Switching to Nikon, let's talk lenses

No, I won't bother you with why I am switching or what camera is best, I am getting the D800

I primarily am into street photography and capturing the moment and prefer primes (28, 35, 50, 85). My favorite canon lens was the 35L and it did me well for a long time my current eyeball is on the 35 1.4G. I am going to be a first time Nikon shooter and researched this lens extensively and have read a lot about how the CA, fringing, and focus speed were dreadful on the 35 f/1.4g. This would not be a huge deal breaker for me because a lot of that can be fixed in post (and I shoot mostly b&w) but wanted to hear experiences from people here. especially about focus speeds because that DOES concern me.

The 24mm version seems to not have as many quirks but 24mm is a little too wide for my taste. I have considered going MF with maybe a 35 or 40 Zeiss but like the ability to use AF (especially in low light with my eyes).

The 24-70 f/2.8G is similarly priced to the 35mm but just looks to big and bulky for my style and I don't think I'd want it to be an everyday lens (but certainly a great travel lens). The 50mm will def. be purchased and from what I've read the 85mm 1.8 bares no real difference from the 1.4 quality/ sharpness wise.

That and it really is strange to me that Nikon doesn't have a set of f/1.2G AF lenses. That and the price differences are a point of topic as well. The 35L is a good $300 cheaper than the Nikon equivalent.

KyleChx said:

No, I won't bother you with why I am switching or what camera is best, I am getting the D800

I primarily am into street photography and capturing the moment and prefer primes (28, 35, 50, 85). My favorite canon lens was the 35L and it did me well for a long time my current eyeball is on the 35 1.4G. I am going to be a first time Nikon shooter and researched this lens extensively and have read a lot about how the CA, fringing, and focus speed were dreadful on the 35 f/1.4g. This would not be a huge deal breaker for me because a lot of that can be fixed in post (and I shoot mostly b&w) but wanted to hear experiences from people here. especially about focus speeds because that DOES concern me.

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The new AF on the D4/D800 will blow you away. Just got the D4. It is far and away the best I've ever seen on any camera. It is uncanny at 3D tracking.

KyleChx said:

The 24mm version seems to not have as many quirks but 24mm is a little too wide for my taste. I have considered going MF with maybe a 35 or 40 Zeiss but like the ability to use AF (especially in low light with my eyes).

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This new AF will acquire very dark subjects and gains about 1EV on the earlier AF models.

KyleChx said:

The 24-70 f/2.8G is similarly priced to the 35mm but just looks to big and bulky for my style and I don't think I'd want it to be an everyday lens (but certainly a great travel lens). The 50mm will def. be purchased and from what I've read the 85mm 1.8 bares no real difference from the 1.4 quality/ sharpness wise.

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I just got the 85/1.8. The 85/1.4 is actually a fair bit sharper at f/4-5.6 across the frame. But the 85/1.8G is much improved in every sense over the old 85/1.8D, including bokeh and sharpness, and is now a great modern lens.

The 24-70 is wonderfully sharp, about as sharp as they get today. But like every zoom lens, it has bad bokeh and some distortion.

24mm F1.4G and 35mm F1.4G are not the fastest focusing lenses but they are extremely precise! This is essential if you are shooting wide open and/or in low light.

Nikon doesn't have any modern F1.2 lenses but in my opinion I wouldn't shell more $$$ if they were offered, mainly because DOF is to shallow or just upping the ISO a bit will suffice.

So the fall outs of the 35mm speed from reviewers was due to the cameras and not the internal focusing motors?

And I figured as much for the 24-70. It is just so big!

I am looking forward to the D800. Hope mine ships this week!

Luke Kaven said:

The new AF on the D4/D800 will blow you away. Just got the D4. It is far and away the best I've ever seen on any camera. It is uncanny at 3D tracking.

I just got the 85/1.8. The 85/1.4 is actually a fair bit sharper at f/4-5.6 across the frame. But the 85/1.8G is much improved in every sense over the old 85/1.8D, including bokeh and sharpness, and is now a great modern lens.

The 24-70 is wonderfully sharp, about as sharp as they get today. But like every zoom lens, it has bad bokeh and some distortion.

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Luke Kaven said:

The new AF on the D4/D800 will blow you away. Just got the D4. It is far and away the best I've ever seen on any camera. It is uncanny at 3D tracking.

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Do you see any difference in the accuracy of the new AF? For a D800 to take advantage of 36mp Nikon needs to have an AF that is spot on.

That I do like to here. I would sacrifice a little speed for sharpness. That was the one downfall of my 35L. It sometimes would be slightly off (but never enough to be a deal breaker).

