fmw
No longer a newbie, moving up!
It is. Even more expensive is the 14 but I never really liked that lens. I wasn't as straight as the 18. I enjoyed the 16 fisheye as well. Barrel distortion to the point of being fun. In the film days I never had a wide angle zoom so I have no experience with them. I have a 12-24 f4 DX zoom for my current system and it is a pretty good performer if you ever use your camera in DX mode. I would imagine the FX equivalent would be another good option.
If I remember right, I think the 18 2.8D was Nikon's first aspherical lens?
I don't know. You could be right. It certainly was one of the company's best wide angle designs. It ranks up there with classics like the 105 f2.5 and 24 f2.8 in terms of performance if not price.