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AF Nikkor 20-35/2.8 D
| Lens construction: | 14 elements in 11 groups |
| Focus distance: | 0.5 m to infinity |
| Angle of View: | 94° - 57° |
| Aperture scale: | f/2.8 to f/22 |
| Attachment size: | 77 mm |
| Diaphgram blades: | 9 |
| Lens hood: | HB-8 |
| Dimensions: | 82 mm (dia.) x 105 mm (length) |
| Weight: | 585 g |
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I recently swapped my AF Tamron SP 20-40/2.7-3.5 for the AF Nikkor 20-35/2.8 D. As I stated in my subjective evaluation of the Tamron wideangle zoom, I didn't like very much its slightly green color rendition.
The AF Nikkor 20-35/2.8 D is a solidly built lens, addressed to professional photographers. A non-rotating front is a further benefit. Thanks to the hand-ground aspherical front element, this zoom ensures a good optical performance with thorough compensation of barrel distorsion. Like most wideangle AF zooms, it employs an Internal Focusing (IF) mechanism which leads to a faster AF response. The complex multi-element design of this lens can give rise to ghosting when pointed towards the sun. In particular conditions, an orange-coloured spot can appear (click here to see a counterlight shot).
The colour rendition of this lens is simply awesome. Sharpness is very good at all focal lenghts in the central areas of the image. As Bjørn Rørslett clearly explains in his Web site, this lens suffers a certain amount of colour fringing outside the plane of focus, which can be attributed to the IF design. The lack of concurrent focus for the primary colours leads to a visible fuzziness in the depth-of-field (DOF) zone. The Tamron behaviour was better, because that lens exhibited a slightly higher sharpness within the DOF zone. This fact is probably due to the different design of the Tamron lens, which employs two Hybrid Aspheric elements.
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Caldara di Manziana
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Val Fondillo (Abruzzi National Park)
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Basilica of S. Paolo (Rome)
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Basilica of S. Paolo (Rome)
All images © Copyright 2000 Riccardo Polini