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Archive 2010 · 18/4 Nikkor AI any good?

AmbientMike
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · 18/4 Nikkor AI any good?

How is the 18/4 AI Nikkor on ff or film? How is it in the corners? How does it compare with the 18/3.5 AIS?

Sep 18, 2010 at 07:52 PM

jcolwell
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · 18/4 Nikkor AI any good?

I have no personal experience with them. Here's what David Reuther said at his web site (no longer active), http://ferrario.com/ruether/slemn.html

18mm f4 3 (2) poor edges and corners even stopped down, with sharp center

18mm f3.5 4.5 (2) better in color than B & W; good wide-stop color performance (though with noticeable corner illumination roll-off at wide stops), very good sharpness stopped down

The first unlabelled number for each lens (3 and 4.5) are his subjective evaluation scale (below), and the number in brackets are the number of individual lenses that he tried (two of each). Scores above 5 are very rare.

0 -- unable to form an image
1 -- very poor image quality, a "pop bottle bottom"
2 -- low image quality, possibly usable for snapshots
3 -- fair image quality, perhaps good at one or two stops
4 -- very good to excellent image quality at most normally used stops,
a fully professional-level lens, but with some limitations
5 -- excellent image quality at all stops, with only minor limitations
6 -- near perfect lens with hard to detect shortcomings
7 -- absolutely perfect lens in every respect

You can read for yourself what Bjørn Rørslett thinks of the f/3.5, but he doesn't mention the f/4, http://www.naturfotograf.com/lens_wide.html

Sep 18, 2010 at 08:12 PM

Ed Sawyer
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · 18/4 Nikkor AI any good?

I have reviews from when they were current at www.edsawyer.com/lenstests/

-Ed

Sep 18, 2010 at 08:48 PM

AmbientMike
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · 18/4 Nikkor AI any good?

Thanks, guys, did you have an MP test, Ed?

Sep 18, 2010 at 09:16 PM

AmbientMike
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · 18/4 Nikkor AI any good?

What would you guys recommend for an 18 or 17mm with good corners? Any ideas?

Sep 18, 2010 at 09:20 PM

Keith B.
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · 18/4 Nikkor AI any good?

I had an Nikon 18/4 for a long time, from film into digital(D3). Compared to images from my Nikon 17-35, 14-24, and the Zeiss ZF18(the ZF 18 I had for a short time), the old Nikkor shows it's age. The shots had a distinct greenish-yellow tint(mostly, but not completely, correctable in digital), and the sharpness falloff toward the edges of the full frame was easily observed. Pictures shot with it had a 1960's, pop album-cover look to them. I'd recommend it only if it was cheap...like $150 or so. You'd probably be better off with a newer design Sigma, Tamron, etc. I can recommend the current ZF/ZF.2 18mm/4 if you've got the dough; it has illumination falloff that never completely goes away(on a D3), but the one I had was impressively sharp at all stops, way out the far edges. I never look in the actual far corners of the frame, so I can't comment exactly on that. DigiLloyd says there is color banding in the outer zones of the image on the ZF 18 and ZF 21 when used on the D3X, but I've never noticed it on the D3.

Sep 18, 2010 at 11:17 PM

jcolwell
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · 18/4 Nikkor AI any good?

The best corners I've found is with the Tokina AT-X 17/3.5. It's better than these ones that I've compared it with, in side-by-side shooting (same camera, same subject):

Tamron SP 17/3.5 [151B]
Pentax SMC Pentax 18/3.5
Canon EF 17-40/4 L USM

Sep 19, 2010 at 05:34 AM

Ed Sawyer
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · 18/4 Nikkor AI any good?

IMNSHO the 17-18 to beat is the Oly OM 18/3.5 the only thing close I think is possibly the 2nd gen Leica 19 (debatably), and the Canon EF 17/TS-E.

I am sure I have an 18/4 Nikon test from Modern Photo. I thought I had it posted. If not, it's one that I can post soon. I know I've seen one in the scans I have done.

-Ed

Sep 19, 2010 at 07:53 PM

AmbientMike
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · 18/4 Nikkor AI any good?

Thanks again everybody, got it today and seems to lose sharpness at the edges of 1.6 sensor. It will not go on 5D without removing some metal tab on the back. Ed, love the olympus lenses, but in the MP tests I don't think that one did as well as the tamron 17. Any idea why? Perhaps early sample? Jcolwell, the 17/3.5 af or mf? Was considering one of these, poked around on kenrockwell.com and in his tests the soligor labeled 17/3.5 tokina did really well, but not the af 17. Keith, been looking hard at 18 zeiss, falloff makes image look better most of the time anyway. Or just dodge it. The Sigma 17-35 beats the 18/4 nikkor, but I can't get the 18 nikkor on a full frame body.

Sep 22, 2010 at 12:18 PM

TWoK
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · 18/4 Nikkor AI any good?

The 18/4 AI is a great lens. I don't think it will disappoint you.

Sep 23, 2010 at 01:13 AM

TWoK
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · 18/4 Nikkor AI any good?

Ed Sawyer wrote:
IMNSHO the 17-18 to beat is the Oly OM 18/3.5 the only thing close I think is possibly the 2nd gen Leica 19 (debatably), and the Canon EF 17/TS-E.

I am sure I have an 18/4 Nikon test from Modern Photo. I thought I had it posted. If not, it's one that I can post soon. I know I've seen one in the scans I have done.

-Ed
Ha! The Oly didn't impress me in the least.

Sep 23, 2010 at 01:14 AM

rafaelcasd
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · 18/4 Nikkor AI any good?

18mm 4 is great

18mm 4.0 by Rafael Batlle, on Flickr

nikkor 18mm 4 D810 home tree 01 by Rafael Batlle, on Flickr

Nikkor 18mm 4 ai Z6 air space 00 _07 by Rafael Batlle, on Flickr

nikkor nikon 18mm 4.0 D810 testing at home 001_14 by Rafael Batlle, on Flickr

Aug 07, 2021 at 08:44 PM


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