Camera Labs

I'm almost through with testing all three current 35mm primes from Nikon: The AF-S NIKKOR 35mm f/1.4G, the AF-S DX NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G, AF NIKKOR 35mm f/2.0D, as those lenses are officially dubbed.
Thought it would be interesting to compare their performance regarding sharpness/contrast. This is just a short announcement that I currently preparing just that: The Nikon 35mm primes comparison.
There's nothing to be seen yet, but I herewith officially declare the comments & questions thread for that comparison opened
-----a week later-----
Well, there it is: The official Camera Labs comparison
Have fun!
---
Und diesmal auch in Deutsch: Der offizielle Camera Labs Vergleich.
Viel Spaß!

_________________
Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Having just purchased the 35mm f/1.8 I look forward to your review compared to my personal usage of it!

_________________
Jason

Just a new guy learning his way

Film: Olympus XA2
Digital: Nikon D3100 w/SB-600: , Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G, Tokina 12-24MM F4 Pro II

My Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jkmcdonald/

My Blog: http://jmcdonaldphotography.tumblr.com/

Just make sure there's a FF body used in the test as well as a dx. Including the 1.8G lens on FF, as a lot of people are using it in that way as well.

_________________
I've upped my Iso, now up yours.
Nikon D700, Nikon D80, Micro Nikkor 105 f2.8 AI-S,Nikon 85mm 1.8D, Nikon 50mm 1.8D, Nikon 35mm F2D, Nikon 16-35 f4 VR, Nikon 24-70mm F2.8 AF-S, Nikon 70-200VRII, Nikon 70-300mm VR, 300mm f2.8 AI IF ED, SB-800, SB-900. Noiseware pro,NIK Dfine, Nik Colour Effex, Nik Sharpener Pro

So yes, also on an FX body Gregory

_________________
- Wout -
Nikon D80 with 18-70 DX, 70-300 VR, 35 1.8 DX
Manfrotto 055XPROB tripod with 488RC0 midi ballhead
Lowepro CompuRover AW and Nova 200 AW

That was also, what interested me: to see the DX 35/1.8 perform on a D700 sensor.

_________________
Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Hey Tomas,
I am about to buy a prime as a simple walk about and everyday lens. (Going to Europe next weekend)
After using the 35mm range would you suggest it or the 50mm?

_________________
----- http://www.phippsphotography.com.au -----

Nikon D7000
Nikon D600
- Nikon 35mm 1.8 - Sigma 8-16mm - Nikon 70-300mm VR/ED - Nikon 70-200mm 2.8
On the list: Nikon 24/70mm 2.8 - Nikon 14/24mm f2.8 - Nikon 50mm 1.4,

pretty well. pretty well.

_________________
WHO I AM BLOG, WHAT I DO BLOG
Facebook
*most of my photos nowadays come with a blog post. Please take some time and stop by

Having used the 50mm as a walk-around lens in cities I say it gives interesting perspectives but limits you because of the narrow field of view. I would assume the 35mm gives more freedom without having to step too much back or have to switch lenses.

_________________
- Wout -
Nikon D80 with 18-70 DX, 70-300 VR, 35 1.8 DX
Manfrotto 055XPROB tripod with 488RC0 midi ballhead
Lowepro CompuRover AW and Nova 200 AW

Walk-about lens on a DX-body? For me that would be a 35mm!

_________________
Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

I looking to buy a 35mm. I would be intrested to to see your results on the latter two, as the first one is out of range for me.

_________________
Rui

_______________________________________
Nikon D90 w/ Nikkor AF-S 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6 VR II DX, Nikkor AF 50mm f/1.8 D, Nikkor af-s 35mm f/1.8G DX
Nikkor AF 70-300 f/4-5.6 D, Nikkor AF 80-400 f/4.5-5.6 D ED VR

I think it's pretty much established on the forum that the 35 1.8 is a no-brainer if you shoot Nikon.

_________________
I take pictures so quickly, my highschool was "Continuous High".

Thanks for the feedback, 35mm it is then.
I look forward to your comparison of the 3 lenses.

Just a quick request for the write up, would you be able to have a section where value for money plays a part. I would love to read your thoughts on this topic.

Cheers

_________________
----- http://www.phippsphotography.com.au -----

Nikon D7000
Nikon D600
- Nikon 35mm 1.8 - Sigma 8-16mm - Nikon 70-300mm VR/ED - Nikon 70-200mm 2.8
On the list: Nikon 24/70mm 2.8 - Nikon 14/24mm f2.8 - Nikon 50mm 1.4,

Value for money is very hard to measure in general.
But in the case of the three 35mm Nikon primes its easy for a DX-shooter: The DX 35/1.8G is hard to beat in this category!

_________________
Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Currently calibrating 52 test-shots for white-balance and brightness. Two things are obvious so far:
- the 35/1.4G reproduces the strongest reds
- the 35/1.8G often needs around +0.5EV exposure compensation in post to match the brightness of the other two 35mm lenses.
I'm currently looking deeper into this issue to make sure this is not the fault of the aperture lever.

_________________
Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

-------almost seven hours later-------
Some things simply wont go away...
When looking a bit deeper into the case of the vanishing light I made sure first, that the aperture lever was working correctly and the aperture on each lens stayed indeed wide open, when the aperture was set to max. Then I shot a series under constant light with fixed shutter speed, stopping down to f/11 in single stops.
I found that the 35/1.8G made indeed the expected -1EV steps until I stopped down from f/5.6 to f/8, where it darkened almost -1.5EV followed by another -1.7EV (!) when stopping to f/11.
The 35/1.4G behaved well until f/8 and darkened -1.5EV when stopping down to f/11. The 35/2.0D darkened -1.2EV from f/8 to f/11 but behaved pretty well otherwise. On the bright side (i.e. when opening from the second largest aperture to the largest) the 35/2.0D underperformed with only +0.8EV brightening when opening from f/2.8 to f/2.0 (measured in the middle of the image - so there's no influence from vignetting) while the 35/1.4G overperformed with +1.2EV (albeit with pretty heavy vignetting) when going from f/2.0 to f/1.4. Btw. the 35/1.8G just performed as expected: It brightened +1/3EV when going form f/2.0 to f/1.8.
Hmm...
So in principle the apertures seem to be working as expected at least above f/8. And I assume the funny results with smaller apertures is simply the diminishing precision of the aperture mechanism.
Then I went to the cross-lens-comparison and had a look at the "safe" apertures from 1 stop below max down to f/5.6 or f/8.0. And my earlier results were confirmed: The 35/1.8G was indeed -0.5EV darker on average than the 35/1.4G. If you think that this higher transmission of Nikon's latest and greatest 35mm prime is due to nano-coating, think again: The old 35/2.0D in turn was even another 0.25 brighter than the 35/1.4G!

To sum it all up: The 35/1.4G has on average a 0.5EV higher transmission than the 35/1.8G and it serves almost +1.35EV more light when fully opened.
That was something I did not expect.

I'd like to hear your take on my findings, please!
---
Oh I forgot: all processing was set to standard (camera profile), no lens profiles used, with linear (!) contrast curve.

_________________
Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses