Nikon Nikkor 20mm 1: 2.8 AI-S review

For the opportunity Nikon Nikkor 20mm 1: 2.8 Lens Review AI-S special thanks to Alexander. By the way, you can find many interesting manual lenses in Alexander, his contacts can be found in the manual optics section.

Nikon Nikkor 20mm 1: 2.8 AI-S review

Nikon Nikkor 20mm 1: 2.8 AI-S review

Nikon Nikkor 20mm F / 2.8 AI-S - a great tiny wide-angle fixed lens manual focus for full-frame cameras. The lens has been produced since 1984, in 1989 it was supplemented with an autofocus version Nikon 20mm 1: 2.8 AF Nikkor MKI (without the letter 'D'). It is usually said that 20mm is super wide angle lens (ultra-wideangle len). Its full potential can only be felt when used on full-format cameras, such as Nikon D3s, D800 etc., when used on Nikon DX cropped cameras, EGF lens will be 30mm. For owners of cropped cameras it will be much more convenient to use a whale Nikon 18-55mm f / 3.5-5.6G VR AF-S DX Nikkor

Side view of Nikon Nikkor 20mm F / 2.8 AI-S lens

Lens view Nikon Nikkor 20mm F / 2.8 AI-S on the side

How to use Nikon's native old manual lenses on modern cameras You will find in my article about AI-S. I used this Nikon Nikkor 20mm F / 2.8 without any problems AI-S on Nikon D700 и Nikon D80.

View on a modern Nikon Nikkor 20mm 1: 2.8 AI-S camera

View on a modern Nikon Nikkor 20mm 1: 2.8 AI-S camera

The lens has only manual focus. When focusing, the trunk of the lens lengthens by about half a centimeter. When focusing front lens does not rotate. Lens uses CRC (Close Range Correction) - focusing system with correction at close focusing distances (floating focusing system). The focus ring is rubberized and rotates 90 degrees from infinity to 25sm. The aperture control ring has fixed values ​​of F / 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22. For DOF, the lens has special multi-colored strips, the color of which corresponds to a certain color of the aperture value. The lens uses filters with a diameter of 62mm. The aperture of the lens is 7-petal.

Image quality

The lens showed a very sharp picture at all aperture values, even at F / 22 when used on my Nikon D700 a drop in sharpness from diffraction is hardly felt. At F / 2.8-F / 4, a drop in sharpness is observed at the edges and corners of the image. The lens gives a fairly strong barrel-shaped distortion of a complex type. Holds back light well. There is a vignette on F / 2.8, which disappears on F / 5.6-F / 8.0. There are tangible chromatic aberration.

Sample Photos

All photos were shot with Nikon Nikkor 20mm 1: 2.8 AI-S and camera Nikon D700 JPEG L, FINE, VI. Photos without processing, size reduced to 3 MP (2048 * 1536) and data from EXIF.

Nikon Nikkor 20mm 1: 2.8 Application AI-S

The lens is suitable for shooting architecture, landscapes, creative shooting... Since the lens has a very small MDF and captures a very wide angle, perspective distortion is great for creative shooting. Due to the fact that the lens distortion is practically incorrigible in graphic editors, you need to frame the picture very carefully, since mostly 'humps' appear at the edges of the frame. This lens very weakly blurs the distant and foreground, poorly suited for portrait photography. Due to manual focusing, it will also be difficult to photograph a reportage.

Personal experience

The Nikon Nikkor 20mm F / 2.8 AI-S turned out to be a pretty tiny lens. It is very easy to use, almost always the lens is focused at infinity. This kid can even compete with such a giant as Nikon 14-24, by the way, the focal length of 20mm is just the middle of 14-24. I do not recommend using the Nikon Nikkor 20mm f / 2.8 AI-S on cropped Nikon DX cameras, but on a full frame the lens can do a good job. For those who find it difficult to focus manually, there is an autofocus analog - Nikon 20mm f / 2.8 NIKKOR AF or AF-D with the exact same optical design of 12 elements in 9 groups.

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Conclusions

Nikon Nikkor 20mm F / 2.8 AI-S is a good wide-angle manual AI-S type prime lens for Nikon FX cameras, suitable for wide angle lovers.

Material prepared Arkady Shapoval. Training/Consultations | Youtube | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Telegram

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Comments: 57, on the topic: Review Nikon Nikkor 20mm 1: 2.8 AI-S

  • Andrei

    Nikon 18-55mm f / 3.5-5.6G VR AF-S DX Nikkor - I wouldn't recommend anyone at all (

  • Alexey

    thanks Arkady! I have long wanted to read an overview of this glass from your hands. a good one gave a picture in contrast without processing.

