best single-focal-length wide Nikkor?

On 2008-03-20 13:58:58 -0700, "David Ruether" said:


"Tully Albrecht" wrote in message
news:2008032009394216807%tullyalbrecht@coxnet...
On 2008-03-19 22:37:32 -0700, Paul Furman said:
Tully Albrecht wrote:

Back, again...;-)

Now that I've (finally) decided to stay with one F100 and one D200,
I've unloaded all my G-type lenses except for the two I use most.*

After I get the 85/1.4,

(See my earlier post about that...)

I'll be well-supplied at the tele end. I'm going to be looking at a
good-quality wide-angle that can do double duty. That's why I'm ruling
out the 10.5 and the 12-24, both good lenses on the digital but not on
the 35 mm.

So-so on the digital end, alas...

I have a 24 which I'm very satisfied with, and looking for input from
anyone who has a few hours on the 14, the 16 or the 18.

Any recommendations or warnings about these?

(See posts above...)

I should have mentioned that I'm only buying AF lenses now. The eye
thing has progressed to the point that I can only do manual focusing
with a 6x magnifying finder. This is fine as frog's hair for slow,
deliberate shooting (e.g with the bellows set-up).

I would reconsider this for lenses 20mm and shorter since they
are very easy to scale focus accurately, at least at distances
beyond about 3' (BTW, I do not trust the [difficult to use and
distracting] electronic rangefinder...). I find AF for macro work
useless most of the time.

I agree with two of the above points (electronic rangefinder and MF for
macro). As to scale focusing, I love to put something in the foreground
and use AF to get it sharp. I guess I'm too senile to deal with
bracketing to experiment with DOF, AND exposure bracketing, AND
twirling the focus ring manually. Who knows, I may re-think the whole
plan as it relates to WA lenses. I've been hip-deep in Photoshop today.
For an interesting diversion, see the post I'm about to pit up about UV
filters. Please offer feedback on my RAW conversions.

Thanks for those links to your published essays. I skimmed one of them
earlier (I like your writing), and will read all carefully.

--DR


--
"Our ignorance is not so vast as our failure to use what we know."