Nikon 14mm f/2.8D issue

[Sw1tchFX]

I know some here have used and/or own the 14-24, but I rented the 14mm prime for this weekend from Pro Photo Supply here in Portland.

I was doing some shooting yesterday and some night shooting earlier this morning and when I got home in the give or take 400 pictures I shot over the last 12 hours all had the same behavior with this 14mm lens:

A large area on the left of the frame, not on the edge, but towards the center is VERY soft, but the rest of it, even the corners are generally pretty sharp, albeit with color shifts.


I was wondering if anyone else on here noticed the same kind of behavior with the Nikkor 14mm. It's really disappointing because I was planning on using it to print about 24x36, but when there's a big soft spot on the left, it's kind of hard to do.

Camera used is a D700 and a very sturdy tripod and remote was being used.

EDIT: Top seems to be consistently soft too.. will post an example soon.

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[Sw1tchFX]

ok, here are the examples..

first,

Whole Image:



Center:



Left side of the picture, Top of the frame (if it were horizontal) Note how soft it is..




Bottom of the picture, Left of the frame (if it were horizontal), we're not really close to the edge and it's really soft compared to the center..




Far bottom of the frame (far left side if it were horizontal) See how it gets sharper again?






Either this rental copy has been used and abused to death or this lens flat out sucks. This is straight out of Adobe Camera RAW, lightly processed. that vignette isn't added and this was shot at f/5.6. My 24-120VR isn't even this lousy!!

Now I want to give it the benefit of the doubt and say its the rental copy being used to hell and back, but i don't know if this is normal behavior for this lens. I know the 14-24 is better, but I didn't think the prime was THIS bad.

[Sw1tchFX]

So I did some reading on Bjorn's site and he had similar behavior from his lens at f/5.6 just like this shot. If I had shot at f/4 or f/8 though, supposedly this wouldn't' have happened. It sounds like it's a weird field curvature, like the wierd color shifts and awkward full frame distortion on it.. i'll read more later, it's almost 5:30am and I have work later today..

[notelliot]

I don't know anyone that uses this lens, and I've no personal experience with it, but I've heard that it suffers from moderate corner softness throughout the aperture range. I've also heard of the colour shifting, but heard nothing about the the field curvature problems.
Silly, but needs to be ruled out - there isn't a smudge on the front element, left side is there? Maybe the rental is a lemon, or was juggled too much like you said. Seems odd.

[jstuedle]

I own this lens and frankly I either shoot it wide open for live bands or stopped down to 8 or smaller for landscaping. I have not noticed this and have shot it extensively. But as I said not often at this aperture. I'll watch for it the next time out with it.