A pretty sharp lens with good contrast (noticeably higher than the old 18-35mm) and color, even with wide open at 24mm it's still very sharp; in some lens test I read it's even better than prime lenses. This lens hardly flares and I haven't notice much light fall-off (with B+W 010 MRC on it), which can be seen with the 18-35mm. The only bad things about this lens are noticeable chromatic aberration and distortion at 12mm, but it can be removed with software. The feel of the zoom ring is not so good as with 18-35mm, and it's the new Nikon lens layout, which means the focusing ring is closer to the camera. One strange thing is there's no environment seal for a lens like this, otherwise it'll be such a nice combination with D200. Overall I would prefer this one over any other lenses- its performance speaks for itself. As for the price, I think it's a bit high but justified. The lens weighs 465g and has 7 rounded diaphragm blades. Used on full frame bodies it's no better than those old wild angle primes, mainly due to vignetting and corner softness.

My recent attempt to shoot with a set of primes while traveling wasn't quit nice. Either it's too much trouble or time consuming to change lens, or I'm getting to lazy :) In the end I found a used copy (the street price of this lens has gone up quite a bit due to exchange rate) of 17-35mm and had Nikon restore it back to proper condition. Optically it's nowhere near the 14-24mm and there's no weather sealing either. On the plus side it's smaller, lighter, ghosting resistant, and the focal length covers around 90% of my travel needs. So far my impressions of this lens are as follow: Soft extreme corners don't go away at wilder settings, even if you stop down to f11, but stop down to certain extend does make it less visible. You need to stop down more at wilder focal length, such as f8 at 17mm, f5.6 at 20mm, f4 at 28 mm. Center resolutions is always good, there's no problem here. Close focusing of this lens is very good, I don't see the drop in sharpness. Distortion is especially noticeable at 17mm. The color rendition is not as vivid as 14-24mm, the image also lacks the 3-D look in comparison. It's still a pretty good lens once stopped down enough, and it will be my first choice for traveling. I suppose one could always dream for a 14-24 like update from Nikon, but I really doubt it will be as compact size-wise. One interesting thing is the front element is close to the filter enough such that my regular B+W filter doesn't cause any vignetting.

Although it has 62mm filter thread, it's a small and light weight (260g) lens. Focusing takes only 1/4 of a turn and the lens tube extends only about 0.4cm. On a full frame camera and focus at infinity, light fall off at the corner is visible below f11 (with standard B+W 010 filter), but not so serious after f5.6- removing the filter helps, but I have yet to test that in detail. Extreme corner softness is almost 100% gone at f8 (only a trace of it at the corner when viewed at 100%), and in my opinion corner softness is not a problem from f5.6. I would rate its overall sharpness better than the 18-35mm.

Initially I thought it's an AIs lens until I check the serial number, luckily it's manufactured near the end of Non-AI version and there's multi-coating. It gives more contrast than the AF 35/2, it's also very sharp from wild open at center; corner sharpness is good from f2.8 (on D200). Like the 35/2, this lens produces great star effect at night with large aperture settings. This is really a good performer, too bad it's only a 28mm.

Along with the Nikon 18-35mm, these are the first two lenses I purchased with D70s. I mainly did portrait with it until I switched to prime lens. Overall this lens is very good for its price, because optically this lens is almost perfect: excellent center sharpness (but going soft toward the corner), very flare-resistant (can't recall seeing any flare with this one), minimum distortion and light fall-off. The reason that I switched to primes is they are faster lenses, and because the color A09 produces is not as saturated as Nikon lens- which is obvious when I once shot the same scene with both 18-35mm and A09. The focusing takes only 1/6 turn, so you need to be careful when focusing at the 75mm end where depth of field is quite shallow. This lens weighs 510g and has 7 rounded diaphragm blades. The bokeh of this lens is not bad, but of course not on par with the 85mm F1.8. Focusing is extremely fast on D200 and okay on D70s.

A lens I have been resisting to buy, with the hope of AF version surfacing. But that is probably not going to happen until next year (again). So far the impression is softer and lower contrast f1.4, but very good already at f2. Shooting at infinity requires stopping down to f5.6, otherwise the curvature of the field (heavier than the Noct) will render corners soft. However, once stopped down this lens is indeed super sharp.

I bought this lens after shooting a typhoon day with A09 because it's fast and cheap, which made it the first prime of mine. This is among the sharpest of Nikon, the image quality made me switch to prime... Put aside the cheap construction of this lens (the focus ring is uneven with my copy), the cons of this lens lies in its bokeh and its rather cold color rendition. The light spot in the background is far from circle due to its non-circular aperture, and it's not nice. This lens weighs only 155g.

