Nikkor 14mm

xiaomei

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I am thinking to upgrade my wide angle Tokina 11-16mm to Nikkor 14mm 2.8.
I love taking photos in ultra wide angle (have already 10.5mm fisheye). Is it worth upgrading? I know it's different price range.
I will be using it mainly with D7000 and D800.
Any Nikkor 14mm owners around to help my with the decision?
 
I used to own one. In fact I used to have a Tokina 11-16 as well. Two of my all time favourite lenses. The 14mm is quite something. Iq is exceptional and it's built beautifully. Downsides, the front element is like a light bulb, you have to be very careful not to catch it on anything. Oh, and forget filters and in fact forget using a lens cap! The biggest downside though is the cost of it, a good used one is getting dangerously close to a used 14-24 2.8 and from what I hear that is optically as good whilst offering a zoom and the vague possibility of using filters. If you can find a cheap 14mm though, you won't be disappointed though.
 
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Looks good, thanks for advice. How sharp are the corners? From what I can see here it looks quite decent.
 
Pretty good from what I remember though I rarely used it wide open. Would typically have been F/5.6 - F/11 where it really shines.
 
May as well get the 14-24 f2.8. It's actually sharper... same speed... and more versatile. More expensive... but the 14mm f2.8D is not exactly cheap either.
 
I almost bought this lens in B&H when in NYC - the reason i didn't was because I discovered when going to pay, that I'd lost my passport! :gag: [found it later, phew!]

I would have loved it over there for architecture shots, and grabbing nice wide shots of their huge streets, so much going on, get as much in as possible with this I was thinking.

But ... I'm kinda glad I never did splash on it, as I've read reviews since that mostly state you're better to go for the 14-24. If I ever thought I would make full use of a wide angle that is.
 
Pookeyhead said:
May as well get the 14-24 f2.8. It's actually sharper... same speed... and more versatile. More expensive... but the 14mm f2.8D is not exactly cheap either.

Just to add context to my "if you can find a cheap one" comment, mine cost me £400. It was well used but good where it counted. At that sort of price I think it makes a lot of sense. I haven't looked for a while but I think most go for more like £700. At that price I'd agree, far too close to a used 14-24 to justify.

By the way one thing I meant to mention earlier, I seem to remember that the lens was quite prone to flaring. Hardly surprising of course but worth bearing in mind.
 
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For £400 I'd buy 2! and sell one at a profit :D

It's £1249 on amazon!
 
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Cagey75 said:
For £400 I'd buy 2! and sell one at a profit :D

Wish I could find another! I sold it for about the same price. Was listed on here for weeks and no takers. Regret selling it to this day!
 
By the way one thing I meant to mention earlier, I seem to remember that the lens was quite prone to flaring. Hardly surprising of course but worth bearing in mind.

All ultra wides area really, and the 14-24 is no exception. That fat ass bulging front element is a killer. When I use the 14-24 I always have a piece of card to flag off any out of frame light hitting the lens.
 
I also think the Nikon 14-24 f/2.8 is a much better bet. It is much sharper in the corners than the 14mm lens and although it will probably cost an additional £250-300 it will be much easier to move on if you ever want to sell it.
 
I can have Nikkor 14mm for around £600, not sure if can stretch my budget to £1000 to get 14-28.
 
I'd give the Samyang 14mm a close look, it is reckoned to be optically superb and AF isn't really that important in an ultrawide with such massive DOF.
 
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