Good, but not great

In spite of what you read in popular photography magazines, one zoom lens cannot be superb at all focal lengths. You really should have at least one prime lens of 50mm in your camera bag. Some zooms, however, can come pretty close to a fixed focal length lenses in terms of sharpness, and be more versatile. This brings us to the Nikon 24-120 AF-D lens. It's a "do-all" type zoom that has become extremely popular. Most of my friends who shoot with Nikon use this as their main lens. At first it looks tempting: 24mm is quite wide, and 120mm is getting into long telephoto range. In the old days photographers who wanted this versatility for framing shots had to take along at least 3 lenses: a 24-28mm for wide angles, a 50mm for standard shots, and a 135mm for portraits and close-ups. The 24-120mm pretty much covers all of those bases. The sacrifices are in lens speed. At f5.6 in 120mm, you won't be doing much without a flash. The older 135mm was f3.5 or 2.8. With newer 800 speed color film, and 3200 speed black & white this is less of a worry today. One area the 24-120 really lacks in is flare resistance. Flare cuts the contrast and resolution of a lens, and this one is very prone to flare. This problem is unavoidable in "Do-All" zooms because you need more lens elements for greater focal range.There is also very visible and significant vignetting (darkening of the corners) when used at maximum aperture. So if you're looking for a "Do-All" zoom with excellent optical performance and better resistance to lens flare and vignetting I would suggest the Nikon 28-105 AF-D lens instead. The focal lengths may not be as broad, but it's a much better lens and your photos have snappier contrast. Both of these lenses have rebates until end of June of 2002, so if you're ready to take the leap, do it soon!