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Nikon Nikkor AF-S DX 17-55 mm f/2.8G IF-ED

Nikon Nikkor AF-S DX 17-55 mm f/2.8G IF-ED
27 May 2009
Arkadiusz Olech

1. Introduction

Originally posted 2009-03-23 on Optyczne.pl

Nikkor AF-S DX 17-55 mm f/2.8G IF-ED is a very interesting lens from my point of view and for more than one reason. It found its way to our editorial office over two years ago with the first Nikon D200 camera. The full test was done but, before I got to analyse it, a serious disk failure caused the loss of the major part of the collected data. I’ve always intended to repeat that test but there has always been something more pressing to do.

The second interesting point is, that the lens comes from times when companies treated APS-C/DX format seriously. I remember Nikon Polska trainings, when I heard a lot of enthusiastic remarks about the advantages of DX format and complaints about the other companies, which couldn’t decide whether or not they want to have a full frame or 1.3 or 1.6 multiplier. Don’t get me wrong - I don’t intend to be nasty here, I want to and I can appreciate the advantages of the matrixes mentioned above. The thing that, in my opinion, many companies lacked, was a serious, long-term strategy of smaller matrixes’ treatment. For several years Olympus has showed how perfect optics can be joined with smaller detectors. Unfortunately, both Canon and Nikon treated smaller matrixes seriously only at the beginning. When the full frame appeared on the horizon, the users of smaller formats started to get cheap, mainly plastic lenses, much weaker than they could have got if they had been treated otherwise.


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Good thing is there are some exceptions. Precisely one of them is Nikkor AF-S DX 17-55mm f/2.8G IF-ED, coming from times when even the most professional Nikon reflex cameras had DX matrixes. The appearance of a lens optically and mechanically perfect was a must at that times, because it was a basic tool for many professionals. Nikon gave its professional fans exactly what they had expected. Let’s find out how the lens works in practice.

The lens has been lent for the tests by Nikon Polska.

We invite you to acquaint with our test procedure, described in the article "How do we test lenses".


Nikon Nikkor AF-S DX 17-55 mm f/2.8G IF-ED - Introduction