Is this lens supposed to be sharp ?
I agree with the other commenters who have this lens. It is
capable of very sharp images. I also have begun to use this lens
as the "walking around" lens on my D100. I found that the 20mm
f2.8's field of view was wonderful, but the perspective it creates,
with the floors falling away and the walls converging, was too wide
for general purpose and people pictures. Most of those who have
reviewed this lens on the various lens review web sites find it to
be a very good and very sharp lens, especially at f5.6 and above.
They also say good things about the 17-35 f2.8 zoom partly because
of how favorably it compares to this and the other primes in its
range.
One thought occurs to me about the apparent lack of sharpness of
your images. With "normal" in camera sharpening the D100's jpgs
tend to need some more USM in the post processing stage. Also the
effect of "normal" sharpening may vary from shot to shot or subject
matter to subject matter.
Many D100 owners have decided to shoot NEFs as a result of this jpg
sharpness issue (which was identified from the beginning by Phil
Askey, and has been killed to death and beyond on this forum). The
NEFs, for whatever reason, tend in some cases to be sharper right
out of the camera with normal or high sharpening, and tend to
accept additional sharpening in Capture 3 or Photoshop much more
readily. I have taken some jpgs that prove the exception to this
rule, but find day in and day out that the NEF format more likely
to yield the critically sharp images that I am looking for.
I hope this is helpful.
--
Bill Adams
D100, F100, F4s
Nikkor AF: 20 f2.8, 24 f2.8, 28-70 3.5-4.5, 35 f2, 50 f1.2 (AIS)
and 1.4, 60 f2.8, 70-210 f4, 105 f1.8 (AIS), 300 f4
