Sharpness Cont... 4

Sharpness at 200mm

The sharpness tests for this review were carried out using a real-world subject rather than a test chart. The Nikon AF-S Nikkor 18-300mm f/3.5-5.6G VR lens was attached to a Nikon D7000 body, which in turn was mounted on a sturdy tripod. We also used an infrared remote release and mirror lock-up to prevent any blurring that may result from camera or mirror movement. Slight tonal changes are due to slight changes in natural light during the session. The 100% crops represent about 1/400th of the total frame area.

The full frame at 200mm

At 200mm the centre is still quite sharp at f/5.6 but you gain nothing (in terms of sharpness) by stopping down.

The borders and corners are, again, a different story. They are very soft wide open and improve only slowly, reaching acceptable levels of sharpness at f16 only.

Aperture	Centre Crop	Edge Crop
f/5.6
f/8
f/11
f/16
f/22