In 1991, Nikon had released a zoom lens that that caught many consumers attention. Firstly, it looked like a logical extension of the popular 35/70mm zoom as a standard zoom lens for the Nikon where the wideangle section was offered wider at a very useful 28mm wideangle. But the real reason for the excitement that centered around the AF Zoom Nikkor 28-70mm f/3.5~4.5S was, for the first time, Nikon applied their aspherical lens element technology / know-how on a mass market consumer optical product. During those days lenses with an aspherical has a mystical charm to photographers. Generally, aspheric lenses were very difficult to produce using traditional and time consuming polish method. If I can recall correctly, during the third quarter of the '80, many third party labels such as TAMRON and even the rivaling Canon had adopted a new cheaper method of applying a layer of optical resin onto the primary optical lens element which aims to correct aspherical level to meet designers desire for a high quality zoom lens. Nikon was quite reluctant and slow to adopt the same approach throughout this period and the AF Zoom Nikkor 28-70mm f/3.5~4.5S was the first consumer class AF Zoom Nikkor zoom lens which used the renewed method to deliver an aspherical lens element in its optical composition.