In the past, I have been pretty vocally critical of this lens. My statements were based on an honest trial and appraisal when I considered buying one a few years ago. Recently, however, I became the owner of one of these as part of the purchase of a package of several items. I have found the behavior of my lens to be different in several ways from the one that I previously tried out. My belief now is that it is a decent lens...better than my initial assessment, but still short of being a really nice lens, despite the Gold Ring designation awarded by Nikon.

Anyway...I have a question for owners and users of this lens. My copy occasionally fails to try to focus at shorter focal lengths. It's not that it can't see to achieve focus...it's that the process doesn't start at all...as if the lens is set to Manual Focus (but it's not...and neither is the camera). Sometimes continuing to try will eventually make it start, sometimes zooming to a longer focal length will do so. This behavior usually occurs at focal lengths of 28mm or less, but has occurred at focal lengths up to 50mm. It has also been observed on three different D500s, including one that is just back from Nikon with a Major Overhaul. The other symptom us that at 16mm, proper focus is achieved at an indicated distance of Infinity or greater (which is something I was accustomed to seeing on my Nikkor 18-200mm DX zoom.

My next step is, of course, to contact NikonUSA and possibly send the lens for repair, if such support is still available. My last checkpoint before doing this, though, is to ask here whether others have noticed similar bad behavior.

Mine must be defective, it has very limited options and a ridiculously complex mechanism. Am I missing something here? I was expecting much more. I wish I had the option to buy the Z8 without it. I would rather not have a back screen, save the space and the potential unreliability, than have to put up with the abortion that is there now.

Full disclosure: I have many Nikon cameras and lenses I am a fan of the Nikon cameras and lenses. But Nikon's articulating screen design is just plain stupid.

Olympus has had a TRUE articulating screen for many years. Please see attached images for a proper articulating screen design.