Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8E ED VR Lens Review at DxOMark: Disappointing Scores

DxOMark published their test results for the AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm F2.8E ED VR lens ($2,396.95 at AmazonB&HAdorama) designed for Nikon full-frame DSLRs. Tested on the 36-megapixel full-frame Nikon D810 DSLR camera, Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8E ED VR lens earns 28 points overall score, lower than the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G and Tamron SP 24-70mm lens.

According to DxOMark: “the new 24-70mm f/2.8E records the lowest sharpness score of 19 P-Mpix, compared to 21 or 22 P-Mpix for the standard zoom competition. Its distortion score is also a little down in this group, but the new lens does offer comparable vignetting and chromatic aberration results to the 24-70mm competition.”

 

 

Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8E vs Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G

Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8E vs Tamron 24-70mm f/2.8 vs Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8

Conclusions from DxOMark:

But what seems to be a complete redesign of the optical system has made an already bulky lens even bigger and heavier, which is a serious consideration if you’re looking for an all-in-one lens to carry around a lot. At $2,397, it’s pretty expensive, too — in fact, $600 more than the original G-type version and a whopping $1,100 over the Tamron 24-70mm f2.8 Di VC USD third-party equivalent. Perhaps all of that could be forgiven if the new Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8E had raised the bar for optical performance, but as we’ve seen from its DxOMark scores, this disappointingly isn’t the case. Overall sharpness is down compared to its predecessor and slightly worse at the critical setting of f/2.8. While chromatic aberration has been improved slightly, it’s still far from good at the wider focal lengths.

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