Nikon 14-24 or 16-35?

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Pat MacInnes
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So I'm putting in a budget request to go full frame (D700 or D3) but stuck on a wide-angle to opt for.

Cost is obviously a major factor in any business buy so i have to be mindful of overall expenditure, especially when you figure in a body to go with it.

The 14-24 is the dream lens because optically it's awesome and it's wiiiiiiide. Obviously it has it's pitfalls; no filter thread for CPL/ND filters and as with many lenses this wide, flare can be a big issue. Plus it's £1300 or so, a massive chunk of money that non-photographers may not see as a worthwhile spend in the grand scheme of things. But it's first on my list, although I'm not confident it'll be okayed.

Second on the list (sticking with Nikon) is the newer 16-35mm. The VR function is nice but not something that I see as essential, but it is a lot less expensive than the 14-24mm, so can be justified easier. I've read up on it on photozone.de and although they say build is as expected and overall IQ is very good (and it doesn't flare up as easily), it does suffer from vignetting and corner softness at the wide end. Obviously, the former can be corrected in software but the latter could be an issue.

There are other considerations, like the Nikon 17-35mm (expensive but nice) and the Tokina 16-28, which has its flaws (barrel distortion, lower build quality) but is much lower down the price ladder at £800, but is that £800 well spent or would I be left wanting?

Can't think of any more lenses that are FF and do the 14/16mm wide end on a zoom and I don't want to go down the prime route simply to keep kit amount down.

What do you guys reckon?

(or should I stay with DX and hope the D300s replacement ends up being a DX equivalent of what the D700/D3 can offer?)....
 
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Get the 16-35.. Corner sharpness is fine on my copy, the VR is incredible usefull in low light situations, its not too heavy, but feels nice on my D700 and D3100.

Sharing a 77mm filter thread with my other lenses is a massive plus.

I suppose the only "downside" to the 16-35 is the distortion at the wide end, but its pretty easy to fix in PP
 
16-35 deffo looks a good option for the money. Like you say, the distortion can be sorted in pp and tbh, all my stuff is outdoorsy stuff so verticals ain't an issue. Can always keep my 14mm f/2.8 for crazy close-up stuff :)
 
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For me the main points I considered when I had to make the same choice were,

The 14-24 is 10 degrees wider than the 16-35, which is a lot and for me the wider the better.
The corner sharpness with the 14-24 is not merely good its the same as it's in the center, which is about as sharp as most tests can measure. Corner sharpness is very important to me.
Large amounts of distortion can be corrected in PS but the larger the correction the greater the loss of sharpness.
 
I have been thinking about the 16-35mm, that thing I really like about it is the fact it is really quite light for a Pro lens, I could imagine myself happly carrying it anywhere.

I haven't tried one outside a shop though, and I ended up buying a 24-70mm,

Stuart
 
24-70 will be purchased as a direct replacement for the brilliant 17-55 but 24mm isn't wide enough for some of the stuff I shoot, especially close-up stuff. Don't want a gap between 24mm and my Sigma 14mm....

The 24mm would be adequate for the majority of landscape stuff I do for the mags, and that's a very sharp lens corner-to-corner so I'm told. A wider zoom would be for portraits and what I call 'impact' shots where wideangle distortion and shallow DOF help to accentuate a part of the shot (holding fish etc)....:)
 
If you don't go for the 14-24 you'll only end up wishing you had. It's not like Hally is on his uppers... :D
 
I love my 14-24, but flare can be a pain and the only filter system available is the eye-wateringly expensive Lee system. Oh and then there's the purchase price.

If you're cost-constrained (and who in reality isn’t?) then get the 16-35. If you can stretch to the 14-24 then buy it. You won't regret it.
 
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