DaniDR said:

24mm F1.4G and 35mm F1.4G are not the fastest focusing lenses but they are extremely precise! This is essential if you are shooting wide open and/or in low light.

Nikon doesn't have any modern F1.2 lenses but in my opinion I wouldn't shell more $$$ if they were offered, mainly because DOF is to shallow or just upping the ISO a bit will suffice.

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KyleChx said:

So the fall outs of the 35mm speed from reviewers was due to the cameras and not the internal focusing motors?

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I don't know how this will affect speeds in every sense, but I can say that the speed of acquisition and tracking is dramatically improved. This should benefit everyone in some measure.

If you like doing street work, this will pick up a fast moving subject and track it around the frame as if it "sees" it.

KyleChx said:

And I figured as much for the 24-70. It is just so big!

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The 24-70 is amazingly sharp from corner to corner even wide open. It really is an amazing lens. Apparently there were no compromises in optical design. But it goes a bit barrel at 70mm, and pincushion at 24-30. There just is no fixing the bokeh on a lens like this. But the sheer image quality often more than makes up for it.

KyleChx said:

I am looking forward to the D800. Hope mine ships this week!

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Me too.

KyleChx said:

Luke Kaven said:

The new AF on the D4/D800 will blow you away. Just got the D4. It is far and away the best I've ever seen on any camera. It is uncanny at 3D tracking.

I just got the 85/1.8. The 85/1.4 is actually a fair bit sharper at f/4-5.6 across the frame. But the 85/1.8G is much improved in every sense over the old 85/1.8D, including bokeh and sharpness, and is now a great modern lens.

The 24-70 is wonderfully sharp, about as sharp as they get today. But like every zoom lens, it has bad bokeh and some distortion.

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Kyle,
I would recommend taking a look at:
http://www.bythom.com/rationallenses.htm

Cheers, Surf

P.S.: The Zeiss 35 is a beautiful lens with great image quality and if you are used to MF the D800 has a great MF assist function with high accuracy.

Even though you'd like to use AF, I would still try for daylight photography at least for a few days a MF prime from either Voigtlander or Zeiss. I've used the Voigtlander 40mm on a D700 and felt it probably was the closest I could get to an ideal street / social / events photography camera within the constraints set by the D700. Zone focusing remains the fastest way to "focus", and that surely helps with this sort of photography. It doesn't cost a bomb as well, so if you have the opportunity to find one with the possibility to return it, I suggest you try it (or some other MF prime).

I can't really help you with Nikon AF lenses though. But I would steer clear of the big zooms - the D800 already is quite big and heavy, it might depending on your body language turn heads - therefore I wouldn't want to make people feel like I'm threatening them with a gigantic picture machine gun. I also think it's the surest way not to want to take your camera with you all the time - and after all the principle of street photography is that when the occasion's gone, it's gone forever.

electric eel said:

Luke Kaven said:

The new AF on the D4/D800 will blow you away. Just got the D4. It is far and away the best I've ever seen on any camera. It is uncanny at 3D tracking.

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Do you see any difference in the accuracy of the new AF? For a D800 to take advantage of 36mp Nikon needs to have an AF that is spot on.

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Marianne noted that the AF on the D3x would work a little harder than the AF on the D3, for those kinds of reasons. I think that Nikon, when it designed the new AF, understood that they were moving into higher resolutions.

I can say that the combo D4 and 85/1.8g that I got are giving exact focus.

I believe this camera knows how to track an eyeball with more confidence than its predecessior by quite a bit.

Yea I was looking at the Voigtländer 40mm f/2 and really like the lens. I've not had much experience with that focal length but it interests me with it being right between the 35s and 50s. And with how cheap they are I could get it and some cheaper AF primes or a mid range zoom and it.

Now I wonder how I can get a hand on one to test.

MayaTlab0 said:

Even though you'd like to use AF, I would still try for daylight photography at least for a few days a MF prime from either Voigtlander or Zeiss. I've used the Voigtlander 40mm on a D700 and felt it probably was the closest I could get to an ideal street / social / events photography camera within the constraints set by the D700. Zone focusing remains the fastest way to "focus", and that surely helps with this sort of photography. It doesn't cost a bomb as well, so if you have the opportunity to find one with the possibility to return it, I suggest you try it (or some other MF prime).

I can't really help you with Nikon AF lenses though. But I would steer clear of the big zooms - the D800 already is quite big and heavy, it might depending on your body language turn heads - therefore I wouldn't want to make people feel like I'm threatening them with a gigantic picture machine gun. I also think it's the surest way not to want to take your camera with you all the time - and after all the principle of street photography is that when the occasion's gone, it's gone forever.

