Nikon finally gets a 24mm f/1.4

[Keith B]

I was really interested to hear that Nikon launched a 24mm f/1.4 this week (among other lenses):


AF-S Nikkor 24mm f/1.4G ED


I thought I would mention it here in case anyone else was waiting for Nikon to do something like this. The Canon 24mm f/1.4 is my favorite lens ever, and it's also the reason why I haven't switched to Nikon.

Lets see if they can come out with a lens better than the Canon 35 1.4. I guess we'll have to wait to see if the Nikon's 24 is as good as Canon's.


The 16-35 f/4 VR is interesting. I guess they figured VR was more valuable than f/2.8.

[Daniel Browning]

Lets see if they can come out with a lens better than the Canon 35 1.4. I guess we'll have to wait to see if the Nikon's 24 is as good as Canon's.

Hopefully this just marks the beginning of Nikon's new emphasis on fast primes. It would be great for Canon to finally have some competition in that area.

The 16-35 f/4 VR is interesting. I guess they figured VR was more valuable than f/2.8.

Yeah, I think it's interesting too. It has the same focal length and f-number as the Canon 17-40 f/4, but with VR and a price that is almost twice as high. I bet that skimping one stop on the aperture let them keep the price down for a given quality.


I'm curious to see how well the VR actually works at this focal length. I bet the benefit is mostly for large print sizes (or extreme crops), and not for normal print sizes.


It would be great to have a new 17-40 f/4 L IS.

[Jon Ruyle]

I'm curious to see how well the VR actually works at this focal length. I bet the benefit is mostly for large print sizes (or extreme crops), and not for normal print sizes.

Why do you say that?

[Daniel Browning]

Because at small print sizes like 4x6, a large amount of blur (e.g. across 4 pixels) doesn't show up in the print, so even without I.S. you have to go to extremely long exposure durations to see any motion blur in the small print, like 1/4 second for 16mm. If instead you look at large print sizes or 100% crops, I find that much shorter durations are needed, like 1/32+ to get critical sharpness for 100% crops of a 21 MP sensor. I think it would be easier to get 1/32 down to 1/4 with VR than to get 1/4 down to 1 second. I don't know what it is, exactly. Hopefully I'll get to try one out.

[Keith B]

Because at small print sizes like 4x6, a large amount of blur (e.g. across 4 pixels) doesn't show up in the print, so even without I.S. you have to go to extremely long exposure durations to see any motion blur in the small print, like 1/4 second for 16mm. If instead you look at large print sizes or 100% crops, I find that much shorter durations are needed, like 1/32+ to get critical sharpness for 100% crops of a 21 MP sensor. I think it would be easier to get 1/32 down to 1/4 with VR than to get 1/4 down to 1 second. I don't know what it is, exactly. Hopefully I'll get to try one out.

Are you saying Nikon is in cahoots with Ken Rockwell to totally abolish tripods?[li]