The two Sigma 24-70mm Art lenses I tried were not great performers. Focus was a bit hit and miss, and images were unacceptably soft. The Nikon 24-70 VR I settled on, is very,very good. Karl Huber's gear list: Sony RX100 Nikon 1 V1 Olympus PEN E-P5 Nikon D850 Nikon Z7 +26 more. Let’s see how both compare wide open (Left: 28-300mm, Right: 18-200mm): The 18-200mm is clearly superior at 28mm f/4.0 than 28-300mm at f/3.5 in the center. Stopping down 28-300mm to f/4.0 improves sharpness and by f/5.6 both lenses perform equally well, with a slightly better performance by the 28-300: Although it has not the same large aperture it offers a slightly longer reach and has Nikon’s image stabilization VR that should make-up for 2-3 stops easily. It also brings up the rear price-wise at around 500 EUR (incl. 19% VAT) while the Tamron is at 1000 EUR and the Nikon at 1500 EUR. Two 24-70mm f/2.8 zooms for Nikon DSLRs. Tamron SP 24 Expert news, reviews and videos of the latest digital cameras, lenses, accessories, and phones. Nikon 24-70 f2.8 VR review Started Dec 2, 2015 | Discussions Forum well, 24-85 f3.5-4.5 is the same tack sharp at f5-6 and costs 50% of 24-120 (comparing both 2nd hand). dxo says they both have max 8mpix on a d700 & 16mpix on d850. so, in 3/4 of cases you’d be wasting your money, you could instead put that money into a 70-200 f4 which is excellentissime. The 17-55mm f/2.8 weighs a ton and costs $1,500. I'd skip it. I suggest the 18-55 or 18-200 VR first depending on your budget. This 18-70 would be my third choice and dead last would be the heavy 17-55 2.8. My biggest beef with this 18-70 is the weird camming of the zoom. Above: Sigma 24-70mm f2.8 OS Art on D810 at 35mm, f2.8. Above: Nikon 24-70mm f2.8E VR on D850 at 35mm, f2.8. Above: Tamron SP 24-70mm f2.8 VC on a D850 at 35mm, f2.8. At 35mm focal length both Tamrons beat the Sigma and the Nikon in the DX image-circle while the FX-corner is won by the Nikon. Performance at 50mm: The Nikkor Z 70-200mm F2.8 VR S is a versatile tele-zoom with up to 5 stops of shake reduction. It features aspherical, ED and a SR elements as well as Nikon's Nano Crystal and Arneo coatings. The minimum focus distance is 0.5m at wide-angle 1.0m at telephoto. The Nikon 120-300mm f/2.8E AF-S FL ED SR VR is a lens with no weaknesses that boasts outstandingly consistent sharpness across its focal and aperture ranges. A near perfect performer, the only question is whether sports photographers will want to add this to their trusty 70-200mm and 300mm combo. If they do, they will be wowed a midrange marvel Below are our sharpness measurements at 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, and 70mm. The next page of this review compares these numbers to the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 VR and 24-120mm f/4 F-mount lenses, but I’ll mention first that these are very impressive numbers, among the best we have seen so far on wide to normal range zoom lenses. pPHgzi7.