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

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

27 May 2009

Arkadiusz Olech

8. Vignetting

In the case of zoom lenses the combination of a wide angle and good light f/2.8 is always problematic and creates a lof of vignetting issues. Nikkor 17-55 mm is not an exception to this rule. The drop of the brightness in the corners is, at 33% (-1.15 EV) evident. Fortunately it gets better with closing because for f/4.0 its value is just 19% and for f/5.6 it reaches 14% and for f/8.0 it is practically non-existent (9%).

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

The best situation is for the middle focal length. For the maximum aperture the vignetting reaches 22% (-0.72 EV) and it disappears completely for f/4.0% (8%).

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Maximum focal length gives us more vignetting - up to 28% (-0.94 EV) for f/2.8. After closing the aperture by one stop the vignetting decreases to 12 % and for f/5.6 it reaches just 5%.

One important thing is worth notice here. The values for Nikkor are still smaller than in the case of Canon 17-55mm and Tamron 17-50 mm although both these lenses were tested on a slightly smaller matrix of Canon 20D. It shows a clear advantage of Nikkor over its competitors, but it’s still worse than Sigma 18-50 mm f/2.8 Macro, which is still a model lens to be followed in this category.

Finally one more comparison. With full frame cameras lenses 24-70 mm f/2.8 in the most difficult combinations produce vignetting sometimes exceeding 50%. In this category the advantages of using a DX matrix are evident.