Nikon has literally hundreds of lenses, thousands if you consider discontinued lenses. In this article we’ll take a closer look at one lens from each of the following category: Wide-Angle, Standard, Telephoto, Super Telephoto, Wide-Angle Zoom, Standard Zoom, High Power Zoom, Close-up, Non-Auto Focus (AF), and Perspective Control.

First up is a Wide-Angle lens, the AF Nikkor 20 mm f/2.8D. This ultra-wide-angle lens is very compact and lightweight and is made to shoot landscapes, interiors, events and more. The AF Nikkor 20mm f/2.8D retails for roughly $625 and comes with a 62mm circular polarizer filter, a snap on lens cap and lens hood, rear lens cap, contrast filter, soft focus filter, and soft lens case. The minimum aperture for this lens is 22 and the maximum is 2.8.

The next lens is a middle of the road Standard lens from Nikon, the AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D. This lens is made to shoot in just about any type of light and will produce distortion-free, high contrast images with great resolution and color rendition. This lens is an ideal first lens as it is versatile and fast, perfect for anything from portraits to travel photography. The AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D comes with a rubber lens hood, snap-on front lens cap, rear lens cap, soft case, and three 52mm filters. This lens has a 50mm focal length, minimum aperture of 1.4 and maximum of 16. This lens usually retails for $370.

A top of the line Telephoto lens from Nikon is the AF-S VR Nikkor 200mm f/2G IF-ED lens. This lens is super fast and comes with vibration reduction (VR) image stabilization to make sure you get great shots in all conditions. This lens is also made with Super ED glass which is made to eliminate secondary spectrum and correct chromatic aberration Super ED glass is also more resilient to rapid temperature changes. This lens usually retails for around $5100 and comes with a soft nylon case, front lens cover, 52mm polarizer and two 52mm filters.

One great lens in the Super Telephoto category is the AF-S VR Nikkor 300mm f/2.8G IF-ED lens. This lens retails for around $5500 and comes with a slip-on lens hood, front lens cover, two 52mm filters, 52mm polarizer, rear lens cap, and a soft nylon case. The AF-S VR Nikkor 300mm f/2.8G IF-ED is built with VR and Nikon’s Silent Wave Motor (SWM) that enables ultra-high-speed, accurate, and quiet autofocusing. This lens also has three Extra-low Dispersion (ED) glass elements that effectively compensate for magnification and eliminate chromatic aberration.

Next, we’ll take a closer look at a new Wide-Angle Zoom lens from Nikon, the AF-S Nikkor 16-35mm f/4G ED VR. This lens is a high-performance wide-angle zoom lens that retails for $1260. The image stabilization and Nano Crystal Coat that are built into this lens produce dramatically sharper still images and videos. This lens is also very versatile and is perfect for travel, landscapes and general photography. A lens hood, snap-on lens cap, rear lens cap, soft lens case and three 77mm filters are included with this lens.

There are a large number of Standard Zoom lens offerings from Nikon. The cheapest is the AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED II which is still a good performer. This compact, lightweight 3X zoom lens is designed to be used exclusively with Nikon’s DX-format and is great for a variety of shooting situations as it approximates the angle performance of a 27-82.5mm lens on the 35mm format. This lens features SWM and ED glass elements. For a retail price of $120, this lens includes three 52mm filters, a snap-on lens cap, rear lens cap, carrying case, and lens hood.

Nikon also has a large number of High Power Zoom lenses, one of the best being the AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II which was named “Best Professional Lens” by TIPA in 2010. This lens performs very well when shooting such difficult situations as low-light sports, fashion, wildlife and more. All of the best features are included with this lens, such as VR image stabilization, Nano Crystal Coat, SWM, and Internal Focus (IF). This lens has a focal length range of 70-200mm and a zoom ratio of 2.9x. Right out of the box this lens comes with a lens hood, three 77mm filters, nylon lens case, and two lens cap, all for $2400.

The AF-S DX Micro Nikkor 85mm f/3.5G ED VR is a mid-range Close-Up lens retailing for $530. This lens is strictly for Nikon DX-format cameras and is ideal for extreme close-ups, but also works for for general photography and portraits. Included with this lens is a carrying case, lens hood, two lens caps, and three 52mm filters. This Close-Up lens has VR image stabilization, ED elements, SWM autofocus, and close focusing up to 0.9 feet.

If you prefer to focus manually, Nikon offers many Non-AF options including the Nikkor 50mm f/1.2 lens. This high performance, lightweight lens features a fast f/1.2 aperture and retails for $725. In fact, this lens is the fastest normal manually-focusing Nikkor lens. The maximum aperture for this lens is 1.2 and the minimum is 16. Accessories included with this lens are a rear lens cap, soft lens case and a screw on rubber lens hood.

Finally, if you’re looking for a lens featuring Perspective Control, the PC-E Nikkor 24mm f/3.5D ED is a good option. This lens offers tilt, shift, and rotation capability which makes it perfect for architectural, nature, and commercial photography. This lens also has three ED elements for superior sharpness and color correction and Nano Crystal Coat to virtually eliminate internal reflections for even greater image clarity. For a retail price of $2200, this lens comes with a soft lens case, snap-on lens cap, rear lens cap, lens hood, and three 77mm lenses.

These brief descriptions just scratch the surface of lenses offered by Nikkon, but we hope it gives you an idea of what is available.

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