Recommended Lenses - 3rd-Party
The “Third-Party” Lens Choices
Of course, Nikon aren’t the only lens manufacturer out there. Tamron, Tokina and Sigma are also brands to watch out for if you’re looking for a bargain. Most of these lenses come in at less than their Nikon counterparts (substantially so for the “pro” quality glass), though do bear in mind the old adage of “buy cheap, buy twice”. In other words, if you think you’ll eventually want the Nikkor, it might be worth saving for it now. That being said, these lenses will most probably outlast your DSLR so can never be considered a bad investment!
Standard Pro Zoom: Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di LD Aspherical (IF)
Tamron hit on a winner with this lens; it’s sharp and contrasty, whilst remaining small and light. It loses out to other manufacturer’s lenses on the wide end - they often go to 24mm - but gains 5mm on the long end.
The name is Tamron’s usual strange mix of alphabet soup (not that Nikon are much better) - suffice it to say that this lens is from their pro range (”SP”), has autofocus (”AF” - though not AF-S), is designed for digital (”Di” - Digitally Integrated), is small (”XR”), has low dispersion glass (”LD”), aspherical elements, and internal focusing (”IF”). Phew.
Alternatives: Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 EX DG Macro or 28-70mm f/2.8 EX DG.
Telephoto Pro Zoom: Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 II EX DG APO Macro HSM AF
Sigma have a long history of making lenses for other people’s SLRs (as well as their own), with varying degrees of success. This is one of, if not their best. It features speedy “hypersonic” HSM focusing (similar to Nikon’s AF-S), though is lacking Vibration Reduction (”OS”, or “Optical Stabilization” in Sigma terminology).
With the current concerns about the Nikkor 70-200mm corner performance (described above), you might want to check this one out. It’s been a while since we had our hands on one (which was actually the earlier non-II version), but very much enjoyed using it.
Alternatives: It’s between this and the two Nikkors (70-200 and 80-200mm).
Quality Walkaround Zoom: Tamron SP AF 24-135mm f/3.5-5.6 AD Aspherical IF Autofocus
Another Tamron, and for good reason. This lens is pretty sharp wide open, getting excellent when stopped down just a tad, has a nice wide 24mm angle and a Nikon 24-120mm-beating 135mm at the long end. It’s not the fastest in terms of aperture, so it’s a good job the D700 has such excellent high-ISO capabilities, but does use screw drive so can take advantage of the powerful in-body AF motor. Build quality is good, and the IQ in the corners isn’t bad either for an FX lens at this price point.
To be honest, when we’re not shooting professionally, this is the lens that stays on our D3 - and I see no reason why it won’t live on the D700 either.
Convenience Do-It-All Zoom: Tamron AF 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 XR Di VC LD Aspherical (IF) Macro
Another alphabet-soup Tamron makes our list - and they’re not even paying us to write this! You may feel some qualms about putting a lens like this on your new FX camera (if that’s the case, but you still want a walkaround, the previous lens is for you), but as superzooms go this ain’t bad. It has an internal focus motor (in order to be compatible with Nikon’s lower-end motor-less cameras such as the D60) so it won’t take advantage of the powerful one in your D700, and has a slow maximum aperture of f/6.3 starting from around 200m which can cause hunting in low-light conditions.
However, this puppy does have built-in VR (called “VC”, or “Vibration Compensation” in Tamron-speak) which is amazingly effective - more so than Nikon’s implementation in our experience - if a little… whirry. Add that to what amounts to fairly good image quality for a lens of this range, and we think it’s the best of the superzoom bunch.
| Photos of the D700 ——> |
September 1st, 2008 at 8:34 am
How about the Sigma AF 24-70 f2.8? It’s fast, it’s good, it’s sturdy and has a useful range? Better yet, it’s still in production.
December 18th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
I’d also consider the Tamron 70-200 f/2.8. I don’t know how it performs full frame, but on my D300 I prefer it to the 80-200 nikkor and it costs a bit less.
March 11th, 2009 at 11:41 pm
I`v just bought a Sigma 70-200 f2.8 yesterday and has really fast AF, has`t make mistakes (not too many:), my sample is also sharp even wide open (for about 170-200 is good to chose f4). There is only one issue, BF (backward focus), i`v check one, next day i`v replaced it to another one and the same story, i go to try the third one tomorrow. D700 has an option to correct the bf and ff from the body level BUT works only with my nikkor 24-70 (adjustment is not necessary in this lens), no results with Sigma!!! If the third copy have the BF, i`ll have to send the lens (unfortunately with d700 body) for free calibration to Sigma Service.
Anyway that`s a brilliant lens, extremely fast and silent af, sharp and well build with easy to remove tripod colar and is much cheaper than nikkor 70-200. In my opinion Sigma is worth every cent!