  • Totus

    It would be generally wonderful if at the end of each review write the average price for each lens. Laiki set. The review is good. How is he for weddings?

    • Arkady Shapoval

      You can also shoot weddings if manual focus is not scary.

  • Aleks

    Why is it not recommended on crop?
    If only due to the fact that the older carcasses have automatic iris and metering, that is, a dandelion, everything works with it except for autofocus. I use zenitar16 with dandelion on d90. The whale is gathering dust in the corner :)
    What is the resolution of this lens compared to the zenitar16? At the zenithar, contrast is pleasing, but the resolution is small, compared the truth with Nikkor 50 1.8D.

    • Arkady Shapoval

      I do not recommend it, because 20mm on the crop will not give anything special, for a wide angle the crop has its own lenses.

  • Gene jb

    Interesting, but there are wide-angle without geometric distortion?

    • Arkady Shapoval

      It doesn’t happen, even televisions have fractions of a percent of distortion.

  • Slonik

    Good review! Mig take such an asset for the price, leave until you buy, even more sales. I hope in maybutnogo yogo pribati
    ЩЕ він good for genre portraits in tisny conditions, for example, here in old huts, in factories, to show people in small places in everyday life
    Crazy to you!

  • aidyn

    not cheap however 250

  • Exhausted

    I beg you, do not advise anyone to whale 18-55. Even for beginners. The only advantage he has is convenient focus. But what about the picture?

  • Oleg

    I do not agree that the crop is bad, but 20 mm is 30 EGF, but the whale 18-55 is 27-82,5 EGF.
    30 vs 27, the difference is small

  • Kirill

    I agree that the lens is miniature and well made. But I would argue about resistance to counter. In my opinion, this is just not his strong point - the back holds very so-so. On the other hand, given focal points, poor resistance to backlash can be used for all sorts of artistic ideas ...

  • Andrei

    Arkady! I have Nikkor 24 / 2.8 AI and Tokina 24 / 2.8 RMC.

    I can provide them for testing.

    Contact if interested. I do not live in Kiev.

  • Dmitriy

    Sorry no review Nikon 20mm f / 2.8D AF Nikkor,

  • Maria

    What do you guys say about the Nikon 20mm f / 1.8G ED AF-S Nikkor? I wanted a 17-35 2,8 wide-angle lens, but honestly I’m not enough)))

    • Star boring. Igor

      forgive me for interfering, but IMHO it's still more convenient for you 24, or maybe even 28 or 35, you try if possible ...

  • Maria

    you mean 24 2,8? I'm just buying d 810, I wanted a decent shirik, I don't have enough for it, now I'm sitting there choosing which is better ... ..

    • Star boring. Igor

      I remember about your 810, that's why I wrote :) roughly 24mm is two steps forward - and already 35mm :) and 20mm you think you rarely need, well, the fix is ​​all the same beautifully written ...

  • Maria

    Arkady says that the quality is not the best at 24 2,8, but tolerable …… ..

    • Star boring. Igor

      Nikon AF-NIKKOR 24mm f / 2.8 D

  • Alexey DV

    20-35 wonderful shirik, cheaper than 17-35 and more interesting drawing, but rare ...

  • Maria

    20-35 didn’t even see this one on sale…. How about 16-35 4,0?

  • Alexey DV

    Read the review here, the lens is worthwhile, if you wish, you can order from Japan ...

  • Maria

    Thanks guys! I'll probably stop at 16-35 4.0…. worthy?

    • Alexey DV

      This is how it usually happens ... Why then ask for advice?

  • Maria

    I thought maybe something good or bad about 16-35 tell me ... .. and advice is needed, so you began to advise me and decided, otherwise I can't eat all day, I can't drink only about HIM (lens) and think)) )))

  • Jury

    At the beginning of the article it says “The lens has been produced since 1984 to this day.”, And the pricing section provides information that contradicts this statement: “The Nikon Nikkor 20mm 1: 2.8 AI-S cannot be bought new. It was replaced by the Nikon 20mm f / 2.8D AF Nikkor ”.

    • Igor

      95% of the text in this article was simply copied from Ken Rockwell’s website. The author himself does not know what it is about)

      • Arkady Shapoval

        Igor, Kenny is going to the bathhouse.

    • Arkady Shapoval

      Fixed

    • Jury

      By the way, the old 20mm f / 2.8D has been replaced for a long time - 20mm f / 1.8G with a distortion of only about 1,6% and a bunch of improvements. True, the price tag is almost twice as high.

