Wide ‘n Fast

The other day I was in at Henry’s Outlet Centre and while I was completing the transaction lens for a tele lens I had just purchased, I listened in to the conversation between a customer and a Henry’s salesperson.  The customer wanted a fast wide angle prime at a decent price for his Nikon D80.  As he wasn’t so sure about the fast Sigma primes (order only anyway) he was wondering what else is available.

Unfortunately, there’s nothing.  Sure you can get FX wide angle AF primes, but at f2.8, they’re not that fast.  The Nikon 35mm f1.8 is a standard lens on DX, and none of the fast MF Nikon glass is completely compatible with a D80.  The Nikon 24mm f1.4 is very nice, but it’s ridiculously expensive.

There are two other fast wide manual focus options; the Carl Zeiss 25mm f2 and the Samyang 24mm f1.4.  Sure MF can be a pain in the butt, and both these lenses are relatively large; but they are fully compatible with the D80 and, in the case of the Samyang, quite affordable.

So, the Samyang would be my pick, but I am quite happy with the Sigma 20mm f1.8 I have.

Edward Gardens blossom, Nikon D700 with Sigma 20mm f1.8 @ f1.8

The Second Camera Upgrade Story

Some time back I bought a Nikon D50 body as a second DSLR body that I could take travelling or use if anything happened to the D2X.  It was cheap ($200) so I wasn’t worried sick that it might get stolen in a foreign country and it was also light.  The thing I didn’t like was the small screen.  Usually it was paired to the Nikon 18-135mm which I also didn’t pay a lot for, and is a handy all round lens.

About a year later a cheap D80 body came up, which I happily used for a while until the seller of the Sigma 20mm f1.8 said he was interested in a D80 as a trade.  So I needed another back up body.  I managed to locate an open box D90 for a very reasonable price, and suddenly the cheap D50 became a D90.

Nikon D90 with Nikon 18-135mm lens at 135mm, f8.

Last week I did a trade with a guy and got a Nikon 18-200mm VR II and said goodbye to the Nikon 18-135mm all in one deal.  So now my cheap back up camera and lens combo went from being worth about $350 to about $1350.  Mmmm.

Right now as I don’t have a nice full frame camera, it’s not a big issue.   However with this value of camera gear, I am not sure I will be 100% comfortable taking this on a trip; despite it being perfectly set up as an all in one travel package.

I haven’t really given the 18-200mm a trial run yet.  It will be interesting to see if it has as much, or indeed more distortion than the 18-135mm, which has lots of barrel distortion at 18mm, and pin cushion distortion past 30mm.  Here’s an example of the pin cushion distortion at 38mm – check the bridge at the top of the picture sinking in the middle.

Nikon D90 with Nikon 18-135mm lens at 38mm, f8.