, but just be aware. As others have pointed out, this does not come with either a case or a lens hood. Again, be aware. Bottom line: this is a great "cover lots of bases" lens. I am very happy with it.UPDATE: As of 12 September 2014, lens distortion correction firmware is available for this lens (firmware L 2.005). See the Nikon website for details and installation instructions. I installed this on my D3300 and distortion corrections worked properly. One other comment. After upgrading to the new firmware, my older version of ViewNX 2 (free Nikon software) would not work with RAW files on which the corrections were applied. After upgrading to the newest version of ViewNX2 (free), everything worked fine.

First of all, this lens makes life so much easier. I love not having to carry around two lenses, and swapping between them for various shots. Also, the reviews on here complaining about the quality of the pictures it takes need to consider a few things: First of all, you are using a zoom lens. You will not get fixed lens quality from a zoom lens. Also, the quality of the shots this lens is capable of is just as good as the 55-300mm Nikkor lens. The ghosting that is described occurs in all lenses if you zoom in all the way and then blow up the picture beyond what it should be. I love this lens! It is simple to use, works great and even works as a Macro lens. I am no professional, but for the average daily hobbyist, this lens is perfect. If you want to go spend thousands of dollars to get a better quality zoom so you can magnify the pictures, then do that, and don't write negative reviews about a lens that you tried to make do more than you knew it was capable of when you bought it.Update** I have now had this lens for a few months, and I am still more and more impressed with it. I have managed to take a few pictures that have now been rated in the top 50 trending on the National Geographic User Submitted Photos page. The capability and portability of this lens are just getting better and better. I am including some more photographs, now that I have had a chance to expand on it some.

Seller shipped it in the original packaging with an additional lens cover so that was very nice. It was great for close ranged photos but at max extension the quality really fell off and stopped being very sharp. Also the auto focus was a bit noisy while using with the Z5. I replaced this lens with the Nikon NIKKOR Z 70-200mm f/2.8 S.