New Wide AF-P DX NIKKOR 10-20mm f/4.5-5.6G VR

kingyo

Nikon has recently released the above lens. I'm having a bit of trouble determining if it is compatible with the D5200. Would someone care to weigh in on that please?

Also, it's a 'budget' lens which is usually good news/ bad news. Good news might be that it's faster and quieter in focusing, especially good for video. Also, one can use the focus ring to adjust even with AF turned on. Bad news is no VR switch (have to go into camera menu) One reviewer stated the build was a bit 'plastic' feeling. And the filter thread is 72mm as opposed to 52. Haven't heard much regarding image quality as yet.

As always, thanks in advance for your input.

bruto

Nikon lists it as "compatible with limited functions."

As I understand it, the main problem is that you cannot turn off VR. I'm not sure whether there's a firmware fix to put it in the menu here. Chances are very good that you won't see a difference, especially on a wide lens, and the the VR will behave even on a tripod.

The other problem, and one for which there is apparently no firmware fix, has to do with the way the AF works, and that is that this camera, along with many others, re-energizes the AF when it wakes up from standby, and on this lens it will cause the lens to re-acquire focus. Thus if you pre-focus and wait for your scene to be right, it will lose your setting if it goes into standby. From what I've seen, there's no problem in normal shooting, and of course no problem if the camera's choice of AF is also yours.

That problem may also be minimal on a very wide angle, since in general everything will be in focus anyway. It's more likely to be critical in a telephoto.

What I have not been able to find out is how this all behaves if you use back button focus. The entire focus mechanism is "by wire," meaning that even manual focus cannot occur unless it's energized. It would seem logical that this means it would hold focus even after standby if you use back button focus, but it would also mean (perhaps) that AF must be engaged in order to make any manual correction.

That last is something I have yet to figure out, and may have to find a brick and mortar store to do. I have a D7100 (also "limited compatibility") and use BBF, and would be interested to know. If I find out, I'll post it here.

bruto

I got a partial answer to my question today at a store. I did not get to put the lens in question on my camera, but did get to play for a minute with a D500 with a 70-300 AFP-Dx on it. If you turn the camera on with the AF switch at the camera off, there is no focus at all, manual or automatic. If you have the AF turned on and use AF it focuses, and if you then turn off the AF at the camera, manual override remains active. Thus I am guessing that these lenses will work all right with back button focusing, though it's not entirely clear what happens on semi-compatible models when they re-awake from standby, or whether the manual override goes off on standby.

In any case, I was impressed with the way the new focus system works - very fast and dead quiet. Given how little focus correction a wide angle needs, and how fast it can do this, I'm guessing that it would work nicely even with the couple of glitches. I'm also guessing that the VR will have tripod sensitivity enough that you'll likely never notice that it's on. In any case, it it's really good, as they claim, for four and a half stops, that would mean you could hand hold at ten millimeters down to a crazily slow shutter speed. You'd rarely need a tripod.

I believe it does have a plastic mount, which is kind of too bad. They guy at the store opines that this may change eventually. All the first "G" lenses had plastic mounts too.

I'm tempted by this lens, and may have to go back soon when the store is less busy, and see if I can play with it a little on my own camera.