I have the 16-35 since this afternoon. First batch delivered in Germany. I bought it for 1099 Euro because I made a reservation in advance but now price has gone up in this shop to 1179 Euro (Top Foto / Düren)
It's a great lens. At f4 it already gives a good uniform sharpness nicely spread across the image with the corners slightly less sharp. At F5/F5.6 it's very sharp all across.
It handles much better than my 14-24. Much lighter and less fragile. The VR works like a charm (1/6 is no problem) and the lens focuses very close which might be handy in some situations. I think Nikon has made a top seller. I will test it further tomorrow and am thinking about selling my 14-24. The 14-24 will stay at home and the 16-35 will be in my bag all the time.
I put some pictures on my site (last album). Pictures of the 16-35 side by side with the 14-24 and crops of images from F4 to F8. Please be patient because it takes certainly half a minute to fully view the crops in maximum size. EDIT: pictures were taken with a D700.
I'm not a scientific lens tester so ... Just sharing this info
There's no way I'm going to pay £1050 for that lens. Guess I'll have to be content with my VR-less 24-70 AF-S, untill the price of that thing comes down. I'm not in any big hurry tbh. I won't be hopping on one of those unless the price drops to around the £900 mark.
congratulations. Maybe you can shoot a couple of pictures both with the 14-24 and 16-35 and show us the crops. It would be interesting to see how he competes against the best wide zoom in the market.
Did you once own the Nikkor 17-35 and can you compare the iq of these two lenses?
Have you already made a comparison between the iq of your 14-24 and the 16-35?
Looking forward to seeing real-world images.
I never owned the 17-35/2.8 so I can't make a comparison . On DX I always used the Nikon 12-24/4 and when I bought my D700 I had the luck to be able to buy a used 14-24 for a good price. Can't promise you comparison pictures with the 14-24 because I don't have much time this weekend.It would be interesting though.
wow, thanks for the update- i was really hoping it would be a little smaller, but it is still a huge lens. Still interested to see how it performs, although now that i know the size i probably won't be buying it
Gregory.Rotter wrote:
There's no way I'm going to pay £1050 for that lens. Guess I'll have to be content with my VR-less 24-70 AF-S, untill the price of that thing comes down. I'm not in any big hurry tbh. I won't be hopping on one of those unless the price drops to around the £900 mark.
I spoke to one U.K dealer who told me when they get them in stock that they will be selling it for £880.
Thanks for that one. I had a feeling it would be selling for around that much one prices had settled. Before anyone says 'prices don't change', here in Europe, the RRP's are higher, and so yeah, the prices DO drop off a bit.
I read somewhere, I think it was in a correspondence from the Zeiss factory, that the more glass you can throw at a lens (physically size wise for any aperture), the easier it becomes to design a high quality optic. Doesn't look like Nikon is afraid of that approach. That's a large lens.
I wonder with the hood reversed is it any narrower than the 14-24mm? I ask because I'm curious if it's any easier to fit in a bag.
