Nikon N AF-S Nikkor 24mm 1: 1.4G ED review

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Nikon N AF-S Nikkor 24mm 1: 1.4G ED (SWM RF Aspherical Nano Crystal Coat)

Nikon N AF-S Nikkor 24mm 1: 1.4G ED (SWM RF Aspherical Nano Crystal Coat). increase.

Browse Navigation:

  1. In short
  2. History
  3. Main Specifications
  4. Assembly
  5. Focusing
  6. Image quality
  7. Sample photos with source
  8. My experience
  9. All original similar lenses
  10. Prices
  11. Results
  12. User Comments
  13. Add your review / comment or question on the lens

Lens Nikon N AF-S Nikkor 24mm 1: 1.4G ED (SWM RF Aspherical Nano Crystal Coat) in this review I will call it abbreviated - Nikon 24 / 1.4G.

Nikon N AF-S Nikkor 24mm 1: 1.4G ED (SWM RF Aspherical Nano Crystal Coat)

Nikon N AF-S Nikkor 24mm 1: 1.4G ED (SWM RF Aspherical Nano Crystal Coat)

In short

Nikon 24 / 1.4G is a fast wide-angle lens for Nikon full-frame DSLR cameras, can be easily used on mirrorless cameras of the system Nikon Z using a special adapter Nikon FTZ.

Nikon 24 / 1.4G has a very high, as for a similar lens, aperture... Lenses with a focal length of 24 mm for a full frame and aperture F / 1.4 are extremely rare and professional solutions. 24 / 1.4 is a very popular lens for many photographers. It can often come in 24 + 50 + 85mm f / 1.4 kit. Most often I see it in a set of two fixes 24 + 85 with f / 1.4. These two lenses are enough for the vast majority of photographic tasks for many photographers.

There are few obvious shortcomings in the Nikon 24 / 1.4G, the main ones being the high cost and the lack of updating the model, recalculated for modern sensors with high pixel density.

Nikon N AF-S Nikkor 24mm 1: 1.4G ED (SWM RF Aspherical Nano Crystal Coat)

Nikon N AF-S Nikkor 24mm 1: 1.4G ED (SWM RF Aspherical Nano Crystal Coat)

History

Nikon 24 / 1.4G presented February 9 2010 years and became the first such lens from Nikon in the 24 / 1.4 class.

Prior to the Nikon 24 / 1.4G, only autofocus versions of the 24 / 2.8 type existed, for example, Nikon AF Nikkor 24mm 1: 2.8... For extremely high aperture and wide angle, we had to look for a rare and expensive Nikon 28 / 1.4D, or limit ourselves to manual 24 / 2.0 AI-S. In August 2015 Nikon 24 / 1.4G lens has been supplemented with a model Nikon N AF-S Nikkor 24mm 1: 1.8G ED SWM Aspherical Nano Crystal Coat.

Nikon has been releasing aperture 24mm lenses for a very long time. Below I briefly described all the major versions in chronological order.

Lens line 24 / 2.8:

  1. Nikppon Kogaku Japan W-Nikkor.C 1: 4 f = 2.5cm, since 1953, version for rangefinder cameras... It existed in several subversions.
  2. Nippon Kogaku Japan Nikkor-N Auto 1: 2.8 f = 24mm - 1967-1971. PRE AI version... The optical design includes 9 elements in 7 groups. This is the first Nikon lens to feature the Nikon CRC system. The prefix 'N' in the name of the lens denotes the number of elements in the optical scheme and stands for 'Novem'(nine in Latin).
    (Close Range Correction) - correction of the image at short focusing distances, built on the principle of floating elements in the optical scheme. Provides good image quality at all focusing distances.
  3. Nikon Nikkor-N Auto 1: 2.8 f = 24mm - 1971 to 1972. PRE AI version... Renamed previous version (instead of 'Nippon Kogaku Japan' classic 'Nikon'). The optical design is still the same.
  4. Nikon Nikkor-NC Auto 1: 2.8 f = 24mm - from 1972 to 1975. PRE AI version. Updated previous version. The optical design is still the same. The update affected the type of enlightenment. Additional letter 'C' in the lens name indicates special enlightenment ('C'oating).
  5. Nikon Nikkor 24mm 1: 2.8 - from 1975 to 1977. The so-called 'K' version... It differs from the subsequent version 'AI' by the absence of a second scale for direct reading of the aperture (ADR scale). Updated previous version. The optical design is still the same.
  6. Nikon Nikkor 24mm 1: 2.8 - from 1977 to 1981. AI version. Optical design of 9 elements in 9 groups. An overview of this version can be viewed here.
  7. Nikon Nikkor 24mm 1: 2.8 - from 1981-2005 (in fact, at the end of 2015 this lens is listed in a number of current manual focus lenses in the 'Manual-focus' section on Nikon official website). AI-S version. The optical design is the same as the previous version.
  8. Nikon AF Nikkor 24mm 1: 2.8 - 1986 to 1991 (MKI version). First autofocus version. The optical design is the same as the previous version. The version is easily recognizable by a narrow plastic focus ring and aperture lock in the form of a button.
  9. Nikon AF Nikkor 24mm 1: 2.8 - from 1991 to 1994 (MKII version). The optical design is the same as in the previous version. It differs from the MKI version by a rubberized focusing ring and a slider-like aperture lock.
  10. Nikon AF Nikkor 24mm 1: 2.8D - from 1994 to the present day (at least until 2016), the MKIII version, better known as 'D'-version. The optical design is the same as the previous version. It differs from the MKII version by the ability to transmit the focusing distance to the camera and some minor details.

