It is always important to consider your style of shooting and lens availability before selecting an interchangeable lens camera. Sometimes manufacturers make it difficult to choose lenses even after you’ve made your initial camera body purchase.  This is the case for Nikon 1 owners. They have a few different ‘all-in-one’ zoom options to consider. This article discusses some considerations when choosing a Nikon 1 all-in-one zoom lens.

NOTE: Click on images to enlarge.

Nikon produces two all-in-one zoom lens options: the 10-100 mm f/4-5.6, and the 10-100 mm f/4.5-5.6 PD. Another consideration for many Nikon 1 owners is the 30-110 mm f/3.8-5.6 when this lens is used in combination with either the 10-30 mm f/3.5-5.6 PD or the 10-30 mm f/3.5-5.6 non-PD lenses.

These lenses/combinations represent a total of four different options. It can be confusing for a Nikon 1 owner to decide which best meets their needs. I own three of the above-noted lenses, and have shot with all five. This article attempts to outline some basic factors for Nikon 1 owners to consider and provides a summary of my experience with each of these lenses.

1 Nikon 10-100 mm f/4.5-5.6 PD Zoom
If you need a zoom lenses with which to shoot video with your Nikon 1 camera there is only one viable choice: the 10-100 mm f/4.5-5.6 PD zoom. Its zoom action is nice and smooth, providing owners with a lot of versatility in terms of zoom range. I’ve found that the lens is also very quiet when zooming and I have not had any issues with sound from the power zoom transmitting to video footage.

This lens is not perfect for video however. Users need to be careful when doing long zoom motions as the lens will make some slight shifts in exposure that can be noticeable on your video footage even when the lens is stopped down to f/5.6 or smaller. Thus far no one has been able to explain to me why this happens. As a result I am on guard when using the power zoom when recording. I do my best to keep the zoom range within limits to help avoid these slight exposure shifts.

The 10-100 f/4.5-5.6 PD zoom is also a very good lens for still photography. It is marginally sharper than the 10-100 mm non-PD lens, and I’ve found its VR is just a tad better. You need to push both lenses to see a demonstrable difference as I attempted to do when shooting both lenses at f/16 hand-held at slow shutter speeds.

The 10-100 PD zoom retails for about $780 in Canada and comes with a lens hood.

1 Nikon 10-100 mm f/4-5.6
All-in-one zoom lenses are often much maligned by many photographers as they see these lenses as highly compromised and delivering very poor image quality.

I was pleasantly surprised with the 10-100 mm f/4-5.6 lens and found it to be a very pragmatic choice. It will appeal to a lot of people looking for a single lens that covers a wide focal range and is capable of delivering good image quality.

With a bit of work with RAW files in post, most Nikon 1 owners would find the image quality from this lens to be quite acceptable. When matched up with the 1 Nikon 6.7-13 mm f/3.5-5.6 it would make an excellent travel kit.

Adding the 1 Nikon 70-300 f/4.5-5.6 would give a photographer tremendous flexibility with only three lenses. By utilizing the full focal range of the 6.7-13 mm and 70-300 mm lenses most Nikon 1 owners would find the 10-100 mm f/4-5.6 to be a great choice to fill in the 13-70 mm focal range.

Many folks looking to buy their first Nikon 1 camera wonder if they should choose an ‘all-in-one’ lens kit which includes the 10-100 mm, or a kit with the 10-30 mm PD zoom. I’d recommend the ‘all-in-one’ 10-100 mm kit if they have the extra money to spend. This lens provides a lot of flexibility and also makes selecting additional 1 Nikon lenses in the future much easier.

One of the often overlooked advantages of the 10-100 mm f/4-5.6 lens is its comparatively short minimum focusing distance. This can come in very handy when shooting at zoos and other similar facilities. For a demonstration of this you can refer to my Bird Kingdom article.

This lens retails for about $600 in Canada. Nikon does not provide a hood which, at this price, is a bit chintzy in my view.

1 Nikon 10-30 mm f/3.5-5.6 PD Zoom
While Nikon touts the 10-30 mm f/3.5-5.6 PD zoom as being ‘perfect for shooting smooth video’ this simply is not the case. I found the power zoom to be very jerky and quite noisy. Noise from the power zoom will transmit to your video footage. You can certainly shoot video with this lens in terms of recording at a fixed focal length. Using the power zoom feature and expecting usable video footage is simply wishful thinking.

While I originally panned the 10-30 mm f/3.5-5.6 PD lens when I did my Nikon 1 V3 review my view on this lens has improved over time. It is true that screw-on filters cannot be used with this lens but this may not be an issue for a lot of casual photographers. The lens is very compact and delivers the closest thing to a ‘point-and-shoot’ experience with a Nikon 1 body. People wanting to start their Nikon 1 adventure from that perspective, then add more lenses in the future, will like the 10-30 mm PD.

The 10-30 mm PD lens is slightly sharper than the non-PD 10-30 mm. While the lens cannot be protected by a UV filter, photographers can hold Lee graduated neutral density filters in front of this lens to help improve image quality.

I don’t like using this lens as I find using the power zoom to adjust focal length a bit clumsy and imprecise.

The 10-30 mm PD zoom retails for about $330 in Canada.

1 Nikon 10-30 mm f/3.5-5.6 non-PD zoom
I prefer using this lens over the PD version as I like to adjust focal length manually. This lens produces decent quality images and working with RAW files in post can certainly help.

The lens is fairly small, accepts filters and is very affordable. There have been some quality issues with this lens and Nikon did a service advisory on this lens, offering owners a free inspection and repairs if needed. Two of the three copies that I own did require repairs. Nikon does not include a hood with this lens so you’ll need to purchase one.

The 10-30 mm non-PD zoom retails for about $220 in Canada and does not come with a lens hood.

1 Nikon 11-27.5 mm f/3.5-5.6
Some users of this lens feel it is a bit sharper than the 10-30 mm f/3.5-5.6 non-PD kit lens. I can’t really comment on this lens since I have never shot with it I and would never consider owning one since it does not have VR. I do quite a bit of shooting in the 10-30 mm focal range at quite slow shutter speeds and a lens without VR just doesn’t suit my shooting style and needs.

1 Nikon 30-110 mm f/3.8-5.6 Zoom
This is the sharpest of any of the zoom lenses mentioned in this article and provides users with good reach in a small, affordable package. I love using this lens with extension tubes and it is by far my favourite lens for this purpose. The 30-110 mm zoom is a remarkably good lens for the money…it retails for about $280 in Canada and comes with a hood.

Some Nikon 1 owners marry up the 30-110 mm f/3.8-5.6 zoom with the 10 mm f/2.8 and 18.5 mm f/1.8 prime lenses to create a very flexible, small kit that delivers very good image quality. This 3-lens collection would retail for about $780 in Canada.

For Nikon 1 owners looking for the best overall image quality, covering the widest focal range with the most amount of shooting flexibility (i.e. VR), for the least amount of money, their best combination will be the 30-110 mm f/3.8-5.6 with the 10-30 mm f/3.5-5.6 non-PD zoom. The total investment for both of these lenses is only $500 in Canada.

If you enjoyed this article and would like to learn more about the Nikon 1 system, you may want to have a look at our eBook, The Little Camera That Could. It illustrates the capability of the Nikon 1 system through hundreds of original photographs. There is also commentary and tips about the Nikon 1 system.

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