THE Essential Superwide Digital Lens

I agonized for weeks over which super-wide angle lens to buy for my Nikon DX systems and in the end I spent the extra money on this one and I'm happy to say that I'm not disappointed.

Back in my film days, one of my favorite lenses was the Nikon 20mm f/2.8. It was sharp as a tack with great depth of field and wide enough to capture the most expansive landscapes. I always wanted to be able to duplicate the field of view that I had with my 20mm on film and this lens does just that and more. There are a few minor issues worth mentioning, however, and I'll address these later. Let's start off with the good.

The Good

Quality Optics - This is a great piece of glass. The 12-24mm has 11 elements--2 of which are Extra-low Dispersion (ED) glass and 3 are molded aspherical--in 7 groups. What's all this mean? Just that Nikon's engineers have made a lens that is sharp at nearly all apertures (it starts to get a little soft at 12mm and f/11 and higher), has no noticeable light falloff at the edges at any focal length, and handles flare impressively with only minor ghosting when the light source is just outside the picture.

Fast Internal Focusing - The 12-24mm is an AF-S lens which means it has Nikon's ultrasonic Silent Wave Motor (SWM) built into the lens itself. It will move from just under one foot at its closest to infinity in a split second. You can automatically override to manual focusing just by grabbing the focus ring. And since it's focusing and zoom mechanisms are internal (IF), the front threat doesn't rotate and the lens length doesn't change. Great if you use graduated filters.

Compare this lens to other super-wide angle zooms currently available and you'll find that the only other lens that has built-in focusing is the Sigma. But with its poor build quality, I decided to avoid this lens. The Tokina and Tamron lenses don't have the internal focusing mechanism so it won't work on the newer D40 or D60 that lacks a focusing motor in the body.

No Vignetting - I put a normal 77mm UV filter on the front of this lens to protect that big front element and there is no vignetting even when stopped down to f/22. If you use a polarizer which is often thicker, I would recommend using a special wide-angle filter where the outer edge is actually larger than 77mm. Also, I use the slightly more expensive multi-coated filters for this lens to help prevent ghosting when shooting into light sources.

The Questionable

Decent Build Quality - Although not as good as other Nikon lenses, this lens is not bad and not great. The mount is entirely metal but much of the outside is a very tough plastic. Unlike other high-end Nikon lenses, there isn't a rubber seal on the outside of the mount to protect from ingress of water and dust. The supplied hood is also plastic and will likely be the first thing to break.

f/4 and not f/2.8? - As of April 2008, Tokina has come out with an 11-16mm f/2.8 that is arguably better that this lens in all aspects. Making this lens with a larger aperture would have given it better low-light performance and more versatile depth-of-field. Come on Nikon, you can do better.

Distortion - At its widest, 12mm, this lens exhibits a noticeable amount of barrel distortion (the middle of straight lines parallel to the frame edges bow towards the edges of the image) and from 20mm to 24mm there is slight amount of pincushion distortion (the middle of straight lines parallel to the frame edges bow inward). I put this minor defect under questionable because it really doesn't matter on a digital camera when this problem can be easily corrected in Nikon Capture NX or Photoshop CS3.

The Bad

The Cost - At over $900 discounted, the Nikon continues to be the most expensive wide-angle zoom available. The new Tokina I mentioned above should sell for $400 less than this lens when made available in the U.S. If you don't own the D40 or D60, you can get the Tokina 12-24mm or the Tamron 11-18mm for about $400 less. I wouldn't even consider the Sigma.

Size and Weight - Weighing in at over one pound (16.3 oz.) it's not the heaviest of the available super-wide zooms (the Tokina is over 20oz.) but it should even be lighter. After all, the G designation means that there isn't an aperture ring anymore which should eliminate some unnecessary weight. But at 3.5 inches long and 3.2 inches in diameter, it is the largest. And that's without the hood in place.

On-Camera Flash - When used with the on-camera flash, the size of the lens casts a shadow in the bottom of the image when used at focal lengths of 12mm to about 18mm. In addition, the flash also doesn't cover the entire image area and there is a slight amount of flash vignetting.

Conclusion

Given the excellent optics of this lens, there isn't anything questionable or bad about this lens that would prevent me from buying it. For its versatility, I can live with the size and weight. I typically use an SB-800 for flash photos and the lens distortion is easily corrected with software. If cost was an issue, you might want to consider the current 12-24mm f/4 Tokina or wait for the newer 11-16mm f/2.8 Tokina. But if you have the money, this is the lens to get.