LensTip.com

Lens review

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%).


Please Support Us

If you enjoy our reviews and articles, and you want us to continue our work please, support our website by donating through PayPal. The funds are going to be used for paying our editorial team, renting servers, and equipping our testing studio; only that way we will be able to continue providing you interesting content for free.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - advertisement - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

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.


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

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

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