I am looking for a 24mm lens for use on my D3. I will be using it mostly for landscape and architecture. When I can afford it I'll get the Nikon 24mm PC-E, but until then, I would like to find a nice manual focus lens. For my applications I will mostly be shooting at f/8-13, and I guess most 24mm primes will be very sharp at these apertures. However, I would like to get the lens with the absolute minimum of distortion, any suggestions?
Distortion characteristics for many lenses, mostly mainstrem ones, are available at the lowest of the moronic and useless test sites, photozone.de [/sarcasm]
The ZF 25/2.8 distorts 1.8% (on the 5DII)
I don't have direct experience with many alt wides, but have a sense that asking for a low distortion alt wide is like asking for the highest mountain in Denmark Don't get me wrong, it is a legitimate question, and likely someone have good suggestions, but is far as I know, most manufacturers deliberately avoid strong correction for distortion, in a trade for other characteristics.
How do you find the distortion in a zoom? Most zooms in the 16-40 range have a sweet spot with respect to distortion around 24 mm, with barrel below and pincushion above.
The good old Nikkor 24/2.8 (AI, AI-S and AF) has quite low distortion actually. And stopped down to f/8-11 it's also sharp enough for most applications. My only gripe with it, is the dull colors and slight greenish cast.