Ps: i was thinking about nikkor 80-200 but it does`t have build-in motor, it`s not as fast as sigma and it is pretty important in sport photography.
March 30th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
Hello from France !
Having also a D700 since january, I was looking for a good lens, but not one for 1500$ like the 28-70/f2.8
I tested 3 pieces of the Tamron 28-300 with VC.
Each one had other problems, one was blurry at the left side, the second at the right side, and the third had a very hard to move zoom ring.
And it was almost impossible to get a sharp photo at 300 mm.
Sent tham all back.
I’ve found a new (but it has been discontinued a few years ago) Nikkor 24-85 AF-S f3,5-4,5G IF for about 210$ and this one is not bad at all, even wide open. It’s actually my walkaround lens.
I think I will also test the Tamron SP 24-135 if I find a used one.
I tested also other (discontinued) Nikkor lenses :
28-105 AF-D 3,5-4,5 : not so good under f8 (blurry edges, ghostings)
28-200 AF-D 3,5-5,6 (the old one with the aperture ring) : wide open, the edges are a little blurry between 28 an 50 mm, but all in all the IQ is not bad at all for a zoom with such a range.
I also tested the newer Nikkor 28-200 G (without aperture ring) this one was bad (strong ghostings and blurry)
Greats, Roland
April 10th, 2009 at 11:03 am
Does anyone know if the Tamron 24-135 is still available in the UK. It appear to get good reviews on web sites but I am struggling to find it on sale anywhere
April 10th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
anyone know of, or had any experience with third party lenses
for Nikon FULL FRAME sensors (D3, D700) in the wide-angle range
of 12-24, 17-35 or similar?
May 3rd, 2009 at 7:50 pm
Is the “Tamron AF 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 XR Di VC LD Aspherical (IF) Macro” shown here only a DX lens and as such, not thus recommended for use on the D700?
June 19th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Following your recommendation on the Tanron 24-135mm, I was able to pick up a new one yesterday from a camera shop that still had one tucked away in the stockroom! I was never happy with the Nikon 24-85mm which had Chromatic Aberration, made worse on higher ISO settings. I shot a comparison on a tripod, both at ISO200 f8 and the Tamron is far superior. Not having moved the tripod an inch whilst changing lens, the pin cushion at 24mm on the Nikon is very noticeable too. I’ve uploaded a 100% crop photoshop layered file (2.4mb) showing the top left corner here …. http://www.mediafire.com/?yjumymjmn2m
July 23rd, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Re. #7. No, the Tamron DX equivelent is Di II. Di is completely compatible with FX. Although saying that, I have both the Tamron and the Nikon 28-200 AF-D (not the gelded “G”) version and I would recommend the Nikon lens every time on my D700, even though it does not have vibration reduction/control
August 12th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Hi. I have just been using a loan D700 with my older Sigma 70-200 f2.8 HSM lens and it appears to suffer from a focus problem - sometimes it won’t do anything and I have to actually turn camera off then on to get focussing to work. I have no problem with the D2x or the D3 I hired recently. Is there an issue with this body/lens combo? The D700 was fine with the 17-35 f2.8 which kinda rules out the body?
September 29th, 2009 at 1:14 am
sigma 15-30 is full frame compatible ( to use in this case on a d700 ) and it equals what sigma 10-20 equals on a Dx camera like d300 or d90. It has very good results , regular filter use is not available for Fx , for DX the drum of the lens cap will hold the filter. On FX keeping the drum on causes dark frame. an be found for about 300$
October 5th, 2009 at 10:03 pm
Did anyone have an answer for #10 PhotoNic2008. I am suing the same set up but the HSM will not work at all.
November 1st, 2009 at 8:21 pm
Do Not buy the Tamron 24-135,
C/A at 24mm is really bad, does not focus distant at 24mm , v slow .
The only good thing is that is sharp!!.
Save your money and buy the 24-70mm f2.8 Nikon its a stunner, and shows what a good lens is all about.
January 12th, 2010 at 9:58 pm
I wonder why no one mentions the Zeiss lenses or the Cosina lenses? I mean I know they are manuel and primes but the image quality is awesome, not to mention the all metal build quailty is great to.
March 21st, 2010 at 1:45 pm
#13- Tamron £120 Nikon £1000 Doh!
April 27th, 2010 at 7:23 am
Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 Nikon mount
I heard people saying that this lens has poor and noisy focusing in dim light. This is my main lens, and I don’t know what they’re talking about. The lens is much faster than “me”, extreme good even in the evening, with no lights (so, in a dark room), pretty silent, and it has all the other qualities you can read on forums… It is not soft at 28mm, but sharp like a prime.