Wider still and wider. Nik 12-24

Very nice range of focal length. Dramatic perspectives. Flare not too bad. Distortion pretty damned poor.

Was expecting a little bending - given it's being a plastic cheapo - but it's much worse.

Architecture, rectilinear objects, seascapes, anything showing the horizon - all out to an embarassing degree..

Photoshop's "Undo the Lens Distortion" tricks can't properly sort it. Straight lines are not merely bent but wavy.

Made a foolish mistake in popping-on the polariser on top of the UV filter - vignetting appears, though not symetrically, leading to the supposition the optical axis is not maintained concentrically by the plastic barrels.

Plastic lens generality: The familiar smooth damping in the zoom and focussing afforded by metal helix and kilopoise grease gives way to a flimsy, gritty feel in plastic mouldings. (I daresay it would be difficult to have a viscose feel to the manual zooming focussing AND an autofocus mechanism, but then that's the challenge!

Given the CNC technology available today for machining metals it's a real retrograde step using polycarb or whatever it is. I am surprised it passed QA as a viable Nikon product given their history of excellence and my previous happy experience of their products from the F1 onwards. (yes, that old)

It will have to go to the e-bay pastures - soon as I find a replacement - I am looking.

Problems:

Wavy horizons, buildings, curbs, etc.