Nikon 1 NIKKOR VR 10 100mm F 4 5 5 6 PD Zoom Review | 54 Data compared

The Photography Life review of the Nikon 1 10-100mm f/4.5-5.6 VR PD-ZOOM lens highlights a versatile 10x superzoom designed primarily for videography, featuring a silent Voice Coil AF Motor for smooth, silent zooming and effective Vibration Reduction. It outperforms standard kit lenses in sharpness across its 27–270mm equivalent range, making it a powerful tool for video. However, the lens suffers from significant drawbacks, including its extreme size and heavy weight, which undermine the portability of the Nikon 1 system. Furthermore, its high price, slow maximum aperture, and tedious power-zoom for still photography make it less practical for general daily use.

The Nikon 1 NIKKOR lens lineup offers highly lightweight and compact options, making the 10mm f/2.8, 10-30mm f/3.5-5.6, and 30-110mm f/3.8-5.6 highly portable and useful for everyday amateur photography. Optically, these entry-level lenses perform remarkably well when compared against DSLR equivalents, demonstrating solid resolution scores ranging from 38 to 41 lp/mm and showing exceptional control over chromatic aberrations, which even rivals premium glass like the Nikkor 70-200mm. Additionally, the specialized 10-100mm PD-ZOOM lens features a unique, electronic "T-W" drive that allows for smooth, variable-speed zooming, making it exceptionally well-designed for shooting video. However, the lineup suffers from average overall optical quality and a few notable design limitations. The 10mm prime lens lacks versatility due to its fixed focal length, while also exhibiting heavy vignetting up to -1.4 EV at its widest aperture. Furthermore, the 10-100mm video zoom is heavily criticized for weighing an excessive 530g, failing to offer better image sharpness than the smaller kit zooms, and scoring a weak 6 on the DxOMark scale due to the poor low-light performance of the compatible camera sensors. Finally, while the lenses...

The Photo Review assessment highlights the 1 Nikkor VR 10-100mm f/4.0-5.6 PD-Zoom lens as a specialized, video-oriented superzoom for the Nikon 1 system, praised for its robust build quality, near-silent power zoom, and effective Super Integrated Coating. However, the lens is limited by the lack of a physical manual focus ring, a slightly sluggish startup time, and noticeable, uncorrected rectilinear distortion and vignetting.

The Imaging Resource review highlights the Nikon 1 10-100mm f/4.5-5.6 PD-Zoom Nikkor VR as a highly capable all-in-one superzoom lens optimized for video, featuring a motorized power drive zoom (PD) with a dedicated, silent rocker switch. Key strengths include rapid internal Voice Coil Motor autofocus and highly effective optical Vibration Reduction (VR), allowing for stable, handheld video and sharp stills at slow shutter speeds. Conversely, the lens is considered quite heavy and unbalanced for small Nikon 1 camera bodies, and it suffers from a lack of a physical manual focusing ring. Additionally, the modest f/4.5-5.6 aperture limits low-light capability, while its high, original $749.99 retail price makes it a substantial investment.

The Nikon 10-100mm f/4.5-5.6 PD-Zoom Nikkor VR is a CX-mount lens designed specifically for Nikon 1 system cameras like the V1 and J1. It offers a massive 10x zoom range equivalent to 27-270mm on full-frame sensors. The lens delivers surprisingly good optical quality, with maximum resolution achieved at full aperture in the center. Its built-in image stabilization is highly effective, yielding up to a 3-stop advantage during testing. Additionally, the motorized power zoom and autofocus operate quickly and silently, making it an excellent tool for videographers. However, the lens suffers from notable drawbacks, most visibly its bulky size and heavy construction, which can feel mismatched and awkward on small Nikon 1 camera bodies. In terms of performance, it exhibits noticeable barrel distortion at 10mm and 1% pincushion distortion at focal lengths of 30mm or more. Vignetting occurs when shooting wide open, and chromatic aberration is relatively high, resulting in visible green and purple color fringing along high-contrast edges. Finally, it carries a higher price tag compared to alternative multi-lens setups within the same camera system.

This review evaluates the performance of two 1 Nikon 10-100mm zoom lenses—the standard f/4-5.6 non-PD version and the f/4.5-5.6 PD (Power Zoom) version—when intentionally shooting handheld at a very narrow aperture of f/16 to capture "smooth water" effects without a tripod or neutral density filters. Tested on a small 1-inch CX sensor Nikon 1 V2 camera, both lenses suffered from an expected loss of tack sharpness due to optical diffraction. However, the experiment revealed a clear performance gap between the two models. The author noted that out of more than 50 attempts with the non-PD version, only two images were usable, making the non-PD lens less effective for extreme low-speed handheld shooting conditions. The primary advantage of the 1 Nikon 10-100mm f/4.5-5.6 PD zoom is its superior Vibration Reduction (VR) system and optical sharpness, which allowed the author to successfully capture the majority of his usable images at slow shutter speeds, including a sharp shot at 1/4 second while fully extended to 100mm (270mm efov) and his best image handheld at 1/2 second. The Power Zoom mechanism also earned praise...