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I have the 24G and it's almost perfect IMHO. but if your into street photos, I think the 35G is the one for you. at this stage, no need to look back what canon got. just take advantage of what Nikon got.

DaniDR said:

24mm F1.4G and 35mm F1.4G are not the fastest focusing lenses but they are extremely precise! This is essential if you are shooting wide open and/or in low light.

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You are very lucky if your copies of the 24mm and 35mm are precise at 1.4. I had to fine tune them on my D3S. No exceptions. Even the 85mm 1.4G. They all needed AF tuning.

Super super happy with them and recommend them, but that was not the case out of the box.

I would be interested to know more about whether you also had to AF fine tune them and by how much.

Since your primary interest is street photography please explain why you care about fast lenses and AF speed?

For street work with a FX sensor wouldn't the DOF using a 50 mm lens at f 2 to f 4 provide an reasonable compromise between subject isolation and focus? Higher apertures are more common and just make AF performance less important.

AF speed is basically irrelevant for street work. For decades spectacular street work was done using manual focus lenses which are much slower to focus than Nikon's slowest AF-lens combination.

Night time photography is more difficult of course. But for B&W ISO 3200 will get th job done.

I never used a Canon. I do know from first hand experience the D200, 300 and 700 AF with any modern Nikon prime makes the technicsl aspects of street photography straightforward in the hands of a photographer experienced in how to best set the AF parameters for street work.

wchutt said:

Since your primary interest is street photography please explain why you care about fast lenses and AF speed?

For street work with a FX sensor wouldn't the DOF using a 50 mm lens at f 2 to f 4 provide an reasonable compromise between subject isolation and focus? Higher apertures are more common and just make AF performance less important.

AF speed is basically irrelevant for street work. For decades spectacular street work was done using manual focus lenses which are much slower to focus than Nikon's slowest AF-lens combination.

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Well, often the f/1.4 lens at f/2 is better than the f/2 lens wide open. I hope Nikon will continue to come out with f/1.8 primes.

AF speed and tracking can only benefit street work. I know most of the great work was done with a hyperfocal setting. But you have the tools to get the focus now as well. This can only be better. The new AF is the best yet.

I didn't need to fine tune the 24mm G, It was tack sharp since day 1. I don't find it difficult to fine tune primes. By 85D and 50G lenses were a bit off but adjusted them a little bit in a few minutes and have been excellent since then.

I put more interest in focus accuracy than in speed. Specially with the F1.4 primes. I actually like the new G 24, 35, 50 and 85 lenses, the focus slower than the D versions but they are far better in accuracy.

But honestly the best focusing lens I have right now is the 70-200VR2. It's both lighting fast and nails it pretty much every time!

Luke Kaven said:

The 24-70 ... goes a bit barrel at 70mm, and pincushion at 24-30.

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Correction, meant to say that it goes barrel at 24-30mm and pincushion at 70mm. Trying to do portraits at 70mm with slight pincushion looks a bit odd.

This reason exactly.

That and I do use the higher apertures at night time. Yea yea yea, F/8 and be there but sometimes at night or in the city ISO has to dive a little high and like the ability to keep my ISO low.

That and sometimes I've gotten shots that are pretty close to my subjects and when street work is done right with a fast setting it is pretty neat.

Luke Kaven said:

wchutt said:

Since your primary interest is street photography please explain why you care about fast lenses and AF speed?

For street work with a FX sensor wouldn't the DOF using a 50 mm lens at f 2 to f 4 provide an reasonable compromise between subject isolation and focus? Higher apertures are more common and just make AF performance less important.

AF speed is basically irrelevant for street work. For decades spectacular street work was done using manual focus lenses which are much slower to focus than Nikon's slowest AF-lens combination.

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Well, often the f/1.4 lens at f/2 is better than the f/2 lens wide open. I hope Nikon will continue to come out with f/1.8 primes.

AF speed and tracking can only benefit street work. I know most of the great work was done with a hyperfocal setting. But you have the tools to get the focus now as well. This can only be better. The new AF is the best yet.

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Luke Kaven said:

Well, often the f/1.4 lens at f/2 is better than the f/2 lens wide open. I hope Nikon will continue to come out with f/1.8 primes.

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And by f 5.6 you can't tell the difference. For street work is the size weight increase worth the trivial performance increase at f 2?

Luke Kaven said:

AF speed and tracking can only benefit street work. I know most of the great work was done with a hyperfocal setting. But you have the tools to get the focus now as well. This can only be better. The new AF is the best yet.

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But is the realized benefit worth the difference in cost and size compared to any Nikon D camera body since the D200? In my experience it's not.