Nikon 17-55mm F/2.8G ED AF-S DX

The Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8G ED AF-S DX is a lightweight, wide-aperture zoom in a very useful focal length. Key features include:

• Compatible only with DX cameras

• Fast, nearly silent autofocus

• 9-blade aperture ring

• Durable, lightweight build

High-Quality Optics. The Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8G ED AF-S DX is among the best standard-range lenses available for Nikon DX digital cameras. It has three ED elements and three aspherical lenses to minimize distortion and chromatic aberration, and a nine-blade aperture ring to maximize smooth bokeh.

DX Only. This lens only works with crop-sensor DX cameras, such as the D3300, D5500, and .

There are several choices in the 17-50mm range for crop-sensor cameras, and rather than doing separate takes for each, I thought a bit of comparison would be better. The summary, though, is they’re…

There are several choices in the 17-50mm range for crop-sensor cameras, and rather than doing separate takes for each, I thought a bit of comparison would be better. The summary, though, is they’re all pretty good. Whichever you choose will probably leave you satisfied. An important generalization first: all of the 17-50 lenses are sharper at the wide end than at the long end. If you think you’ll be shooting mostly at 50mm or so, you might want to consider a or similar range lens.

: The most expensive of the bunch by a good margin. It doesn’t have vibration reduction. It autofocuses more quickly than the Tamron, which has a micro-motor rather than USM motor. It has less distortion, although it’s still significant at 2%. It’s built like a truck and would be my choice for war-zone photography. Otherwise, it’s really expensive compared to the others.

: This lens is as sharp as the in the center, and at f/4 is as sharp in the corners, too. It may be even sharper than the Nikon at f/4. It has more barrel distortion at the wide end at 2.9%. That’s easy to correct in Photoshop, but correcting distortion also decreases resolution, particularly in the corners. It’s probably as good as the except for autofocus in low light.

: This lens has excellent vibration control, as do the and . It’s not quite as sharp as either, although it’s in the same ballpark and is less expensive. It has even more barrel distortion than the Sigma, though, at 3.3% at the wide end. We’ve had some autofocus problems with some Nikon cameras where only the center AF point is active.