The lens was delivered somewhat carelessly packed. The build quality seems very good. The built-in plastic portions act wertig, focusing is performed over a tired running, grip adjustment. The aperture ring can be moved without hakeln. I would be delighted if Nikon would deliver its consumer lenses in this quality!
Now the objective test. The Nikon D700 is mounted on a tripod, mirror lockup.
First test series first photographed at close range. The illustrated bricks and joints are sharply imaged on the entire image, at f 2.8. Only in the extreme corners of the image looks a bit softer. In Aperture 4.0, it comes once more to quality improvement: the image is sharp crack-up to the edge and sharp to the corners. Chromatic aberration I can not determine. Significant distortion, exactly as described in many internet reports.
Second series of tests, focusing means focusing ring to infinity. Results were completely blurred images!
Third test series: this time is focused not on the focusing ring, but about the focus confirmation light in the camera. Result: at aperture 2.8, 4.5 and 5.6 blurry images in Aperture eight sharpness across the entire image extension!
How can that be?
1. at AF and modern mechanical lenses on a digital camera, there is no fixed point for the infinity setting. That is, you can defocus when focusing beyond infinity. This is a fundamental Phämomen - even when other lenses!
2. Focusing on the small screen of the viewfinder does not work in such lenses, of course.
3. The focus indicator in the camera can be deceiving, and there may be a focus error!
Fourth series of tests: When set to 3 m and Aperture 2.8, I then the same image quality as the brick wall - excellent at f 2.8 and very good at f 5.6 - over the whole picture!
Thus, would then have been living: Set to 3 m and it has at f 2.8 and 14 mm focal length of about 3 m to infinity depth of field. This increases even in dim.
However, I would have preferred a proper indicator Focus!
Using least cosmonaut focus detector [...], two test shots and the AF fine tuning (-20) in the D700 is corrected the problem.
Now everything is right. In manual focus, the focus point will light up when the distance marker is reached at 3 m - as previously tested. Also in the vicinity correct focusing.
Now actually remained correct only the distortion and vignetting (as with all super wide angle lenses !!). No problem! This goes automatically in Lightroom when importing images via the lens profile.
This profile you have to download the Adobe Lens Profile Downloader. This program can be found at [...]
After downloading, it is then the next time you start Lightroom available.
For 350 you get a super-wide angle, the optical quality of 14 mm focal length is at least as good as the expensive 1500.00 Nikon 2,8 / 14-24 mm. It is also much smaller and weighs only half - what one appreciates grateful when traveling.
