Nikkor 18mm f4

milescl

milescl

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Who likes using the Nikkor 18mm f4 with their Nikon SLR? Who prefers a different lens in the 16-20mm range?

Considering acquiring one for my new-to-me FE and haven’t found too many film centric reviews/insights of this lens.

Thanks for your time and thoughts!
 
milescl said:
Who likes using the Nikkor 18mm f4 with their Nikon SLR? Who prefers a different lens in the 16-20mm range?

Considering acquiring one for my new-to-me FE and haven’t found too many film centric reviews/insights of this lens.

Thanks for your time and thoughts!
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It's a cool lens, & i was using Nikon when it came out..... but the large filter size, larger overall size and high cost at the time made me go with the 20mm 2.8. A good pro photog friend of mine still has one. But they were the envy lens when they were first released.
 
Optical perfection but big and expensive: Zeiss ZF 21 mm Distagon.
Affordable Compactness with compromises: Nikkor 3.5/20 mm AI(s)
Middleground: 2.8/20 mm AIs.
 
skahde said:
Optical perfection but big and expensive: Zeiss ZF 21 mm Distagon.
Affordable Compactness with compromises: Nikkor 3.5/20 mm AI(s)
Middleground: 2.8/20 mm AIs.
Click to expand...
I unfortunately never shot with any of the Nikkor 18’s. I had a 15-3.5 and 20-2.8 but had thought about picking up an 18-4.

You mentioned the 20mm f3.5 Ai(s) which I have and have used a great deal on digital bodies. Stopped down to f8 it’s not bad but at wider apertures my copy isn’t anything to brag about. Several years ago I came across one of the original 20mm f3.5 lenses that takes the 72mm filter, think it’s 72, in like new condition with a factory AI conversion. I used several copies of that lens in the film days and never felt it was all that good but trying it on a digital body I was blown away. I absolutely blew the newer AIs version (52mm filter) out of the water. It’s so good I’ve thought about selling my newer 3.5. Even wide open it’s darn good.
 
This is an exotic lens. I have never had any exceptional Nikkor wide angle lenses but I have the 21/4 that I sometimes use with the F2.
 
Nikon has made some very fine wides. For the time the original 20 was ground breaking. As mentioned the 18 f4, the 35mm f2 and f1.4 were exceptional when they were introduced and the 28mm f2 and especially the 28mm AF D 1.4 is exceptional by todays standards. Also the 24mm f2.8 is a superb lens especially the last AIs manual focus version. (The 24 has gone through three distinctly different formulations before the AF versions came out.)

Edit: Another lens that has evolved through several reformulations is the 28mm f2.8 AIs. The non AI, AI, AIs and AF versions are all different formulas with the AIs being exceptional.

I and most professionals would say the new Nikkor prime wides are very exceptional. These are crazy good lenses by anyone’s standards.

Through the last 10 years before retiring I use Nikkor prime manual focus lenses on my digital cameras because I like the smoother tonality. I carried a full set from 20 to 135 and can say some of the glass is exceptional.
 
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I had both the 18mm and the16mm. Long time ago I sold the 18mm and came to regret it. You need to own both. While 2mm difference in lengths seem insignificant they are both are extremely different lenses.
 
The Zeiss ZF.2 18/3.5 is really nice but it's a hard lens for me to manually focus. Mainly I found I could zone focus much better than I could depend on my eyes and the focus confirmation dot. And despite the bad reviews online, the 18-35/3.5-4.5 AF-D Nikkor is not really that bad unless you're a pixel-inspector who demands wall-to-wall high sharpness at wide apertures.
 
I had one of the Nikkor 18mm f/4 lenses for a while, I think an AI-S version, and it was quite nice. I sold it when I acquired the Leitz Elmarit-R 19mm f/2.8 v1, which was just that hair more what I wanted at that time. That's long gone too, now ... but both were excellent lenses!

Currently have Voigtländer HyperWide 10mm f/5.6 and Color-Skopar 21mm f/3.5 at the widest end of my lens kit, intended for use on Leica M-mount bodies.
 
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