the last word

Photography meets digital computer technology. Photography wins -- most of the time.

  • site home
  • blog home
  • galleries
  • contact
  • underwater
  • the bleeding edge
You are here: Home / The Last Word / Nikon 14mm on a7R

Nikon 14mm on a7R

December 16, 2013 JimK 2 Comments

The Nikon 14mm f/2.8 ED is the widest full frame Nikon prime currently available. It’s downright tiny compared to the AI Nikkor 13mm f/5.6s of thirty years ago, and a tad bigger than the 15mm f/5.6 AI of the same era.  It’s fast, with good center performance and OK corner sharpness.

It’s not the first lens you’d put on an a7R. Why not just stick it on a D800E, and have a better-balanced combination and autofocus to boot? I tested it on the Sony because I wanted to see if SLR lenses had corner smear and color casts, and I figured if any SLR lens would, it would be this one.

Here’s what it looks like wide open. A lot of falloff, but the color looks good:

_DSC2288

At f/4, there’s more light at the edges:

_DSC2289

At f/5.6, even more:

_DSC2290

And at f/8, the illumination of the sensor is as even as it’s going to get:

_DSC2291

I made two series, one focused wide open on the central grape vines, and one focused wide open on the upper right tree branches. They appear identical, and I’m showing you results from the first one.

The center is a little soft at f/2.8, but not bad at all:

Nikon 14mma7Rctr28

It crisps up quite a bit at f/4:

Nikon 14mma7Rctr4

At f/5.6, it’s nice and sharp, and that’s as good as it gets:

Nikon 14mma7Rctr56

At f/8, it looks about the same as at f5.6. f/11 is almost as soft as f/2.8. f/16 is worse, of course, and f/22 is an opening you’d only use in special circumstances.

At the upper right corner, it’s soft wide open. There is also a lot of chromatic aberration, which is easy to correct, but I didn’t, because the correction sometimes affects sharpness:

Nikon 14mma7RUR28

f/4 brings some improvement, and f/5.6 is close to as good as it gets:

Nikon 14mma7RUR56

f/8 is the sharpest aperture:

Nikon 14mma7RUR8

f/11 is close to f/8, f/16 is close to f/11, but softer, and it’s downhill after that.

Here is a link to a Photoshop file with all the center images in labeled layers.

Here is a link to a Photoshop file with all the upper right images in labeled layers.

My take is that this lens is fine on the a7R. The corner softness doesn’t have that “smeared” look; I’m pretty sure it’s all due to the lens. Putting the lens on a D800E wouldn’t prove anything; it’s a similar (identical?) sensor, and all the angles are the same.

This test leads me to speculate that all SLR lenses will work well on the Sony a7R.

The Last Word

← Lens adapter tolerance Leica 90mm ‘cron on Sony a7R →

Comments

  1. Michael says

    December 28, 2013 at 2:36 am

    Hi,

    Your statement concerning the 14mm prime lens of Nikon being introduced together with the D3 (2007) is simply false.
    The Nikon 14mm f/2.8 AF-D is an ultra-ultrawide lens designed for film and FX digital cameras. It was introduced in 1999 at the same time as the historic D1. 2007 saw the introduction of the AF-S 14-24/2,8 G, which is much, much better than the old prime lens. This lens hit the shelves at the same time the D3 did.

    For more information:

    http://www.imagepower.de/IMAGES/imgEQUIPMENT/AFS1424.htm

    But it would have been easy to find that out on the internet…;-)

    best,

    Michael Weber
    IMAGEPOWER

    Reply
    • Jim says

      December 28, 2013 at 7:43 am

      Thanks, Michael; I’ll fix it. I was relying on my memory, and I confused the prime with the 14-24. I recall an ad with a motorcycle on a racetrack at dusk — or maybe my memory is playing tricks on me again…

      Jim

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

March 2023
S M T W T F S
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031  
« Jan    

Articles

  • About
    • Patents and papers about color
    • Who am I?
  • Good 35-70 MF lens
  • How to…
    • Backing up photographic images
    • How to change email providers
  • Lens screening testing
    • Equipment and Software
    • Examples
      • Bad and OK 200-600 at 600
      • Excellent 180-400 zoom
      • Fair 14-30mm zoom
      • Good 100-200 mm MF zoom
      • Good 100-400 zoom
      • Good 100mm lens on P1 P45+
      • Good 120mm MF lens
      • Good 18mm FF lens
      • Good 24-105 mm FF lens
      • Good 24-70 FF zoom
      • Good 35 mm FF lens
      • Good 60 mm lens on IQ3-100
      • Good 63 mm MF lens
      • Good 65 mm FF lens
      • Good 85 mm FF lens
      • Good and bad 25mm FF lenses
      • Good zoom at 24 mm
      • Marginal 18mm lens
      • Marginal 35mm FF lens
      • Mildly problematic 55 mm FF lens
      • OK 16-35mm zoom
      • OK 60mm lens on P1 P45+
      • OK Sony 600mm f/4
      • Pretty good 16-35 FF zoom
      • Pretty good 90mm FF lens
      • Problematic 400 mm FF lens
      • Tilted 20 mm f/1.8 FF lens
      • Tilted 30 mm MF lens
      • Tilted 50 mm FF lens
      • Two 15mm FF lenses
    • Found a problem – now what?
    • Goals for this test
    • Minimum target distances
      • MFT
      • APS-C
      • Full frame
      • Small medium format
    • Printable Siemens Star targets
    • Target size on sensor
      • MFT
      • APS-C
      • Full frame
      • Small medium format
    • Test instructions — postproduction
    • Test instructions — reading the images
    • Test instructions – capture
    • Theory of the test
    • What’s wrong with conventional lens screening?
  • Previsualization heresy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Recommended photographic web sites
  • Using in-camera histograms for ETTR
    • Acknowledgments
    • Why ETTR?
    • Normal in-camera histograms
    • Image processing for in-camera histograms
    • Making the in-camera histogram closely represent the raw histogram
    • Shortcuts to UniWB
    • Preparing for monitor-based UniWB
    • A one-step UniWB procedure
    • The math behind the one-step method
    • Iteration using Newton’s Method

Category List

Recent Comments

  • JimK on Sony 135 STF on GFX-50R, sharpness
  • K on Sony 135 STF on GFX-50R, sharpness
  • Mal Paso on Christmas tree light bokeh with the XCD 38V on the X2D
  • Sebastian on More on tilted adapters
  • JimK on On microlens size in the GFX 100 and GFX 50R/S
  • Kyle Krug on On microlens size in the GFX 100 and GFX 50R/S
  • JimK on Hasselblad X2D electronic shutter scan time
  • Jake on Hasselblad X2D electronic shutter scan time
  • Piotr Chylarecki on Who am I?
  • JimK on Who am I?

Archives

Copyright © 2023 · Daily Dish Pro On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Unless otherwise noted, all images copyright Jim Kasson.