pburke wrote: Joseph. wrote:
What is everyone's favorite 20mm? I used to have a 20mm 3.5 Nikkor-UD and it was great, except for its propensity to flare. I'm looking at the 20 f/4 and 20 3.5 AIS, which one should I choose? I'm more concerned with central sharpness and colors, corners are not priority.
thanks
I used the 20mm f/3.5 AI for a long time. Soft at near infinity focus but great up close. All the sharper f-stops (f5.6 and f8) come with lots of vignetting, but the lens takes small 52mm filters, is lightweight and indestructible. It was my go-to ultrawide for hiking in the backcountry until I bought the 20mm f/1.8G. I haven't touched the manual lens since.
Before I got the AF lens I was researching other manual 20mm lenses and even though there may be sharper models out there than the one I have, all these lenses won't have the sharpness and contrast the modern lens has. If you like to shoot manual and you're not too picky about getting the most out of your sensor, almost any 20mm Nikon has ever made will do.
9 vertical frame stitch, good overlap, f/8 1/125s ISO 100 on tripod taken with the D600 back in 2014