      It is a pity that there are no such native glasses on the crop at all. To get a very wide angle, you have to take bulky zooms - native, Tokina, Sigma with focal lengths 12-24, 11-16, 12-28, etc. Would make compact and high-quality fixes for DX with FR 10, 12, 14, 16 mm , but for some reason only heavy fools are available on the crop.

      • Arkady Shapoval

        Crop, in fact, is not considered a professional segment, that's why good lenses are not made there, consider “professional” lenses. Canon has the same situation.

        • Jury

          You don't need professional ones - let them make budget high-aperture fixes with a price of about $ 200-400, comparable in class to 35mm f / 1.8 DX, and everyone would be happy.

        • anonym

          Crop is not considered a professional segment? The rarest stupidity! Nikon released the next D500 professional crop camera in response to the Canon 7D Mark II crop camera. I'm already silent about Canon 1D, which is a professional camera and also crop.

          • Oleg

            Not kenon, not nikon do not classify these cameras as professional

            • Jury

              At nikon.ru, the D500 belongs to professional models.

          • Arkady Shapoval

            If the crop is a professional segment, show Canon's professional crop lenses with the L mark. No lenses - no prof. systems. Of course, d500, 7d mark 2 - like prof. cameras, but if you take the system as a whole, then these are relics of the past. As for the crop, I have an article here https://radojuva.com/2013/05/the-crop-identity/

          • maugli

            And where is 1D now (which is the crop)? In the same place as the sprinkled D1, D2 from Nikon, on the side of the story.

          • Jury

            The D500 is Nikon's only CURRENT professional camera. Canon 1D was released in 2001. Nevertheless, I am not particularly upset about this - there are quite a few lenses for Nikon crops, I observe a deficit of fixes only in a wide range. And as for fifty dollars, portrait and telephoto lenses, there are plenty of them.

            • Oleg

              well and they all cover the full frame

              • Jury

                And why is it bad?

              • Oleg

                Yes, there is nothing bad. Just for example, there is no professional reportage of type 24-70, or shirik according to example 16-35. Fifty dollars is fully disclosed in full frame, on crope - this is not five not six. Does not deserve the title of portraiturer and is too narrow for a staffer. 85mm - narrow for the room. 135mm - already have to work legs. The crop has a good price-quality ratio, no one argues with this. But all these lenses are fully disclosed in full frame. Hoya no one forbids to put them on the crop

            • Maugli

              By 1D was meant the entire line of mk2,2N, 3,4, which was replaced by the full-frame 1D X.

              • Jury

                Funny, I didn’t know until I googled that the last of them (Mark IV) was released in 2009.

  • Tatyana Bashinskaya

    It’s good that there is Radozhiva. Always sensible review and, in principle, reliable.
    I love the wide angle, I love it very much and it seems to me that they are somehow few.
    Life is pain.
    All this verbal diarrhea for the sake of one remark:
    Nikon and Nikkor, too, always have color aberrations, which are so beige, and a grain of blur. Zeiss is always better.
    The widths, in principle, never give sharpness in an open aperture, they are always sensitive to horizontal distortion, distortions become indelible, always detailed, so much so that you can use part of the frame in good light, as if you forgot the telephoto. In principle, if the camera is noisy, then at the widths there is less noise in the frame, and they all have it.
    But interesting they give long glare against the sun. Here in this review there is nothing about this thing. And for the sake of lined circles and crescents, it’s worth buying old lenses that are not covered with lightening sauce. Something escaped a lot of words, has not said a long time, sorry. and damned for dyslexia.

  • DM

    I have a question. There is a lens Nikkor 28 2.8 AIS. When focusing on infinity on an open diaphragm, soap is obtained. You press the aperture to 5,6-8 all sharply. What can be and how is it treated? And I like the lens, the D610 is good at full frame.

  • Sergei

    I saw a skirmish in the comments about the lack of decent short zooms for croaked Nikonov. But what about 17-55 / 2.8 and 12-24 / 4? This is absolutely wonderful professional optics!
    And a couple of words about the G20. I once had Nikkor AF 2.8 / 20 D. Then it was ruined for me during the repair of the diaphragm drive :( And now I do not disdain to use the ancient manual Nikkor 4/610 Ai on full-frame Nikons Df and DXNUMX. This "old man" is not chic , of course, but it suits me perfectly for commercial real estate photography.

    • Jury

      There are zooms, few - compact fixes. So you have to take from third-party manufacturers Samyang 10 / 2.8 and 16/2, Tokina 11-16 / 2.8, 11-20 / 2.8, 14-20 / 2 - high-quality high-aperture lenses that have no proprietary counterparts.

  • Mowgli

    How not fair. I really need this camera, but hook hands use it, not the photographer

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