I'd like to point out that all 24 / 2.8 class lenses use only two optical schemes. From 1967 to 1977, an optical scheme was used with 9 elements in 7 groups, from 1977 to the present day - 9 elements in 9 groups. It's a bit of a shame that all lenses since 1977 have been built on the same optical design. Roughly speaking, Nikon AF Nikkor 24mm 1: 2.8D, which is still considered the current model (for the fall of 2020!), is built on the basis of an optical scheme developed 40 (forty!) years ago.

The range of professional lenses 24 / 2.0:

  1. Nikon Nikkor 24mm 1: 2 - from 1977 to 1981. AI version. Optical design of 11 elements in 10 groups.
  2. Nikon Nikkor 24mm 1: 2 - from 1981 to 2005. AI-S version. The optical design is the same as the previous version.

Unfortunately for many photographers, the 24 / 2.0 lineup did not receive its autofocus continuation. At one time, the 24 / 2.0 line was considered professional, and users had a choice between unpretentious 24 / 2.8 and advanced 24 / 2.0.

The range of professional lenses 24 / 1.4 and 24 / 1.8:

  1. Nikon N AF-S Nikkor 24mm 1: 1.4G ED SWM RF Aspherical Nano Crystal Coat - from 2010 to the present day. Optical design 12 elements in 10 groups. There is a built-in focusing motor (SWM), low dispersion (ED) and aspherical (Aspherical) elements in the optical scheme, special nanocrystalline coating of optics (N), internal focusing (RF). The lens is shown in this review.
  2. Nikon N AF-S Nikkor 24mm 1: 1.8G ED SWM Aspherical Nano Crystal Coat - from 2015 to the present day. There is a built-in focusing motor (SWM), low-dispersion (ED) and aspherical (Aspherical) elements in the optical system, special nanocrystalline coating of optics (N), internal focusing (IF).
  3. Nikon Nikkor Z 24mm 1: 1.8 S - since 2019 to our days... Version for Nikon Z-mount mirrorless cameras... Scheme with 1 ED and 4 aspherical elements, special nanocrystalline optical coating (N). Two focusing stepper motors.

It is very strange that users of the Nikon system had to wait more than 20 years (from 1987 to 2010) to get an autofocus lens with aperture more than f / 2.8. In the same time Canon Lens EF 24mm 1: 1.4 L USM was introduced 23 years earlier than Nikkor.

On the side there is another 24 mm highly specialized lens:

  1. Nikon N PC-E Nikkor 24mm 1: 3.5D Tilt / Shift ED Aspherical Nano Crystal Coat - from 2008 to the present day. 13 elements in 10 groups. It is a lens with perspective control. One of the first lenses with electronic aperture.

Unlike all of the listed lenses, PC-E 24 / 3.5D used only for very highly specialized tasks that require perspective control, for example, when it is impossible to change the point or location, or for manipulating the depth of field.

Nikon N AF-S Nikkor 24mm 1: 1.4G ED (SWM RF Aspherical Nano Crystal Coat)

Nikon N AF-S Nikkor 24mm 1: 1.4G ED (SWM RF Aspherical Nano Crystal Coat)

Main technical characteristics Nikon N AF-S Nikkor 24mm 1: 1.4G ED (SWM RF Aspherical Nano Crystal Coat):

Review Instance Name Gold lettering 'Nikon AF-S Nikkor 24mm 1: 1.4G ED N' on the body.

