Nikon’s 24mm f2.8 AFD vs Nikon’s 18-105mm

in Blog by AndreiSE — February 5, 2011 at 16:29 | 0 comments | Next Post | Previous Post

Until recently, my only lenses have been the Nikkor 18-105mm and the Nikkor 50mm 1.8 AIS manual. What I was really missing was a fast lens for indoor shots, where the 50mm is too long on a cropped sensor. Thus, to take in the whole room, or at least several people, I needed something much wider. Thus, I decided on the 24mm f1.8 AFD lens. As it turned out, the choice was excellent. Coupled with a flash, like the SB-600, this lens is an excellent investment for indoor group shots at holidays, parties, etc. I did consider the 35mm/1.8 as well, but I had the chance to test it once when I rented it for a photoshoot, and I didn’t think the difference was significant enough from the 50mm for the tight indoor rooms.

Now, once I got over the excitement of using the new lens over the holidays, I decided to test it out for landscape photography as well. First of all, I should mention that I shoot RAW exclusively. This means that the camera does not apply the typical adjustments on the resulting pics, the way it does to the JPEG images. The test was a shot outside my backyard, with a view of the sky, trees, and some houses. This provided a good amount of detail and contrast for the test. With the thought that a prime lens must be automatically of better quality than non pro zoom lenses, I decided to compare it against my 18-105 zoom lens. I used a tripod, manual mode and set the exact same settings for both lenses, with the aperture set to f11. Imagine then my surprise when I compared the results.

First of all, the barrel distortion on the 24 prime was definitely much better than the zoom lens, which is to be expected. In fact, the distortion was nearly insignificant, and I wouldn’t even bother trying to correct it in Photoshop or Lightroom. This was definitely a plus.

In terms of sharpness, the lens was definitely quite sharp, across most of the picture. However, to my surprise, the zoom lens was at least as sharp, if not even more so. To be honest, I thought the zoom had slightly better detail closer to the center.

The biggest surprise then came when I saw the significant Chromatic Aberration in the 24mm prime photo. Not only was it significant, but it was clearly visible without even the need to zoom into the picture. The zoom lens was definitely better in this regard. As it turns out, the CA is something that gets fixed automatically by some of these newer cameras, but only in the JPEG pics. If I shoot RAW, I need to fix it in Photoshop or Lightroom’s RAW Lens Correction control. It’s a straight-forward step, and Adobe has provided a profile for the 24mm prime which works perfectly in this regard (although Adobe does not provide a profile for my other 18-105mm lens, which is very odd, and had to use a custom one).

In terms of colour and contrast, there is a subtle difference as the 24mm prime seems to have slightly more contrast and very slightly better colours. This may be a little more obvious with under differnt situations. However, this level of difference isn’t anything that can’t be duplicated in Photoshop/Lightroom.

Here’s a link to the two RAW files for comparison.

In conclusion, it turns out that my nikon 18-105mm zoom lens is quite a capable contender. I used it to shoot most of the portraits on my site, and it’s definitely a very sharp lens when stopped down a bit. Until I can afford the pro glass, I will also stick with this zoom for landscape shots, especially as I can go lower than 24mm, which makes a big difference on the cropped sensor of the D90. I even compared it against my 50mm prime, and the zoom sharpness is definitely of excellent quality. The only downsides to this lens are the cheaper plastic construction, the slightly higher barrel distortion, and of course, the small maximum aperture which makes it useless in low light. However, none of these are serious problems for landscape tripod shooting or studio photography for most situations (assuming you’re careful with the equipment).