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To compare real-life sharpness in the corner and center of the frame, we shot this scene with the Nikkor DX 35mm f/1.8G and DX 18-200mm VR II lenses mounted on a Nikon D90 body at all apertures. The DX 18-200mm VR II was adjusted to deliver the same field-of-view. The D90 was set to RAW to avoid in-camera JPEG corrections; all files were processed in Nikon's Capture NX 2.2.3 with lens corrections disabled and the default sharpness of 3.

Closing the aperture to f5.6 marginally improves the definition, but the result remains soft. Likewise at f8, where even though the image now looks much better than it did at f4.2, it remains below that of the DX 35mm f/1.8G even when the prime's aperture is wide-open. The DX 35mm f/1.8G significantly outclasses the Nikkor super-zoom in the corners at all aperture settings.

The DX 18-200mm VR II's performance improves as you move away from the extreme corners, and is roughly similar to the other zooms with its aperture wide-open, but the image still lacks the crispness of the prime lens. The DX 18-200mm VR II enjoys a small boost in definition at f5.6 and another at f8, but even then it's struggling to match the DX 35mm f/1.8 at f2.8, where it's operating three stops faster.

So of the three zooms we compared it against, the DX 18-200mm VR II has the most to gain. Switching to the DX 35mm f/1.8 will give you significantly improved definition in the corners, crisper overall results throughout the frame, and of course much greater light-gathering capabilities in a smaller, lighter and cheaper lens. Of course like the other two zooms, the downside is a fixed focal length and lack of stabilisation, but the far superior image quality will make it a valuable lens to have alongside the super-zoom when you demand the best results or are working in low light.

Now let's move onto our studio labs tests where we'll measure the Nikkor DX 35mm f/1.8G geometric distortion.