Nikon 24Mm F2.8D Af Nikkor Lens

I purchased the 24mm F2.8D AF for my full frame Nikon and have found it to be a wonderful lens. I moved to FX after my DX camera was stolen and the images are very crisp, very sharp. It is small, light and incredibly functional. 24mm FX is the equivalent of 16mm on a DX camera which is pretty wide.

A previous reviewer has mentioned that this lens is not as sharp as the 14-24mm or the 24-70mm lenses. This may or may not be the case, but let's do a comparison in real terms:
1. 14-24mm: Price £1,327.60, Weight approx 1kg, length 13.2cm
2. 24-70mm: Price £1,188.00, Weight approx 0.9kg, length 13.3 cm
3. 24mm: Price £319.22 (new, less secondhand), Weight approx 0.27kg, length 4.6cm

The lenses have very different uses. For getting a sharp, wide angle shot on FX, this is a great lens. Having a prime lens forces you to really think about the composition of your shot and move around your subject to get good framing. If you're going to be walking around all day, the other two lenses get very heavy, very quickly. I took the 14-24 with me to Norway to shoot Northern Lights and although it is a great lens, my neck was always happy when I got to put it down. All 3 are absolutely brilliant lenses, but serve different purposes. One is an ultra wide zoom, one is a wide-mid zoom and one is a prime. Two are very heavy and very expensive, one is much less so. The quality of the optics are outstanding on all three. It all depends on what you want to use it for. I have no regrets in purchasing mine and would recommend it highly.

A couple of months ago i smashed my kit lens at work. As it was a reletively cheap 18-70mm AF-S i wasn't too concerned, I also refrained from buying another as PERSONALLY i find kit lenses boring unless your spending a tonne of money on pro glass. As i already have the fantastic Nikon AF-S DX 35mm f1.8G i used this for a while instead of a kit and i loved it, it made me move more and really work for that shot, it also got me sharper images and made me change my boring photo style to a more intimate close-up style. Wanting to go wider to get more in I ummmed and arrred over the 24mm and the Nikon 28mm F2.8D Af Nikkor Lens i decided on the 24mm in the end as id heard nothing but bad things about the 28mm this was also too close to my 35mm (I couldn't afford the £1900 f1.4 unfortunately).

This lens is small but looks great, it also feels of high quality. It has a manual aperture ring and focus/dof scale. At a mere 52mm in diameter on the front element you can equip this lens with an array of screw in filters without breaking the bank. On my D300 it feels very well balanced and sturdy.The barrel housing is plastic but it is of the highest quality and this lens feels good. Unfortunately it doesn't come with a lens hood and this will be a problem in bright light and even more so for FX users as it'll be a touch wider.

The lens focuses very quickly even in poor light, and i had to point it at a white vinyl backdrop to get it to hunt as i wasn't sure it did it! The focusing is a little loud and my only problem is it's quite assertive, on occasion if an extreme change is made in focal distance there is slight recoil to the camera, i think this is due to the internal focus motor focusing the lens though and the problem lies more with camera body which can't be helped, it isn't a major problem but be warned handheld it does have a kick.

The performance of this lens is it's jewel in the crown. It is crystal clear and despite the previous reviewer i find it sharper than the uberlenses 14-24mm & 24-70mm at 24mm. Handheld, wide open in a reasonably lit room it is perfectly crisp, everthing is shown in detail and images are high in contrast. The bokeh of this lens is very soft as well and portraits are a dream. At f4 this lens is sublime and walking around a city with it attached to your body you would get some of the most stunning images, there is no falloff on DX and no distortion at all, it's clear as glacial water and tack sharp! I have recently found this lens to be a brilliant HDR lens, used in conjunction with bracketing on the D300 it plays a massive part in some impressive HDR images.

Now my only downside to this lens is not the lenses fault it's Nikons. This lens needs to be a f1.8, we have an expensive f1.4 on offer to pros and those with money and this is an f2.8 but it needs to be faster, i am dying to use this lens in low light and even with it's stellar performance it just doesn't cut it handheld in evening light. I do a lot of band photography and a 24mm f1.8 would be perfect for me. I know i could of bought a Sigma but it's double the weight, double the size and double the price end of!

Don't get me wrong, i love this lens, it's started my prime collection and made me realise that £700 will get me 4 prime lenses to one decent kit lens. I only ever have to take a few steps forward or back with this lens and it's the same as a kit. It's crisp and interesting and im sure ill keep it forever. If your after low light performance give it a wide birth otherwise i recommend it for any DX body, if your going travelling definately get one without a doubt! Please bear in mind it will only AF on certain bodies.

The first thing I noticed about this lens is its weight. When it comes to photography equipment this is always a good sign. The second thing is its sharpness. I love prime lenses, they can't be beaten by zoom ones. The only reason why I didn't give it five stars is that I consider it a little bit too expensive. Otherwise, if you are looking at this lens you know what you're after. You won't be disappointed.