 Well, its been a long, long time waiting, but Nikon has finally released what should be a world-class, autofocus wide-angle prime lens. The new optical system combines Nikon’s exclusive anti-reflection Nano Crystal coat, ED glass and aspherical lens elements to deliver brilliant, high contrast image quality with minimised distortion and aberration. The f/1.4 aperture and nine blade rounded diaphragm contribute to render images with stunning NIKKOR trademark bokeh. The lens boasts a dedicated Silent Wave Motor for smooth and discrete autofocus operation, and is built to last with extensive use of magnesium in its construction, and weather and dust sealing, including around the mount. Roger’s Take: I’ll admit, first, that my expectations for this lens may have been unreasonable. I was expecting perfection. This is a very good, very wide aperture prime. But not perfect. On the other hand, every reviewer I’ve read seems to be drooling over themselves in an effort to heap their praises on it. So I thought I’d better look at it again before I opened my mouth because I didn’t want to look stupider than usual. They are lens reviewing experts after all, and I’m an old guy that runs a rental house. But if I agreed with them, then we’d all be wrong. Not that I’m calling this lens bad: its excellent. Its as sharp in the center as anything you can shoot with. Nearly Zeiss 21mm sharp, which is the gold standard. Its a bit soft in the corners wide open, but still excellent compared to most 24mm lenses and even the corners are sharp by f3.5. Its got gorgeous bokeh. It has great color and contrast, and even the corners have very little coma or astigmatism. And its the desperately waited f1.4 prime we were all waiting for. But the autofocus speed, while not a critical feature of a lens this wide, is best described as leisurely. More importantly its got some very detectible barrel distortion and interestingly the closer you focus, the more severe the barrel effect. Its pretty noticeable and not at all what I’d hoped for. I wouldn’t shoot architecture with it, unless I was planning to shoot raw and post-process out the distortion. Its still a very, very good lens but I’m less excited about it than most. Specs:
Links:MTF Chart:
If you are bored and don’t understand MTF charts, you can read about them HERE Lens Diagram:
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