White lettering 'Nikon SWM ED RF Aspherical Ø77 Nano Crystal Coat Made in Japan + Serial Number'

Basic properties
  • FX (Nikon FX) - lens designed for full-frame digital cameras with Full Frame Nikon FX series sensor
  • AF S (Auto-FocuS motor) - the lens uses a built-in focus motor
  • G (Gelded) - means no iris ring and transfer of focusing distance to camera
  • ED (Extra-low Dispersion) - the use of special low-dispersion elements in the optical scheme
  • AS (ASPHERICAL) - use of special aspherical elements in the optical design
  • SWM (Silent Wave Motor) - silent wave focusing motor
  • IF (Internal Focusing) - internal focusing
  • RF (Rear Focusing) - focusing using the rear lens group
  • DIH (Nikon Super Integrated Coating) - Special Integrated Super Enlightenment Optics
  • N (Nano Crystal Coat) - nanocrystalline optical coating
  • M / A (autofocus with manual override) - automatic focus with manual override priority
  • RD (Rounded Diaphragm) - rounded aperture blades
  • Rubber basket (Rubber lens mount seal) - dustproof and waterproof mount seal
  • Golden ring - gold ring near the front lens
Front Filter Diameter 77 mm, plastic thread for filters
Focal length 24 mm, EGF for Nikon DX cameras is 36 mm
Zoom ratio 1X (this is a prime lens, a discrete prime lens)
Designed by for digital cameras Nikon FX
Number of aperture blades 9 rounded petals
Tags
  • focusing distance scale in meters and feet in the video window
  • depth of field scale for F / 11 and F / 16
  • mark (point) for work in the infrared spectrum
  • hood attachment mark
  • bayonet mark
Diaphragm from f / 1.4 to f / 16. The lens is deprived of the aperture control ring, control is via the camera menu (G - lens type)
MDF (Minimum Focus Distance) 0.25 meters, maximum magnification ratio 1:5.6
Stabilizer features there is no built-in stabilizer, it is possible to use a stabilizer in cameras Nikon Z
The weight 620 grams stated and corresponds to my measurements (only the object itself, no caps and hoods)
Optical design 12 elements in 10 groups, including

  • 2 aspherical elements (aspherical elements are shown in blue on the optical diagram). The presence of aspherics is indicated on the case with the inscription 'Aspherical'
  • 2 low dispersion elements (shown in yellow on the optical diagram). The presence of such elements is indicated on the housing by the abbreviation 'ED'

Optical design Nikon N AF-S Nikkor 24mm 1: 1.4G ED (SWM RF Aspherical Nano Crystal Coat)

The image of the optical scheme is clickable to enlarge

Lens hood Nikon HB-51, bayonet type, plastic
Transportation With a soft cover CL-1118
Manufacturer country Japan, inscription on the lens: “MADE IN JAPAN”
Period From February 9, 2010 to the present day (at least until summer 2020), in 2019 completed with a model Nikon Nikkor Z 24mm 1: 1.8 S
Instructions View ->
Price

F / 2.8 maximum aperture used in the previous model Nikon AF Nikkor 24mm 1: 2.8D, 2 stops darker than the f / 1.4 used in this lens.

Nikon N AF-S Nikkor 24mm 1: 1.4G ED (SWM RF Aspherical Nano Crystal Coat)

Nikon N AF-S Nikkor 24mm 1: 1.4G ED (SWM RF Aspherical Nano Crystal Coat)

Assembly

The Nikon 24 / 1.4G is quite weighty and pleasant to the touch. The lens barrel is made of plastics, Nikon 24 / 1.4G weighs just over 600 grams.

The focusing ring is wide enough and rubberized. Nikon 24 / 1.4G uses metal mountnear which is located rubber compressorthat protects the camera mount from dust and moisture. Nikon 24 / 1.4G is manufactured in Japan.

There is a bayonet mount mark on the body and a mark for quick installation of the hood. The lens uses a small plastic hood HB-51, which is fixed in special grooves located near the front lens of the lens. A hood is included with the lens. The hood can be installed in the opposite direction for transportation. In this position, access to the focusing ring is partially lost.

Nikon 24 / 1.4G comes in a small cardboard box with characteristic Nikon coloring. The lens is held in the box using a special plastic box-holder.

Diaphragm lens consists of 9 rounded petalswhich form a fairly flat opening at all apertures.

Nikon 24 / 1.4G belongs to professional lenses. As befits a professional lens - the diameter of the front filter is the classic 77 mm.

Nikon N AF-S Nikkor 24mm 1: 1.4G ED (SWM RF Aspherical Nano Crystal Coat)

Nikon N AF-S Nikkor 24mm 1: 1.4G ED (SWM RF Aspherical Nano Crystal Coat)

Focusing

Nikon 24 / 1.4G focuses thanks to 'SWM'-motor (Silent Wbird Motor is a quiet wave / ultrasonic focus motor) and refers to 'type lensesAF S'(with built-in motor focusing), and therefore it will automatically focus on any Nikon digital SLR camera... Most likely the lens uses compact swm motor. (who knows for sure - let me know in the comments).

