Nikkor 14-24 2.8 alternatives. Landscape lens

nerwin · Feb 22, 2018

B+W makes fantastic filters and LEE filters are awesome if you want to go the filter and holder route. Which for landscapes, I recommend because you get gradient filters so you can really fine tune your shot.

I'll be honest though, I don't even use filters. But I'll soon be investing in a nice LEE filter setup for my 20mm.

But for circular filters, I've owned a few B+W filters and they are fantastic. Awesome quality, I mean come on...they are made in Germany!

Derrel · Feb 22, 2018

zulu42 said:
Thank you again everyone for your help. I started looking real hard at the 18-35. With the reported image quality of that lens, I was willing to give up the vr, speed and focal range. Priced at $749 new at Adorama, I found an ebay seller advertising new USA full mfr warranty at buy it now or best offer. He accepted my $575 offer, and the lens has already shipped.

I actually expected to spend twice that amount, so the extra budget gets me a 105 2.8 micro from a forum member, and I'm getting ready to pull the trigger on a couple filters for the 18-35.

@Upadhyay , thanks for your input. You have some excellent photos on your facebook page!

With the 105/2.8 VR Micro~NIKKOR, you'll get a more-or-less lifetime (well, 20 to 30-years of use), solidly built, medium-length tele-macro lens with uber-high color saturation, Vibration Reduction, a high degree of microcontrast, and you have a pretty useful lens for a lot of selective angle of view stuff, be it landscape, scenic, portraiture, detail shots of all types,etc,.etc.. Sounds like a win-win kind of deal. PLUS, you will not have to pack around a pretty heavy wide zoom with f/2.8 max aperture when it's going to be shot at the smaller f/stops probably 90% of the time.

zulu42 · Feb 22, 2018

nerwin said:
B+W makes fantastic filters and LEE filters are awesome if you want to go the filter and holder route. Which for landscapes, I recommend because you get gradient filters so you can really fine tune your shot.

I'll be honest though, I don't even use filters. But I'll soon be investing in a nice LEE filter setup for my 20mm.

But for circular filters, I've owned a few B+W filters and they are fantastic. Awesome quality, I mean come on...they are made in Germany!

Those Lee sets are pretty awesome. I'll stick with screw ons for ease of use at this point.
You guys think those b&w filters are acceptable quality? I'll pay up on these filters as necessary, but if a $79 filter will give virtually the same image as a $179 filter...

JonA_CT · Feb 22, 2018

So I used a $40 10-stop ND filter on a few of the shots above. Does it color cast and vignette? Hell yeah. Does it take me longer than 3 minutes to fix those things in LR? Nope.

I’d probably spend more next time (A Lee Kit is in my GAS list), but I wouldn’t be scared of the cheaper options.

zulu42 · Feb 22, 2018

I went with a B+W XS Pro CPL and a B+W 106M 6 stop ND. Hopefully those will be a step up from the super cheap.
Not sure where the line is between "bad", "good" filters and "Boutique" filters.

Upadhyay · Feb 22, 2018

zulu42 said:
Thank you again everyone for your help. I started looking real hard at the 18-35. With the reported image quality of that lens, I was willing to give up the vr, speed and focal range. Priced at $749 new at Adorama, I found an ebay seller advertising new USA full mfr warranty at buy it now or best offer. He accepted my $575 offer, and the lens has already shipped.

I actually expected to spend twice that amount, so the extra budget gets me a 105 2.8 micro from a forum member, and I'm getting ready to pull the trigger on a couple filters for the 18-35.

@Upadhyay , thanks for your input. You have some excellent photos on your facebook page!

You are welcome and thank you for the compliment.

shadowlands · Feb 23, 2018

I bought a new "old stock" Tokina 17mm F3.5 prime. I don't go that wide, often, but I love having it in the bag when I do. Wide open, it's soft in the corners. F5.6 it's fine. F8, it's super sharp.

zulu42 · Feb 25, 2018

A couple of quick shots with the 18-35 1:3.5-4.5G for anyone interested. I haven't had a chance to really test it out, running the same shot through different apertures, etc.

Initially, to my novice eye: pretty sharp lens, very acceptable. I need to learn to focus it. Seems like pretty significant CA which removed easily in post. Seems like a keeper, at least for a while. The dark corners lower left and upper right I believe are the lens hood. May not have been fully rotated into place.

all SOOC (D800)
18mm ISO 200 f/8 1/100