With the need of an AF 50mm, this is the lens I've been waiting for. Although it's not entirely fair to compare it to the Noct (different focal length, and the design), here's what I've found so far (on full frame camera). At very close range, the new 50 outperforms the Noct at the center below f2 but the corner to corner sharpness starting to lag behind as the lens stops down. Going beyond 1 or 2 meters, the Noct is the down right winner (if you can focus the Noct right. Only tested below F4). Color rendition of the new lens is much warmer than that of the Noct and resembles the beautiful color of recent new Nikon lenses. Bokeh-wise it's not as good as the Noct either, the edge of the high light out of focus area does not fade out as seen on the Noct. Compared my old 50/1.4 AI, it shows quite some improvement, especially the vignetting and sharpness at f1.4. With all that said, the new 50mm is definitely a keeper, you would not be worry about the sharpness in real world situation. Not being an IF lens, the new 50mm focuses somewhat slower than the old AF-D version (due to the SWM), but unless you always start far from your subject distance in low light, it¡¦s that serious. Build quality of this lens is similar to the 70-300VR- both has the rubber gasket at the lens mount, and it also comes with bayonet hood and lens pouch. For manual focus, it takes a little more than a half turn get from 45cm to infinity.

Even with the correction lens in the lens adapter, this M42 old lens focuses quite short. I've only made less then a hundred shots with it and so far the contrast is not good and sometimes there's double-line in its bokeh- maybe it has something to do with the correction lens.

Like the Contax 85/1.4, this lens is soft at large apertures. Stopping down past f2.8 will give you more acceptable sharpness. (F mount converted and tested on D3.)

It's just way too good! Balances nicely on D200 when vertical grip is on. Image quality is very good even at f1.4. Compared with the 85/1.8, I would say the photos from two lenses have different feels (more dreamlike from the 85/1.4). 85/1.8 is more compact and easier to travel with.

Slightly bigger than the 105mm, this one performs good throughout the entire aperture settings. Compared to the 105/2.5 Ai-S, the corner image quality comes up faster when stopping down, but manual focusing is slower on D200 (at least it is to me).

Despite it's age, this lens shows good sharpness from wild open (though most 135/2.8 do). What catches my attention first is the very nice bokeh, considering it's just a f2.8 lens. It would be interesting to compare it to Nikon's 135/2.8, but I've sold mine long time ago. The original filter comes with it adds quite a bit chance of flare, it's better to remove it if shooting with DSLR. (F mount converted and tested on D3.) By the way, 1-cam version is really not for mount conversion, you have to machine the cam off the lens. I'm only buying to deliberately have all German made Leica, which plays its part in the hype about Leica. What I have found out so far just don't quite support the hype though.

A rare old lens that was only in production for a brief period of time, and so far it produces satisfactory results. The filter thread rotates as you focus and the lens extends around 2 centimeters, which is not much; the focus ring is narrow and at the front end of the lens- basically it's part of the front element's casing- so it's not good for MF even though it's not loose, AF is not fast- at lest not on a D70s. However, the zoom ring is large and well built, plus the length of the lens remains unchanged throughout the entire focus length. In terms of performance, it's sharp from f5.6 at 210mm and sharp with even faster aperture at shorter focus length. This lens weighs 760g and uses metal HN-24 hood. I'm quite happy with this lens, actually.

A lens that gives good sharpness within the 300-dollar price range. The problems are: you need to stopped down to at least to f8 in order to gain good sharpness and it's soft beyond 200mm, the filter thread turns when focusing (which means you'd better switch to MF when adding filter or hood otherwise you might damage the AF motor), there's no zoom lock and the zoom does creep, and finally I don't like the Sigma color at all. So basically it's a lens for sunny days. The contrast of this lens is noticeable lower than my Nikon lenses and it does flare, so watch out for it. AF is very slow. One of my friends used to have another copy and he told me that the paint with shiny spot does come off. Anyway, it's still a good performer in its price range when I bought it (otherwise I'd have bought something else); now I suppose the new Nikon 55-200mm DX is not too bad but lacks the 300mm end. This lens weighs 550g.

The serious lacking of range on full frame camera lead me to this lens (after coming back from Yellowstone), considering the cost, size and weight, this is perfect for me. It's not as sharp and as contrasty as refractive optics, but it still captures lots of detail. The key thing about using this lens is to keep the shot steady, and use high ISO to achieve high enough shutter speed. Another interesting thing to know is Nikon has an earlier version of 500mm mirror lens, which is 500mm F5 (3kg and 38.4cm long) in non AI mount- it's also very rare. This one is just 840 g and 10.9 cm long.