Home > Consumer Reviews > Nikon 17-35mm f/2.8D ED-IF AF-S Zoom Nikkor Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras

This lens is widely held to be one of the best if not the best wide angle professional zoom lens for 35mm and Digital SLRs compatible with Nikon's lens system. I've had mine for about 6 months on a Nikon D-100 and have absolutely nothing I don't like about it. It's sharp from corner to corner at all zoom settings and any pincusion destortion is negligible even at 17mm @ f2.8. The AFS focusing motor is lightning fast and accurate. Filter size is 77mm, same as my Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR lens. Since filters this size aren't cheap, it's nice to be able to share. This lens will support 35mm, APS, and DX format film and digital sensor sizes and comes with a 5-year warranty. If you want the best, and can afford it, you won't be sorry you purchased this lens.

Of the auto-focus Nikkor lenses, I've owned the 20/2.8D, 24/2.8D, and 35-70/2.8D. My current lenses are the AF80-200/2.8D (2-ring version), and the AFS17-35/2.8D. That's all is needed for my general photography. Any distortion can be easily created in Photoshop CS.

The AFS17-35/2.8D is the sharpest lens of all the manual and auto-focus Nikkor lenses I have owned/used. Since purchasing this lens almost 3 years ago, it has become the standard lens on my Nikon F5.

I travel with the AFS17-35/2.8D and (in my opinion) it's natural companion the AF80-200/2.8D. Both zoom lenses are ranked number 1 and 2 in sharpness respectively.

The lens, mounted on an F5, was dropped 3.5 feet in a thinly cushioned bag onto a concrete walkway. The back of the F5 took the impact. According to Nikon Canada, the lens survived but the F5 needed a new $400+ autofocus assembly.

This is a first-class professional quality lens. I am using it on Nikon F5, F100, and D200 bodies. I bought it in anticipation of purchasing an FX digital format successor to the D200/D300 DX-format cameras. It is extremely sharp from edge-to-edge, rendering crisp images with great color and contrast. Good low-light performance for natural people-pictures. On my film-based shoots, it is nothing short of spectacular. With digital, I am presently using DX-format cameras, so the focal-length range is reduced. But, when used with an FX-format digital, I expect equally exceptional results. This lens is considered both heavy and pricey by some. However, I find the weight promotes better stability with hand-held images. The price is right for what you get. I also like a depth of field indicator on the aperature ring for doing wide-ange shots employing hyper-focal distance techniques. You don't get this with the newer g-series lenses. If you can afford this lens and are going to go FX-format, buy it.

This is a superb lens. I purchased it along with my D700 and the results have been very impressive. It's very well made; the zoom control is linear (evenly spaced on the zoom ring), and it's not as heavy as I thought it would be given the pro level of construction. Its a nice chunky size ... it fits my hand well, and is well suited size-wise to the D700 ... yet doesn't feel too big or heavy. I've been using it mostly on a tripod for landscape photography, but I think it will also be a great walking-around lens.

The included lens shade is pretty much worthless and is so wide physically that its a PITA in my backpack. The lens also comes with a beautiful hard case which I will never use. It would have been nice if Nikon had shaved $50-100 off the price and skipped this high quality but impractical part of the package.

Highly recommended!

I purchased this lens along with my D700 nearly 12 months ago. My choice was between this lens and the Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8G ED AF-S. I went with the 17-35mm for the ability to use filters and have not looked back.

During that time I have had a blast enjoying landscape photography with the combination. The lens is exceedingly sharp --corner to corner-- particularly when stopped down from wide open. I have no use for 'prime' lenses within this focal range anymore.

Indoors the extreme angle-of-view and large aperture have been great for candids and other interior shots. Obviously, 17-35mm is not a desirable focal length for portraits.

Some have complained about corner 'sharpness' wide open, but the depth-of-field at f/2.8 is so shallow on FX that corner sharpness is a non-issue since objects in the corner are unlikely to be within the focal plane of the subject anyway. With the high-ISO performance of the D700, aperture selection is an artistic choice for DOF, not a necessity for low light. Stop the pixel-peeping and just enjoy the lens!

I have also found DxO Optics Pro (Elite) a priceless software tool with this camera/lens combination. I always shoot RAW images and use DxO to convert to TIFF or jpg. DxO includes both the D700 and this lens in their database; the result: noise-free images with perfect optical corrections. Amazing.