The lens will automatically focus on all Nikon DSLR cameraseven on amateur series models Nikon DXthat do not have a built-in focus motor: D40, D40x, D60, D3000, D3100, D3200, D3300, D3400, D3500, D5000, D5100, D5200, D5300, D5500, D5600as well as mirrorless cameras Nikon Z with adapter FTZ / FTZ II.

During auto focus, the motor does its job quietly enough, but still noise from the focus motor is clearly audible in videos recorded using the camera's built-in microphone.

Auto Focus Speed ​​- high... The running time of lenses from infinity to MDF and back is short.

There are no special problems with focusing, but on my cameras I noticed rare focusing errors, there are few of them, but they still make themselves felt. I associate them with the difficulty of focusing on fast wide-angle lenses. But in general, the lens focuses quickly and confidently, although you can find information on the web about poor focusing tenacity with some cameras.

The front lens remains stationary during focusing. The lens uses focusing type RF (Rear Focusing), which is done by moving the rear lens group. For practical use, the RF type focusing is no different from the IF ('Iinternal Focus' - 'Inner Focus'). With this lens, you can easily use any filters, for example, polarizing.

The minimum focusing distance is only 25 cm, while you can shoot with a maximum magnification of 1: 5.6.

During auto focus, the focus ring remains stationary. In manual focus mode, the ring rotates approximately 135 degrees, when extreme positions are reached, it does not rest, but continues to slide, without affecting the focus.

On the lens housing you can find focus switch 'M / A - M'. In the 'M / A' position, auto focus works with constant manual focus priority. The 'M / A' mode is very convenient and useful - for manual focusing or focus correction, you do not need to additionally switch the lens to the 'M' mode.

Focus Features:

  1. There is a depth of field scale, but only for F / 11 and F / 16
  2. There is a label for work in the infrared spectrum
  3. There is a small effect of 'Focus Breathing' (changing the viewing angle during focusing). During focusing towards the MDF, the viewing angle decreases.
  4. The lens has a scale with a focusing distance in meters and feet in the form of a window. There are values ​​for the infinity mark only, 1, 0.5, 0.35 and 0.25 meters. In fact, this scale is useless.
  5. The Nikon 24 / 1.4G does not have a hard infinity mechanical stop for fast and accurate infinity aiming under any operating temperature.
  6. Focus Shift (shift focus, changing the focus distance due to iris) is missing.
  7. The lens must be well compatible with the Nikon FTZ adapter for Nikon Z mirrorless cameras and with a Nikon FT1 adapter for cameras Nikon 1
  8. When used on cameras Nikon D3200, D40, D700, D850, green dot confirming correct focus, works correctly.
Nikon N AF-S Nikkor 24mm 1: 1.4G ED (SWM RF Aspherical Nano Crystal Coat)

Nikon N AF-S Nikkor 24mm 1: 1.4G ED (SWM RF Aspherical Nano Crystal Coat)

Image quality

The lens was developed at a time when there were 24 MP Full Frame cameras (D3x, 2008) and APS-C cameras with a 16 MP sensor (D7000, 2010), so the Nikon 24 / 1.4G should have some headroom to handle today's high pixel density cameras.

The lens performs well on a 24 APS-C sensor Nikon D3200 (CMOS, 24 MP), where already at F / 1.4 in the center of the frame, it created a rather sharp image, but still it was constantly felt that this was far from the limit. On camera Nikon D700 и Nikon D40 with a low pixel density Nikon 24 / 1.4G is very good in terms of sharpness.

Sharpness

  • confident sharpness at the open aperture in the center of the frame
  • high resolution after f / 2 in the center of the frame
  • there is a drop in sharpness in the corners of the frame at F / 1.4, when closing to about F / 2, the sharpness returns to normal

Distortion

  • small barrel distortion
  • the overall level of distortion is at a level typical for such high-quality lenses
  • the nature of the distortion is unified - the usual barrel-shaped distortion, easily fixable in the editor

Vignetting

  • strong vignetting at F / 1.4 around 2 stops
  • at f / 2.8, vignetting is noticeably reduced
  • vignetting can be easily corrected in the converter

Aberration

  • lens a little suffers from chromatic aberrations (example)
  • there is a noticeable frigging (longitudinal chromatic aberration in the blur zone)

Rest

  • the lens behaves well in backlight, but in very rare situations you can get noticeable glare, example
  • getting the effect of a 18-ray star is quite simple (example)
  • sometimes you can get nice bokeh
  • the disks of confusion have small concentric 'onion' circles from aspherical optical elements (example)

Modern Nikon cameras, which were released after the announcement of this lens, easily automatically correct distortion and vignetting. Many cameras are able to automatically correct some of the chromatic aberrations. Sometimes software features that enhance the original image from the lens can work wonders. For example, these functions work well for on-camera JPEG on camera. Nikon D3200.

