Nikon 12-24mm f4 G AF-S IF-ED DX Lens

Comments about Nikon 12-24mm f4 G AF-S IF-ED DX Lens:

The best £[$] pounds I ever spent the lens is now 4 years old,and still looks like new after many adventures.Nikon have updated this unit with a f2.8.but I will not be tempted, at f4 it has given and given and now our bond is tight.

Comments about Nikon 12-24mm f4 G AF-S IF-ED DX Lens:

For a long time I never felt the need to invest in a dedicated landscape lens, I have owned an 18-200mm lens for several years and simply used the 18mm end as my landscape lens, however one day I decided I really wanted to improve my landscape photography and decided to take the plunge on an ultra-wide zoom lens for the purpose. Now I'm just sorry I didn't take the plunge years ago!

I settled on Nikon's older 12-24mm lens over the newer 10-24mm lens for a couple of reasons, the main one being the build. While neither lens are solid metal construction on par with Nikon's pro lenses, there is still a noticable difference between them. The 10-24mm lens has a front element that protrudes as it zooms, much like many of Nikon's cheaper zoom lenses, lending itself a point of structural vulnerability. By contrast the 12-24 features a solid outer barrel with just a small amount of lateral movement from an inner barrel, this inner barrel though never protrudes as far as the level of the outer one (so any filters you might add are untouched), to all intents and purposes it operates much like an internal zoom lens, giving it greater structural integrity

Equally, although you generally work at narrower apertures for landscape work, I simply prefer the idea of a fixed aperture lens over a variable one, so the F4 designation of the 12-24mm was more appealing to me than the F3.5-4.5 of the 10-24mm

Now, while the 10mm wide end would potentially be more flexible, I have so far found that 12mm is more than enough to get in as much as I could possibly want in a shot, it also has the beneficial side effect that at 12mm, with a wide angle holder it can take the Cokin P size slot in filters without causing vignetting, which made adding ND and ND grad filters to go with this lens a cheaper buying experience. I'm quite sure that 12mm (or more accurately 18mm when you take into account the crop factor) is right on the limit of how wide an angle can be accounted for with this size of filter

The zoom ring on this lens does feels a touch looser than my other zooms, but isn't bad by any stretch of the imagination and is certainly no cause for concern, I find myself rarely zooming anyway, I bought this lens for the wide end of it's range and it stays there most of the time, although being able to zoom in that little bit has it's uses at times

Image quality is of Nikon's typically high standards, I haven't, nor will I ever, do studio pixel peeping tests, what I can say though is that I have done a number of test shots in the real world and they've all looked great, sharp where it counts and with good contrast and colour rendition (although I more often than not still give my landscape shots a small contrast boost in post processing for a little more impact), absolutely no cause for complaint on the image quality front

Not a lot more really needs to be said from a technical point of view. The first time I took a throwaway test shot with this lens I was instantly impressed, most of my previous landscapes had always lacked a certain something and the extra field of view offered by this lens made me instantly realise the advantages of the ultra-wide angle, being able to get in so much more of a scene instantly gives a much greater sense of scale and avoids disappointing shots caused by a less wide angle clipping off half of what you can see. The other advantage to such a wide angle is that if you are putting focus on a particular subject in your scene, you can get closer to increase depth perception, which can make the shot look more dramatic.

As I said at the beginning of this review, I wish I'd taken the plunge on a proper wide angle lens years ago, between this and a few slot in filters, it's opened up a whole new range of photography that I'd been missing out on and I now can't recommend a lens like this highly enough

Comments about Nikon 12-24mm f4 G AF-S IF-ED DX Lens:

This is seriously wide, making it really versatile and valuable for when there's little room or you've got to get a lot in the shot; think press, weddings, events, architecture and some kinds of landscape. If you can get close enough, it's fantastic for wildlife too!

I particularly like the fact that the image quality is good right out to the edges and corners without excessive distortion or barrelling.

Just occasionally it would be good if it were f2.8 but really, for most purposes f4 is just great. Also, being f4 means it's really easy to carry around in a pocket, though the hood is quite wide.

Comments about Nikon 12-24mm f4 G AF-S IF-ED DX Lens:

Excellent wide angle zoom for the DX, sharp but does struggle at the corners at 12mm.. still better than most wide zooms even at this price.
My lens as had a hard life in the hills, often gets wet, and I have even dropped it in a river, still attached to the camera! both lens and Nikon D200 are fine.
I think if you shoot landscape and are planning on staying with the DX, then this is a very good investment.
Good build quality, fast auto focus, not too heavy, good for portrait at 24mm ( 36mm on DX ). still looks like new after almost 2 years hard use.