I'm looking for a wide angle lens for my D700, mostly for landscapes. The 18 3.5 AI-S seems to have a quirky reputation, getting a fair amount of praise but also some comments about "not suitable for landscapes."
Can anyone post some example photos? The few I've found online have not been landscapes. The shots I have seen looked pretty good.
BTW, I'm a sucker for the cliched "oh look, giant detailed flowers in the foreground and look at those tiny mountains way back there!" shots.
If you are interested in the 18/3.5 I'd suggest the 20/2.8 AIS or AF-D. Tried a 18/3.5 once and was not impressed, even stopped down. I keep coming back to my 20/2.8D. For landscapes it's distortion is not an issue and stopped down it's sharp across the frame. Small and light too.
awacs wrote:
Can anyone post some example photos?
Sorry, don't have one for FX. This was taken some years ago with the D200. Shot at f3.5. Be careful stopping this lens down.
Would also recommend the 20m/2.8 - it is more versatile.
Thanks both of you for the recommendation. How would you characterize the image quality of the 20 2.8 AI-S vs D? I'm pretty sure I could live without autofocus, so just curious if they have competing strengths/weaknesses, or maybe just different personalities.
The field of view is 100 degrees on the 18 and 94 on the 20. I've not shot with the 18 so can't comment on it, but I have the 20 f/2.8 AI-s and it is a wonderful lens that I expect to get a great deal of use out of on a forthcoming trip to Istanbul. Here are a couple of shots taken in Rotterdam during a trip in 2010. If you need AF, you need AF, but frankly, for landscape work I'm more than happy shooting with these beautifully crafted old Nikkors. I say old despite the fact Nikon still manufactures this lens. When I bought mine used on the Buy and Sell forum, it had the last serial number listed on photosynthesis, so obviously it was recently manufactured. Five more have been added since then, so that must mean something...
My old 20mm A-D suffered from a lot of CA, I now have the 18mm AFD another lens a lot of the testers do not like...but it's small F2.8 and has AF and works when I don't want to carry 17-35mm or when I do my car or bike mounted work.
