>Would it be possible for you to email to me a copy of your posting if you
>still have it? I'd much appreciate it, as I am dithering over whether or
>not I want to trade in a couple of zooms I use on travel for this one
>(current zooms are 28-70 AF-D, 70-210 AF-D, and 35-105 AF-D which I find
>more compatible with travel/street shooting if I don't want to be
>switching lenses. 24-120 sounds like an idea range for travel, but I'm
>inherently very skeptical of any zoom that has a 5:1 zoom ratio, even
>Nikkor, and I noticed in the store there seems to be quite a bit of
>barrel/pincushion distortion with the 24-120. Also large objective
>element makes for heavy, bulky and expensive filters and I'd wonder about
>vignetting with a polarizer at 24mm -- another concern is flare, with the
>increased number of glass elements.
> ak926@freenet.carleton.ca

The 24-120 (SINGLE SAMPLE! I also am very skeptical about 5:1 zooms,
but mostly in terms of sample consistency - the two 35-200 Nikkors I
tried were terrible, though some people like it [but, then, some people think the 28-200mm cheapo zooms are sharp.....]) is sharper than the 28-70 in its range, and only slightly slower. The 35-105 AF D is supposed to be excellent (I have never used it, but selected samples of the MF 35-105 are
excellent), and is noticeably faster at the long end (and maybe better).
I am not fond of the 70-210, and maybe would substitute a 180 or 200 for that (though I find long zooms more useful than short, but the excellent
80-200 f2.8 is too awkward for travel). I would buy the 24-120 from a
dealer that will take it back (if totally unmarked!), and carefully test
it, if you want it, but my inclination for travel would be to go light and small, with a 20, 35-105, 200 combination (MF), or 16, 24-120.
I don't use polarizers (and the 72mm Nikkor, needed to avoid vignette,
is BIG [I sold mine]) - I never understood their apeal... The lens
does show low flare, but high tendency to show diaphragm ghosts.
The lens shows very low distortion for a zoom (BTW, you can't use
non F-series finders to evaluate distortion, because of VF distortions
[unless you use a grid screen - but that still won't tell you anything
about edge distortion]), with linear distortion little above that in the 24mm f2.8 Nikkor prime, though the slight long end pincusion is nonexistent in Nikkor primes 60mm and longer. Overall, it is a surprisingly excellent lens (my sample!), with a few reservations, mostly at the long end.
David Ruether