If this lens is used with a camera that was released before 2010 (for example, Nikon D40, 2004), then shooting in RAW with the further use of the latest version of Capture NX-D or any other original modern utility allows you to automatically correct vignetting, distortion and chromatic aberration.

Nikon N AF-S Nikkor 24mm 1: 1.4G ED (SWM RF Aspherical Nano Crystal Coat)

Nikon N AF-S Nikkor 24mm 1: 1.4G ED (SWM RF Aspherical Nano Crystal Coat)

Full frame sample photos

A wonderful photographer shared examples of photos on Nikon D4s, Df, Z6 Mikhail Titarenko (facebook)... More works by Mikhail can be found in Instagram or on his personal site.

Sample photos (landscapes)

Examples of photos shared by a wonderful photographer Dmitry Tolmachev (vk)... More works by Dmitry can be found in his profile on the website 35photo.

Sample photos of D3200

Examples on Nikon D3200, DX, 24 MP with AA filter. Converting original RAW files with the original Nikon Capture NX-D v 1.4.6 utility. APS-C sensor with high pixel density allows you to check the lens well for resolution.

Original RAW photos (12-bit '.NEF') can be download from this link (21 file, 700 MB).

Sample Photos Nikon D40

How can it be without a lens test on an old lady Nikon D40? This is the most interesting thing - to drive a high-quality lens on an old camera with a 6MP CCD sensor. Special fetish from Radozhiva. Easily convert raw RAW files with the original Nikon Capture NX-D v 1.4.6 utility.

Original RAW photos (12-bit '.NEF') can be download from this link (29 files, 130 MB).

Nikon N AF-S Nikkor 24mm 1: 1.4G ED (SWM RF Aspherical Nano Crystal Coat)

Nikon N AF-S Nikkor 24mm 1: 1.4G ED (SWM RF Aspherical Nano Crystal Coat)

My experience

During the review, I shot three small events on Nikon 24 / 1.4G (micro-wedding, baptism and children's photo session, I will add reports on Instagram as I fully prepare the material) and about 2000 more 'for myself' frames from the galleries above. In the end, I was quite happy with the lens's performance.

I know many photographers for whom 24mm is an irreplaceable focal length. They all use 24 / 1.4 lenses exclusively. Many have a set of 24 + 85 or 24 + 105, or even 24 + 135, which is enough for almost any work with people. Of course, every photographer himself chooses his own set of focal lengths.

For a long time I considered the Nikon 24 / 1.4G to be one of the lenses that I have no particular complaints about. Just a good working lens. But after the creation of this review, some questions arose for the Nikon 24 / 1.4G. I was constantly expecting something better from the lens at f / 1.4. First of all - better sharpness at F / 1.4, especially after the 20 / 1.8G tests and some Sigma Art series lenses. But still, with what is available, everything is quite decent.

Making a good fast wide-angle is very difficult. In addition, it is very, very difficult to make a wide-angle high-aperture lens with a more or less pleasant 'pattern'. Nikon 24 / 1.4G has no problems with the 'pleasantness of drawing', apparently for this it is appreciated by many photographers.

Nikon 24 / 1.4G is a very convenient solution for cropped cameras in terms of viewing angle, turning into one of the best standard (in terms of EGF) lenses for Nikon DX cameras (EGF 36 mm). It is a pity that lighter and cheaper lenses of the 24/2/1.8 or 24/1.4 class are not produced for Nikon DX. For example, for Sony's cropped mirrorless system, there is a wonderful Carl Zeiss Sonnar E 1,8 / 24 ZA T * (Sony SEL24F18Z).

Nikon N AF-S Nikkor 24mm 1: 1.4G ED (SWM RF Aspherical Nano Crystal Coat)

Nikon N AF-S Nikkor 24mm 1: 1.4G ED (SWM RF Aspherical Nano Crystal Coat)

Prices

Prices in popular online stores are available. look at this link.

Results

Nikon 24 / 1.4G for Nikon DSLR system has no original counterparts. It is a very necessary and very important lens for many photographers. It belongs to the professional line and works very well.

10 main advantages:

  1. high aperture
  2. standard filter diameter at 77 mm
  3. internal focusing, high speed focusing, M / A mode
  4. small MDF
  5. ultrasonic focusing motor (for example, Nikon 28 / 1.4D did not have one)
  6. metal bayonet, hood included, rubber bayonet seal
  7. the optical design uses 4 special elements (2 ED, 2 ASP)
  8. SIC + Nano Crystal Coat
  9. nine rounded aperture blades
  10. good sharpness at F / 1.4 in the center of the frame, in general, good optical performance

10 main disadvantages:

