 |
1. Reasonable fast (rated good), and it is great for low light situation. 2. Light weight, easy to carry around 3. Wide enough for my current use, however I need to buy a new hood for it. I bought it for party/group and general landscape pictures. Well, you need another lens or zoom lens to cover close-ups. Change lens is inconvenient especially in the time-pressed situations, so I recommend photo-lover amateur like myself to carry additional camera(s) along for other purposes. That is it, I am still learning about this lens.
I bought my first Nikon F more than 35 years ago and have stayed with the marque ever since. Back then, so-called superwide angle lenses were either a dream or prohibitively expensive and a 24mm was a pretty "wild" optic. As time went on however, true rectilinear (read full-frame, non-fisheye) superwideangle lenses became more available and more affordable. Just before the digital explosion lens manufacturers had developed prime lenses and some zooms in the 14-21mm superwide range and photographers were routinely producing images that took full effect of their capabilities. The Nikon 20mm f2.8 AF (D or not D) is a typical example of that evoloutionary process. First introduced in 1989 it is the AF equivalent of an older manual focus design. Typical of many early generation AF lenses, the construction is mostly metal and reasonably robust (for AF). Also typical is the short throw required to focus the lens from infinity to it's closeset focus which results in almost instantaneous AF function on my D100 or F100. The addition of the D chip in the newest version is a usless upgrade and should not lead any of you to pay more for it. For the film shooter it is, in my opinion, a very good but not a great lens and, for many years, was a mainstay in my film travel outfit which was standardized on 62mm filters (20mmf2.8AF, 28-105mmf3.5-4.5AF zoom and 70-210mmf4.0AF zoom) It consistently delivered images that were sharp and contrasty with minimal corner light fall off wide open and reasonable levels of barrel distortion that could be mostly corrected in Photoshop. Enter digital and the small digital sensor. All of a sudden, the effective focal lengths of all my lenses have shifted 1.5x My superwide 20mm has now become a much less exciting 30mm and, while my 70-210mm zoom has become effectivly 105-315mm with an f4.0 max aperture, I'm limited at the wide end to the level of your average point-and-shoot. So where this lens fits in for the digital shooter I'm not sure I know anymore. Nikon's new 18-200mm digital zoom now cover's the whole range of view that my three lens travel kit used to cover on film and, at a current street price of arount $800, at about the same cost. I still have mine and the three lenses of my film travel outfit are still in the closet. Who knows.... someday.Read full review
I was looking at the more expensive zooms like the 16-35 & 14-24 but I did not like how bulky they were, also the price. For me this little lens can just slip in my pocket for those times when you just need to go a bit wider. It tests pretty sharp and even a bit better stopped down equal to the 14-24 monster zoom at around F5.6 - 11. I have read mixed reviews on it and some times too much studying puts you in a standstill. This lens is very good and I am pretty fussy with contrast and clarity. On my D300s, crop camera, it makes a nice all around lens when wanting to keeps it small and light compared to my 17-55 beast.
If you want a compact, large aperture lens for a DSLR his is the only game in town! At 2.8 you can shoot with less light. It is small and relatively light. Well made. Image quality is very good. Much better than any kit zoom lens and honestly much better than 17-55mm f/28 Nikkor. Cost is right as well. Sigma makes a 20mm f1.8 which I tried and was not happy with size or image quality or cost. The negatives are 2 fold in my eyes. 1. I wish it were a little bit wider - 16-17mm. Better fits "my eye". 2. Had USM/HSM for full time manual focusing. Overall this is the lens that I keep on my camera when I am out. get it and you will probably not be disappointed.
The lens was Mint as described...perhaps beyond. Very clean. Works the way it was designed to work. Good sharp images. Not a "D" model (which means the lens ability to inform the camera of distance) is not available but focuses right on. I'm happy with it!
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Best-selling in Lenses
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Save on Lenses
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- You may also like
