Body

Except for the stainless steel mount and the glass elements, the 24-120mm VR is completely made from polycarbonate. Thus, the weight is a relatively svelte 575g. When paired with the D70, the lens felt well-balanced. You can easily handhold this lens for long periods without tiring yourself out!

But while it may be made from plastic, it is certainly well-built. There were no visible seams and the barrel had a quality speckled finish. The lens feels tough enough to withstand a considerable amount of abuse.

Being a G-type lens, this lens does not have an aperture ring. You can only set the aperture using the camera body. Therefore, it is only compatible with newer bodies that support direct aperture control.

The zoom and focus rings are made from hard rubber. So they not only provide a good grip for sweaty fingers, they are also tough enough to weather abuse by sharp fingernails.

Filter Ring

This lens comes with a filter ring size of 72mm. The filter ring itself is made from polycarbonate. So, you might want to watch out if you like to swap filters - you may wear out the filter threads.

Controls

On the left side of the lens are two switches. The M/A-M switch allows you to switch the lens from the auto-focus mode to the fully manual mode and vice versa. Of course, you can still manually adjust focus even in auto-focus mode.

Switches

Below that, you will find the VR switch. In the case of the 24-120mm VR, you are only allowed to switch the Vibration Reduction feature on or off.

Zoom and focus rings

The outer ring is the zoom ring. You can see the markings for the common focal lengths of 24mm, 28mm, 35mm, 50mm, 70mm, 85mm and 120mm. The focus ring is the inner ring.

The zoom ring slides smoothly with an adequate amount of resistance. The focus ring has a slight clicking sensation to it when you rotate the ring.