  1. high price tag ($ 2000 versus, for example, $ 850 for Sigma 24 / 1.4 ART)
  2. Nikon 10 / 24G has not been updated for 1.4 years (Nikon Z 24 / 1.8S и Nikon N 24 / 1.8G not counting due to lower luminosity)
  3. compact focusing motor instead of ring
  4. no image stabilizer (for example, Canon EF 24 / 2.8 IS)
  5. heavy weight (620 grams for Nikon 24 / 1.4G versus 440 grams for Sony 24 / 1.4 GM)
  6. no hard stop (important for wide angle lenses)
  7. drop in sharpness in the corners of the frame at F / 1.4
  8. tangible longitudinal chromatic aberration
  9. strong vignetting at F / 1.4 when focusing at infinity
  10. some users complain about unstable focusing accuracy

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

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Comments: 22, on the topic: Nikon N AF-S Nikkor 24mm 1: 1.4G ED Review

  • Oleg

    Masterpiece but expensive. Nice bokeh for shirik

  • Sergei

    Thank you, Arkady! It seems to me that it would be nice to supplement the reviews of wide-angle lenses with photographs of the starry sky at open and moderately covered apertures up to f / 2-4. This would make it possible to assess the suitability of the lens for shooting astro landscapes, this is now a fairly popular direction, and lenses can work very differently against the starry sky, especially at the edges of the frame. I would like to clarify this point before buying.

    • Bogdan

      Pidtrimuyu!

    • Rodion

      Not everyone has the patience and the sky for this. Then you can just do the LED test)

      • Sergei

        Yes, this can be a problem if during the review it will not be possible to shoot on a clear night or late in the evening. Technically, only a tripod is needed, the shutter speed will be small within 20 seconds, I think. The LED is probably not the best option, or the LED will need to be removed as much as possible, as close to "infinity" as possible. It's probably easier to use the lights on the horizon, focusing on them with a center point, then lock the autofocus and frame so that the lights are at the corners of the frame. However, I'm not sure if this would be an adequate alternative to shooting the sky. My experience in astrophotography is small and I don't know, for example, a star dome from the point of view of photography is a plane or a sphere, and lenses with different field curvatures can work out these options in different ways. In the case of flashlights, we test for the ability to shoot a sphere.

  • koba

    well, how can that not write something about previous versions, in addition to what you said during comparisons. For a 24mm lens, the normal distance scale is not a matter of preference. So the sadness is that the last such normal scale with markings up to the obligatory 3 meters was made by the clever Nikon on 24 / 2.8 Ai, and already from the Ai-s version it was removed and reduced to useless 2 meters. Then, in new lenses, they made that 1 meter, I wonder why the scale was inserted there at all? For show, to look professional. Well, how can you not look at a similar 24 / 1.4 L lens from Kenon, in which the scale is marked just to the obligatory (!) 3 meters. Interestingly, in kenon it was accidentally done? Now let's look at the lenses from Lake and some other manufacturers - they also accidentally put and calibrated exactly 3 meters there, or even further up to 5, 7 and even 10 meters? And why did Zeiss, having done the same stupidity in the production of its optically remarkable 25/2 lens (the marking ends in 2 places), corrected this in the Milvus line and put down exactly 3 meters there? Stupid too? Unfortunately, apart from the 24 / 1,4 from kenon, no other modern autofocus lens allows the user to work in manual mode using zone focus. Is this some kind of collusion on the part of the manufacturers? I don’t know about the others, but I personally don’t need a 24mm lens without scale markings up to 3 meters (I don’t have to dream about more, more is already from the Lake area, that is, this is already a luxury!) And I don’t need it for nothing, I still think what to buy instead of the zoom, which I use at 24mm and get terrible ldistoria in the corners, as well as a drop in sharpness, and in fact there are no options for Nikon, except Zeiss Milvus, and by God I would have bought it, I would have paid 1700 dollars, but with it there is another problem - weight , not dimensions (which are also prohibitive), but weight! I hope I don’t need to explain why exactly 3 meters is most important for a 24mm lens on a full frame, and, by the way, why did Nikon calibrate his own 24 / 2.8 Ai exactly to 3 meters?

    • Arkady Shapoval

      but where can you look at the terrible distortion of your 24mm? and it would be very interesting here in the comments to see a few photos from you, where you applied a 3m distance with a description. thank

      • koba

        I don’t have a 24mm fix, this is a zoom - Nikon AF-S 24-85 / 3.5-4.5 (not the VR version), it has decent distortion, but that's half the trouble, in fact, its edges are inoperative, you can pull something out of it. then if it is very required, but it is far from normal quality. This is not surprising. By the way, his center is very sharp, there are no questions here. So I'm thinking of taking this particular 24 / 2.8 Ai, which seems to be better, in the internet one way or another I could find a comparison, though not with this, but with the new one, which is essentially the same in optics, but the chromatics of the old one is also decent, although and my zoom does not shine on this part.

