(*Disclaimer* this is a post intended for my fellow photogs out there. If you are a bride and are wondering why the heck you are staring at a picture of a lens on a wedding photographers blog… Please don’t be alarmed, I am at a wedding convention geeking out with the good people of Nikon and there great products. Normal Programing will return to this blog soon. Please visit the website or scroll down a couple pages. )
Earlier today I posted a comment on twitter about this lens being a game changer for Nikon… and I have gotten many of the responses that I would expect when making a comment like that. One of the more common ones was, “why?” Well as many of you already know I am just a wedding photographer, I am not a optical guru or some kind of star product reviewer. I am pretty much just like you., and like many of you when it came time to buy my pro level camera to take my business to another level, I did my homework. I would have to say that when you do your homework for that kind of thing about 90% of the time you end up getting pointed to Canon with comments like “they have superior glass” or “they have the best prime selection”… and you know what? I think most of us take the bait, hook line and sinker. That is TOTALLY okay though, because it is the photographer that uses the camera to make an image, not the other way around, right? Not to mention the fact that there is a lot of truth behind the statement about canon’s lens quality, it is good stuff. The only problem is that most people stop there with their research and barely even graze over some of Nikon’s amazing offerings… I always guessed that this was due to the fact that less wedding photographers used Nikon than canon, so naturally there would be less buzz going around… That is all about to change. Mark my words, this new lens is going to give Nikon a huge lead in the world of wide angle primes. I have been lucky enough to have been using it for the last couple days and I am even more lucky to be having one arrive at my doorstop very soon here for continued use. I can promise you I have never worked with a more perfect lens in my entire life. It is about as close to flawless as you are going to get. It has no discernible distortion at the edges and it has some of the most beautiful creamy Bokeh I have ever laid my eyes upon. The auto focus is LIGHTING FAST and I have yet to have it miss even when I had it at our dimly lit dinner last night with the crew. It is also amazingly sharp… but I will get in to that on another post (I am going to put up some cropped in images with the originals next to them so you can see the incredible detail this lens picks up). If you do choose to manual focus, there is a easy manual switch on the barrel. Once you have clicked it over the focus ring spins smoothly and consistently. It does have a rather long pull but that makes it perfect for very small focus adjustments. Oh, and it loves to be shot wide open… I have rarely pulled this thing out of 1.4 the entire time I have had it, and I absolutely love it. In short it blows any other lens I have tried, directly out of the water.
This lens is going to be a “game changer” by truly evening the playing field. Nikon has plenty of wonderful primes, like the 85mm the 50mm and the little known but still amazing 135. But now Nikon shooters finally have a world class wide angle prime to call their own. It is also important to note that people beginning to take their photography more seriously will have a opportunity to weigh out which camera company they wish to support based on more factors than simply “the other guys have more primes”. If you have any specific questions about the piece of glass that I am currently in love with, please feel free to e-mail me or ask me on my social media profiles. I have a pretty cool in road with some absolutely brilliant people at Nikon and I would be very happy to get some solid answers for you.
I should have another post for you all in the morning or this evening with some more of the awesomeness I am experiencing here at WPPI… I might even have a couple important opinions that I need to express about Nikon as a company that might make you think a little.
