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Shooting 800E + the 14-24G ???

Thorkil

Well-known member
Has anyone been shooting with the 800E + the 14-24G.
And how are your experience? sharpness, dof, handheld, pictures...
Thanks and Best
Thorkil
 

jagsiva

Active member
I have been and it looks quite good. I have been shooting handheld, at 5.6-8.0 and all looks good.

My plan was to get the Zeiss 15mm and 21mm, but I really cannot justify two manual focus lenses, weight, cost etc., given how good the 14-24 is. If you have have an FTP site, I can send you some raw files.
 

Thorkil

Well-known member
I have been and it looks quite good. I have been shooting handheld, at 5.6-8.0 and all looks good.

My plan was to get the Zeiss 15mm and 21mm, but I really cannot justify two manual focus lenses, weight, cost etc., given how good the 14-24 is. If you have have an FTP site, I can send you some raw files.
Thanks, havn't got a FTP. Can you post some here? I don't think I get the same quality as with the D3. Are you using shutterlag or just some fast shutter-speed?
 

Paul2660

Well-known member
I don't have the e, but based on what you read and etc. results are/can be the same.

14-24 on the D800, at first was a disappointment to me, mainly based on all the reviews over the years that state how good this lens is wide open. It may be great on 12mp to 24mp Nikon's but at 36mp you can forget F2.8 to about F5 if you want corner to corner, it's just not able to resolve to the sensor. I had high hopes on this lens for my night work, where I need F2.8 to F3.5, but not going to happen. In fact at F2.8 to F3.5 you can actually see detail smearing, similar to what happens with a medium format back, and you have shifted outside the range of the image circle. You don't see the saturation loss that you get with a tech camera and dig. back, but you see the detail smearing.

Once you get to around F5.6 the results get much better and at F8 to F12 the lens is (at least the one I have) is stellar, sharp corner to corner and with excellent contrast and saturation. I feel that diffraction starts to show at F14 and is very evident at F16 and above. CA is nominal and LR will correct it totally or Capture one which ever you use.

This is pretty much true throughout the entire zoom range for me. I worked with 3 different lenses until I found the one I have now. It was a demo lens, both of the brand new ones had issues. I also spent some time on the microadjustment of the AF which helped a lot.

I had less luck with the 14mm F2.8, but as it's an older design, I didn't expect much with it, still had to try.

Not sure what lens solution will give me the sharpness I am looking for in the F2.8 to F4 range, may have to try the Zeiss 21 or 18mm, but the 18mm seems to have a very bad flare issue (won't bother me for night work, but need to be able to use whichever lens for day time also, at the price point)

Paul
 

Tim Ernst

New member
Ditto what Paul said. The 14-24 shows more corner issues than with previous Nikons when shooting wide open, as you would expect with a higher-res sensor. I have yet to see a 14mm that is sharp in the corners wide open with the d800(e) - hoping the new Zeiss will solve that issue, but I'm not holding my breath (none of the demo lens testers have reported on this that I can tell - would not be an issue with normal landscapes or other types of work though, especially when stopped down). The only reason I'm shooting the Nikon is for 14mm pinpoint stars, so I'm still hoping the Zeiss will work, otherwise I'll just shoot the Nikon and crop - it is really sharp in the middle wide open...
 

Thorkil

Well-known member
Thank you both!
I think I will have mine checked at Nikon just to be sure that nothing special is wrong. Good to hear, Paul, that diffraction only starts at f14. I do think mine also make some smearing in the corners even at 5.6, but I should do a brick-wall shooting, and bring my 20/2.8D along just to compare, but its even worse, also an old construction of course
Thorkil
 

danielmoore

New member
I rarely shoot at the 15mm end but here's a test I shot the other day. It's f/8, tripod, live view focused, exposure delay 2 secs, straight out of Capture One. No additional sharpening. Crops were jpg'd twice so a tiny bit duller now, at 100% view. It's great to have this many pixels to feed this lens and I'm more impressed than ever with it.

click for larger view:


at center


lower left
 

Thorkil

Well-known member
Hi Daniel
Thank You!
Its looks pretty good I must admit. Better than expected! And theres even more dof than I would have presumed, and that corner doesn't look that bad at all!
I'll have to take the tripod along and do some brick-wall shooting before asking Nikon to take a look at it. And then do some AF adjusting too, but LV and 3 sec. shutterdelay for the bricks.
Thorkil
 

danielmoore

New member
While your making judgements on lens sharpness I can't stress strongly enough the benefit of using Capture One. Zero user intervention required to get it to look wonderfully sharp and natural. I can't say that of Lightroom or NX2.

Think I have enough bricks in there!:D
 

Thorkil

Well-known member
:)
I also and solely use C1.
But I'm not satisfied with my pictures, but have to try the tripod out to exclude eventually handshake-decease being the head problem :rolleyes:. By handheld I use 1sec. shutterlag.
 
D

davexl

Guest
Watch for focus shift.

Hello all, first post here.

Firstly - what a great forum, with such a good signal to noise ratio! I hope I dont drag it down ;)

14-24mm... the major thing to learn about this lens for best results on a D800E is that it has rather severe focus shift. You basically have to focus a bit closer to camera than expected, as the optimum zone of sharpness moves away from you as you stop down. Combine that with field curvature, and a zoom, and you have one quirky beast to get the best of.

Simply setting f8 and using Live view AF does not cut it. Firstly, I do not find Live view AF on my D800E very reliable, and at f8 on a 14mm, there is a lot in focus to be ambiguous about. I prefer focussing at f2.8 on soemthing at known distance, then stopping back down. I set my aperture to half stop increments to reduce the number of clicks. (This D800 makes me sloppy about exposure - 2 over? No problem.. 5 under? Here, fixed that for you :ROTFL:)

I am in the midst of testing this, I am working up some rules of thumb, which I will post later once I get something I can rely on. Still getting to know this camera, and these lenses again.
 

Paul2660

Well-known member
I have not tried Live View with AF on the D800 only MF, and here I have found it takes some getting used to. With the 14-24 and Live View, I magnify the live view all the way into 100%, then back it off 3. This to me is the best magnification for all Live View on the D800 as any more and it's just hard to figure things out. This is one area where Focus Peaking (like what Sony has) would be a great addition.

Since Nikon's Live View keeps you at the set aperture and does not default to the most open setting like Canon, I find that I tend to focus the 14-24 at F8 in most daytime situations. I have not tried it with any night photography yet.

As for Focus Shift, I have read Lloyd Chambers blog posts on this issue and with my lens, I have yet to really see much of a problem. I have viewed hundreds of shots taken at infinity tested with both Live View/MF at F8 and then AF at F8 and results look very close it not the same. I respect Lloyd's work and have tested many different shooting situations and so far, it just doesn't seem to be a huge issue, however based on Lloyd's results, I prefer to focus the 14-24 with Live view in MF mode which should eliminate focus shift since I am working with the selected aperture I will be shooting with.

For me the 14-24 seems to start getting good at F5.6 and really shines from F8 to F11. Pretty narrow range, but still a great lens.

Paul
 
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