Wide angle lens suggestions for Nikon D610

NeilA1975

NeilA1975

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Miss my Canon 17-40 since switching to Nikon, now looking for a decent sharp wide angle lens (especially with my trip to Iceland coming up). Unfortunately I'm not made of money so have to be cautious about what to spend, max 300 quid. Have investigated the Samyang 14mm but the manual focus and the extreme distortion is putting me off.
Appreciate any alternative suggestions.

Thanks
Neil
 
Sigma 12-24 used would be top of my list for that budget.

The old nikon 18-35 AFD is pretty nice but has some odd distortion at 18mm and Lightroom doesn't have a profile for it - depends what you're shooting.
 
Nawty said:
The old nikon 18-35 AFD is pretty nice but has some odd distortion at 18mm and Lightroom doesn't have a profile for it - depends what you're shooting.
Click to expand...

There's a profile for the new 18-35. Which I think is improved over the original model.
 
People have spoke well of the Cosina 19-35 and Tamron 17-35 on here - not used either.

Does it have to be a zoom? Perhaps a 20 2.8D prime if not, for under £300. I had the 24 2.8D for a short while but didn't think it was much cop on a 24mpx FX sensor.
 
Samyang 14mm f/2.8 is epic on full frame :)

The distortions aren't that extreme, perfectly acceptable for such a wide lens and TBH you don't even notice unless you have some very straight lines in the image. There's an excellent LR profile which fixes it with a single button click for that anyway
It's also very, very sharp, even in the corners.
 
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odd jim said:
Samyang 14mm f/2.8 is epic on full frame :)

The distortions aren't that extreme, perfectly acceptable for such a wide lens and TBH you don't even notice unless you have some very straight lines in the image. There's an excellent LR profile which fixes it with a single button click for that anyway
It's also very, very sharp, even in the corners.
Click to expand...

Thanks Jim,

The other aspect of this lens which im not entirely comfortable about is the manual focus but I may reconsider, dependent on how easy it easy to focus (don't have any experience with manual focus lenses).
 
NeilA1975 said:
Thanks Jim,

The other aspect of this lens which im not entirely comfortable about is the manual focus but I may reconsider, dependent on how easy it easy to focus (don't have any experience with manual focus lenses).
Click to expand...

Its easier than you think, and actually surprisingly satisfying! I find it best to use liveview and zoom to focus, then recompose for the shot. Its a bit too wide to make adjustments in the VF! But its actually very easy and quick to do, the focus ring is lovely and smooth and slight adjustments are very easy.

And compared to my Canon 10-22 (regarded as possibly the best APS-C Canon ultrawide) I find it sharper throughout the frame, though of course I'm using the Samyang on my FF body.

I love mine!
 
NeilA1975 said:
Thanks Jim,

The other aspect of this lens which im not entirely comfortable about is the manual focus but I may reconsider, dependent on how easy it easy to focus (don't have any experience with manual focus lenses).
Click to expand...

I don't like when I have to MF longer lenses. But nothing is easier than manual focus when using Samyang 14mm. Turn the focus ring roughly to 1m mark, stop down the lens to f/8 and everything between 40cm and infinity will be in focus. Nothing is easier than that.

In fact I find it much more confusing when I have to use AF on ultra-wide lenses :)
 
Thanks all.
Have an opportunity to look at a Tokina 20-35 for 180 quid.
Anyone have experience of this particular model?
 
The Vivitar/Cosina/? 19-35 is quite wide but does distort quite a bit. Should be well under budget 2nd hand though. The Sigma 12-24 is VERY wide and is also very (incredibly actually!) well corrected as far as rectilinear distortions go. Very exaggerated perspectives (converging verticals etc.) but hardly any visible distortion even at 12mm on FF. Not used the Nikkor 14-24 so can't comment apart from on the probable cost even 2nd hand...
 
Well took a bit of a gamble and managed to get a Sigma 15-30 for 200 quid. Reviews seem to be quite good.
 
NeilA1975 said:
Thanks all.
Have an opportunity to look at a Tokina 20-35 for 180 quid.
Anyone have experience of this particular model?
Click to expand...

There are two versions of that lens. A constant 2.8 version and a variable aperture version. They're actually both decent lenses (when we'll stopped down) and quite well made but £180 is a lot of money for either. I'd be aiming to pay less that £100.
 
I have used the Sigma 15-30 a lot over the years and think that it really not at all bad for the money, for me its a decent light weight wide-angle zoom with a very usable focal range. There are quite a few shots in my Flickr feed if you want any examples, just be aware its not great with flare and don't expect edge to edge sharpness.
 
Sigma fell through unfortunately, so back to square 1!
Now have an opportunity on a nikkor 20-35 2.8, quite old but apparently fairly decent. Does anyone have any experience with this particular model? Was considering stretching a bit and going for the tokina 16-28 but lack of filter fittings makes this pretty much a non starter.
 
Purchased the 20-35 2.8, apparently is the same optically as the Nikkor 17-35. We shall see. A steal at 300 nicker....potentially.
 
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