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Adding a fast wide to a Nikon set for S35


HockeyFan12
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I should know the answer to this!

I'm shooting S35 and my daily drivers are a set of f1.8/f2.0 Nikkors. They're great. I mostly went with the oldest ones I could. Single coated, longer focus throw, whatever. Lower contrast and vintage is my preferred look. For this at least.

But I sold my 18mm f3.5 because it was too slow and the look didn't have the magic. 

I'm on EF mount so no speed booster for me. :(

Debating between the 20mm f2.8, 20mm f3.5 UD (I love the look of this on Flickr), and 16mm f2 Rokinon and 20mm f1.8 Sigma EX. Sigma Art is too modern to intercut. 

I have owned a few Rokinons and they are all a bit different. I would expect the 16mm to perform too well to intercut with its fancy design and had at first dismissed it. I also mostly have 72mm filters and would need a step down ring, but I think I've read it can work with one. And I saw a video shot with one and mistook it for something older, so now I'm not as sure...

Anyone got any (non-snarky, please) feedback or ideas? The 20mm f3.5 UD is in the lead right now. Back when I started this set I had a t2i and was limited to around 640 ISO tops so the depth of field is more for look than speed, I suppose, odd as that seems to me.

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Yeah, I have the tokina 11-16 and it has served me very well. It's the champ of fast wide angle lenses

With that said I STILL sometimes almost upgrade to the 11-20. The range it provides is amazing and the price is great.

It is 82mm front thread though if that means anything, but it can be had really cheap used. Same thing with the 11-16, which is 77mm front filter thread.

I have the 20mm 2.8 and like it, but to be honest with the Nikkors I like the 18mm 3.5 more. The aperture never really bothered me on that one. (Mine are all AIS)

If you're after something fast tokina also makes a cheap 14-20mm f/2.0 which is pretty interesting and cheap too, though I think it's an 82mm front filter too

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Thanks. I've owned the 11-16mm and 11-20mm and while the color matched and sharpness was great, I didn't find either intercut well with the old Nikkors. 

Will go with the 20mm f3.5 UD. Not a perfect option, but cheap at least, and seems to have a very "vintage" look. (Is this just a euphemism for bad performance?)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've owned the Nikkor 20mm 2.8 AIS along with the AIS versions of the 28mm 2.8, 35mm 2.8, 50mm 2.8, 55mm 2.8 micro, 85mm 1.8 and Nikon 135mm 2.8. They are all of the same period and some are still sold new.  I think they are generally 7 bladed diaphragms with 52mm front diameters, except for the 20mm which has a 62mm. 

They all match really well color wise / neutral - warmish and are very sharp.  Probably not any sharper than the AI versions but sharper as you go to the 135mm.  Distortion is well controlled on all mentioned lenses too.  

I think maybe only vintage feeling in that they flare and lose contrast wide open towards the sun, they look good doing so.  I used them on a Blackmagic Production camera 4k several years ago and now they mostly live on my Nikon F6 for black and white stills.  

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On 6/5/2020 at 1:33 AM, homestar_kevin said:

Yeah, I have the tokina 11-16 and it has served me very well. It's the champ of fast wide angle lenses

With that said I STILL sometimes almost upgrade to the 11-20. The range it provides is amazing and the price is great.

Yeah that extra 4mm is really significant for an UWA lens. 

Is nice to know that if I changed from say the 18-35mm over to a 11-20mm, that if I had a change of heart about the FoV and wanted to go back to 18mm (or even 20mm) that I could do this without having to waste time on yet another lens change!

So I do really want the 11-20, but then again my 11-16 still "does the job" so I'm not spending any extra money at the moment for now 

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7 hours ago, IronFilm said:

Yeah that extra 4mm is really significant for an UWA lens. 

Is nice to know that if I changed from say the 18-35mm over to a 11-20mm, that if I had a change of heart about the FoV and wanted to go back to 18mm (or even 20mm) that I could do this without having to waste time on yet another lens change!

So I do really want the 11-20, but then again my 11-16 still "does the job" so I'm not spending any extra money at the moment for now 

I'm in the same place. The ability to go to 20 is huge! A friend bought the sigma 10-20mm 3.5 years ago when I bought the 11-16mm and the ability to get to 20 made me really envious of that lens. It makes a huge difference to be able to go from Ultrawide to just wide. They 11-20's are getting so cheap now too that I'm sure I'll buy one over the course of the next year or so, but for now the 11-16 has just been so good to me I have no reason to change it. If I start shooting something a bit more run and gun the 11-20 would be on my short list of things to buy

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