    • Alexey

      It would also be interesting to hear why the focusing distance marked up to three meters is so important. (never a mockery)
      I don’t have 24mm, there is 28mm, manual. there yes, markings up to three meters and a little further already infinity.

      • koba

        from = in order to more or less accurately establish visually the zone focus and did not have to close the diaphragm even to 5,6. For 24mm with an aperture of 5,6 and 3 meters on the scale, it means that everything from 1,6 meters to 24,4 meters will be in the sharpness zone, and it is not difficult to measure 1,6 meters by eye. But there is no 3 meters on the scale and there is only 2, in this case the field of focus at 5,6 will be approximately from 1,3 to 4,8 meters, which is also not bad, and sometimes this will be required when we know that we will work in this " range ”. But closing the aperture to 8 will immediately double the sensitivity, which is highly undesirable. By the way, from the pictures of the lens itself shown in the article, you can't see where its scale ends, but it ends at a completely absurd 1 (ONE) meter. So I ask, I wonder why in general then it was necessary to make a scale and a window for it? I repeat - for a professional lens from Nikon, the scale ends at 1 meter, and for a similar professional lens from a kenon, it ends at 3 meters (by the way, that kenon, in terms of optical characteristics, freely reaches the level of Zeiss). And what is your 28mm? Isn't it a Nikon 28mm / 2.8 Ais, which actually costs even higher than a similar lens from Lake and many other manufacturers?

        • Alexey

          I seem to have understood, but one thing is not very clear - why not use LiveView and see everything you need immediately, before shooting? and set focus and aperture as needed.
          I have Olympus Zuiko 28 2.0

          • koba

            in some cases it is possible to shoot, but personally I have to shoot so quickly that it makes no sense to set a shutter speed lower than 1/1000, even at 1/750 they are blurry, the time for photographing one frame in most cases is less than a split second, so what is there to stand there and build a frame or the like, here (in China) if you don't shoot instantly, then goodbye the frame, and everyone dodges, cover their faces, move away, we are foreigners here, and so they often look at us for the sake of curiosity, and there is also a huge camera and let's shoot people in their natural setting ... So I have to resort to the “extreme” type of shooting, offhand, often left or right, fast or lightning fast, there is no time to focus or stop, I often shoot on the go, so exposure 1/1000 is the minimum, and as a result, even during the day, most frames “get” high ISO, in the region of 3200-12800, where you cannot do without Nikon D3s, and even from high ISO you have to pull frames ... drums shot with the new Nikon D6. Paid bloggers, etc. observers (it would be more correct to call them corrupt observers!) are silent about him, they say there is nothing new, and do not say that Nikon did a miracle in D6 - now ISO 12800 is working even at night (for D3s, this is still ISO 6400-8000), no camera in the world can come close to him. For us, ordinary users, it is now impossible to buy it, but in 5 years I personally will start saving money.

            • Alexey

              Well, now I understand. these are extremely specific shooting conditions and requirements for the camera and optics. I have never shot this in such conditions.

              • koba

                Yes it is. But in China, for a foreigner, if he wants to shoot life without embellishment, people without posing, there is no other way out, for years I tried to approach this issue from different angles, but in any case, personally, I could not find another way. And here this aspect of the 24mm lens manifested itself, it is with such a focal length that you can work very efficiently here, not lose frames, catch moments. 20mm turned out to be too much, since a completely unnatural distortion appears (the same if you use 16mm on a crop, like the equivalent of 24mm, but the picture is like from 16mm, that is, it is completely unusable, and there is no crop that would give such low noise while maintaining DD at high and very high ISO). For me personally, it would be much better to use 28mm, despite the fact that the excellent Nikon 28 / 2.8 Ais (it is better than 28/2 in terms of distortions, in fact they are not present throughout the entire field of the frame, and the sharpness is nowhere higher!) ends at 2 meters, which is a disaster for a 28mm lens (I wonder why Nikon deprived users of the ability to use zone focus normally in the era of manual photography, while Kenon did everything as it should be then?), but when using a 28mm lens, I started I would shoot differently, that is, I would keep my distance a little longer from objects, it would be even better for me, and the picture would become closer to normal, and in fact these days I am testing this option, but the first tests show that the number of lost frames increased, and in crowded places, during holidays and there is no place to maneuver among a large number of people, in such cases even 24mm is not enough, you need a 20mm lens. If one solution, at first glance, is the Zeiss 21 / 2.8, a completely excellent lens, and a markup of up to 2 meters at 21mm is more than sufficient, but the picture is already far from natural, and a 12MP camera will not be enough with such a lens, since very strong crops are constantly required, then you need to have at least 16-20 megapixels in stock. I also tried using multi-megapixel cameras, the result is zero, the blur is outrageous, working at high ISO is funny, since the files are already cleared programmatically at the RAW level (many photographers do not even know this, especially in the West, they really think that from a 100 megapixel camera you can get noises lower than 12 megapixel without software preparation) and you can't get much out of them. I even tried Fuji's vaunted medium format, the result is expected. It cannot compete with Nikon D3s at high ISO, files are also dissected there, since the pixel size is lower than that of D3s. I am not talking about the 100 megapixel version. Therefore, in top-end cameras, kenon and nikon do not yet put more than 20 megapixels, since the users of these cameras are completely impossible to deceive, and it does not make sense.

