Alphabets printed on Nikon Lenses and their meanings

When you buy new lens or see the lenses you have, you will see bunch of numerical and alphabetical prints on it which represents quality of lens and it’s features. Sometimes it is so confusing trying to figure out what does that mean and which is best over which one based on this information. When I bought my first lens two years ago, I had the same problem. That’s why I am trying to make a note of some of the abbreviations that Nikon uses on it’s lenses.

AF : Auto-focus lens.

AF-S : Silent-wave auto-focus using motor built right into the lens.

DX : Digital SLR compatible only. Most digital bodies utilize a smaller sensor known as DX format. Physically you can use a DX lens on any body, but you may end up with a circular image in the middle of a black frame if you aren’t using a DX body and using FX body. DX lenses will work with a non-DX format camera but Nikon does not recommend doing so.

D : Lens equipped with a “chip” which allows the camera body to assess the distance of the subject being photographed and expose for that subject correctly.

DC : Defocus Control. A lens designed primarily for portraiture that allows you to selectively defocus the image.

ED : Stands for Extra Low Dispersion Glass. It is basically a glass coating that doesn’t disperse light as it enters the lens as normal glass does.

G : Electronically controlled aperture and does not have aperture ring. Some of the Nikkor lenses will have an aperture ring allowing physical, manual aperture control which is designed for the older bodies.

IF : Internal Focusing. IF means it doesn’t change its length as you focus it. CPU built inside the lens controls focus in the lens itself. Lens will not expand or shrink when you focus subjects and it’s front element doesn’t move either.

Micro : Nikon’s proprietary trade name for a macro lens. “Micro” and “macro” mean the same thing for Nikon lens.

N : Nano crystal coating. A high-tech coating used on lenses to reduce ghosting and flare. In the early days, Nikon used letters like P (penta, 5 elements), N (nano, 9 elements) to indicate how many elements a lens had. Now Nikon reused letter N to indicate nano crystal coating.

VR : Vibration Reduction. It is an image stabilizer technology from Nikon allowing a photographer to reduce blurring associated with the motion of a camera or its subject specially when they are not using tripods. It actually allows photographers to shoot with 2-4 stops slower shutter speed than without VR lens.

Ø : Filter diameter that correctly fits into the lens. Common filter diameters are 49mm, 52mm, 58mm, 62mm, 67mm and 72mm.

If you see something like f/3.5-5.6 numbers in your lens, that means your lens maximum aperture is f/3.5 when it’s fully zoom out  (at lowest focal range) and f/5.6 when it’s fully zoom in (at highest focal range).

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