AIS 16 mm f/2.8

The full-format fisheye provides an uncommon spherical perspective. With a 180° picture angle this lens is employed to achieve dramatic effects due to its "unreal" distorsion. The first Nikon full-frame fisheye was the 16/3.5 of 1973. A really compact lens with 170° picture angle. Two years later, the AI version was introduced. In 1979 the AI 16/2.8 replaced the f/3.5 model, with an increased angle to 180°. In 1982 this 8 elements (5 groups) design was converted to the AI-S mount. In 1993 the AF version of this lens was introduced.

I have tested it by taking pictures of my city. As usual, I have put the developed slides (Astia, Provia 100 and Provia 100 F) on the light-table and evaluated them by a 8X loupe. Well, the performance at f/2.8 did not convince me. The borders are rather soft; central image sharpness is better. Therefore, I do not recommend you to use this lens wide open. Borders' sharpness slightly increases at f/4, but to have even image sharpness the lens must be stopped down to f/8-f/11. In counterlight shots, flare is extremely well controlled and ghosting normally is negligible.

As stated by David Ruether in his Subjective Evaluations of Nikon lenses, the 16/2.8 works very well with TC-14A by f/5.6. I wish to confirm that the image quality of the resulting super-wideangle lens is rather good, with even center to corner performance when the fisheye is stopped down to f/8 (real aperture = f/11). The angle of view of the 16+1.4X is slightly larger than the 94 degrees of the 20 mm.

The 16/2.8 can provide interesting landscape images in the field.

Rio Cannas (Sarrabus - Sardinia)

Campo Imperatore (Abruzzi - Italy)

Lake of Scandarello (Laga Mountains - Italy)

Laga Mountains (Abruzzi - Italy)

All images © Copyright Riccardo Polini