              • Pokemon

                “I also tried to use multi-megapixel cameras, the result is zero, the blur is outrageous, working at high ISO is funny, since the files are already cleared programmatically at the RAW level (many photographers do not even know this, especially in the West, they really think that from a 100 megapixel camera you can get noise lower than 12 megapixel without software preparation) and you will not get much out of them. ”
                Because multiMP cameras are not adapted for reporting.
                “I tried even the vaunted medium format from Fuji, the result is expected. It cannot compete with Nikon D3s at high ISO, files are also dissected there, since the pixel size is lower than that of D3s. I am silent about the 100 megapixel version. "
                SF cameras have never been reportage, no one.

              • Roman

                And 24mm in full frame has never been a reportage lens.
                A constant set of some strange and inadequate claims for the sake of strange and inadequate photos.

                If you constantly need wild crop crops at 21-24 mm, then you have chosen the wrong focal length of the lens. So, specifically for your purposes, you need 24-70, 28-70, 24-105 - something from this series, also with an aperture of 2.8, in order to make a normal report on a normally tuned autofocus without worrying about the distance scale. Which is used by a huge number of the same journalists who DO REPORT, and do not catch the Chinese with the sheets of explanations.

                24 / 1.4 is a lens for someone who knows why he needs, firstly, 24 mm, and secondly - 1.4 apertures.

            • Dim

              Thank you very much for such informative comments!

              • koba

                Thanks to the owner of the site for still developing it and now we have a wonderful site not only for commercial but also ordinary photographers, as well as the opportunity to discuss old techniques. There are also drawbacks here, more than once they wrote that at least basic objective technical tests, just a few files, would not interfere, but this is at the discretion of the respected Arkady. To the above, I can add that Leisa essentially lives off the zone focus, and its owners get wonderful photos where everything is sharp, much sharper than with autofocus lenses. Today I found a 24 mm lens from Lake of the R system, converted for Nikon (in AI), of course, everything is in order with the markings, but I'm not sure that the picture quality will be at the level of a real Lake, although I should look at it in work, but the seller does not give for testing, you have to pay 800 dollars right away, he says come to the store and test as much as you want, but the store is located 800 kilometers from my city ... Is it by chance that someone from the visitors of this site has this lens from Lake to share their experience?

            • Ivan

              ISO 12 thousand, like 6400, 1800 on the D6, on the D3, on the D4s are only “conditionally working”, depending on what and why you shoot and how picky you are to look at it later.
              I haven't owned a D3, but I own D4s, D6s and D850s.
              The difference between the listed reports is not so big; by the way, it is also important that the native ISO of D3 is 200, while on D4s and D6 it is less – 100.
              All that each camera does is increase the voltage on the matrix and reduce noise in software; the basic image quality is still in the Native CO 100 or 200.

  • Irina

    Very nice lens)
    Thank you for the article)

  • Andrei

    Average

  • Ivan

    It’s funny to read comments like “whoever takes a 24 mm and 1.4 aperture lens knows EXACTLY why he’s doing it”)))))
    In 2015, I personally went and bought myself a then current and completely new, official Nikon D4s, along with a new in a box Nikkor 24 F1.4G, as well as a new in a box Nikkor 70-200 F2.8 G VR 2. I gave it away at once for all 12 USD, without thinking at all, “why do I need it - aperture 000”))))) And I regretted that I didn’t take the 1.4 F200G Vr2.0 then - (I didn’t take it then only because it was heavy and not dear)))))))) Now I would take it without hesitation.))).
    As a result, there is now a good collection of NEW cameras: – F5 annuversary 50 (new), Nikon D1 (new) and, as a small detail, the new D850 – so that there are 45 megapixels)))
    I take very little pictures; I’m not a photographer, but an amateur.
    I will never forget the eyes of a “professional” Russian-speaking photographer in Thailand in 2015, who offered his services to me on a boat excursion. He looked at what was lying on my lap for about 20 minutes, apparently assessing the size)))))))

    Jokes aside, but yours, mine and your photographs are NOT NEEDED BY ANYONE but you.
    FEELINGS are important in life. And the sound of the shutter of the coveted camera is almost more important in itself than even the final result.

    We will all die very soon. Buy things and get emotions from them!
    Good luck!

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