Very sharp. I rank it right up there with my 85mm and 50mm f/1.8 Nikkors.

Slight flare.

I love this focal length. It gives extra depth of field compared to a normal lens without making mountains on the horizon look tiny like wider lenses do. It also does a good job with groups. You can get closer to make it easier to balance fill flash without elongating people at the edge of the frame. This is rapidly becoming my favorite lens.

Customer Service

Never had a problem.

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Tokina 20-35mm f/3.5-4.5 which the Nikkor blows into the weeds.

As a focal length, 35mm is one of the most usful. Landscapes, environmental portraits, street candids... It can do it all. This lens is sharp, focuses closer than the manual version, and is dollar for dollar very inexpensive.

After only three years, I was very disappointed to find that the aperture does not close fast enough to be stopped down for exposure. I found this out after 8 rolls of film were over exposed during a day of "from the hip" street shooting that required the depth of field of f8 to allow the proper focus for the field. At first I felt that there was only something wrong with my single lens, but after purusing numerous web sites, it is clear that many Nikon users are finding the same problem with this exact lens... Why?

This lens astonished me with the first roll of film... Sharp, contrasty, and inexpensive. I'd buy a new one tomorrow, except I don't want to go thru the same experience. There is a problem with lubricants causing the aperture blades to not fully stop down... When I need f8, I need f8 everytime. I have gone back to my AIS 1.4 35mm and life is good again.

Customer Service

No experience... out of warrenty.

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Every version of Nikon 35mm lenses from the first F mount to the latest auto-focus version.

Happy to have this one to use indoors (most of the year in Belgium), the only (good) pictures I take are from my children - with a 35 mm you have to take part of the game. Never need a flash, happily.

I had a problem with oil on the diaphragm, wich was rather expensive to repear

I think a 35mm is a great standard lens to use indoors, so the maximum aperture 2 is not a luxury at all.

Customer Service

Fast, good, expensive (cf. weaknesses)

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nikkor 50 mm 1.8 AF
nikkor 85 mm 1.8 AF

People...pets...oddities...this is a great lens. Good choice for your normal lens, a little wider than 50, so you can squeeze more people in the frame. Bright in frame, Easy to work with depth of field scaleGot mine for $75 Used, and it performs wonderfully.

Barrel seems off kilter a little (swivels when focusing in or out) (What do expect for $75 ?)Use a lens hood (HN-3) outdoors.

Great lens for people shots with and/or pets. With AF body, you've got the equivalent of a very noisy Hexar, but with better flash potential. I'd like to try the MF 1.4 on a manual focus body. If I had to purchase new, I'd look at a 28-70 ATX Tokina.

Customer Service

None

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24 2.8/20 2.8

Very compact, nice focal length.

In both samples I tried, I noticed a rather inferior picture as compared to my AFS 17-35 zoom. It could be a flatness-of-field issue. I shot side-by-side on a tripod and I tried two samples with the same results.

Disappointing. Although it's a prime lens, it can't hold a candle to the AFS 17-35 zoom. I was hoping for a fast, tack sharp prime, but it's unuseable for any flat subject at larger apertures. If you can afford it, skip the primes and get the 17-35 zoom instead.

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AFS 17-35 zoom

Very, very sharp.
Good contrast.
Focuses very close.

Lots of rotation required to focus manually.
Fairly long front-to back.

I have the non-D model. Great lens for general use. Good depth of field due to 35mm focal length. Large aperture gives a bright image in the viewfinder. The close-focusing ability makes for some nice near-far shots even at this focal length. I have tested it against a Zeiss 35mm f/2 lens for the Contax G2 and feel the Nikkor is just as sharp and has as comparable contrast at least. It feels good on my Nikon FE.

Customer Service

Not needed.

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Nikkor f/1.8 50mm AF

Flare control, accurate manual focusing (despite a somewhat underdamped focusing ring), super center sharpness.

Considerable light fall-off.

A six-element design replaced the earlier, manual-focus eight-element design. Shot wide open, it has lots more light fall-off than the manual version (which hardly had any). Stopped down to f/5.6, illumination is even and resolution is tack sharp in the center and less so at the edges. Flare is non-existent, which beats by a wide margin my flare-prone non-AI version. The front element is unusually small for its speed, so it's easy to shade it with your hand. I eventually sold it. My conclusion: if you shoot a lot of backlit situations, get the AF design. If you want evenly sharp, evenly illuminated images edge-to-edge at wide apertures, get the MF design.

Customer Service

Not needed.

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35/2 non-AI.

Small, light and high quality lens. Very nice f/2.0 speed. An excellent addition to a 24/2.8 and 105/2.8 setup, a fine stand-alone lens. Good and useful 0.25 meter focussing distance and f/22 aperture.

It would have been even nicer if there were an AF 35 f/1.4 version of this lens. Would make one long a bit less for the 50/1.4. Not a big problem, though.

If you like the angle of a 35 mm lens, you should seriously consider this one. I like it very much and can recommend it. I rate it 4 stars on value, because both the 50/1.8 and the 50/1.4 are faster
and cheaper.

Customer Service

(none needed yet; service for my F100 was great, however).

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AI 50/2.0, AF 24-50/3.3-4.5.

Small size

Poor sharpness wide open. Very difficult to manual focus - focus ring moves too easily.

There seems to be quite a variability in the build quality of this particular lens model. I had read good things about its performance, but the one I bought was very poor. I own 20 Nikkor lenses, and this was easily the worst. Yet, I know of others who like it very much. If you want one of these, you should test it wide open immediately after purchase. Good ones can be very good, but bad ones...

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None

tack sharp at every aperture. compact. fast enough that i can rate 400 iso films normally most of the time

none

i love this lens! i very often carry only one fm2 with 35 f/2 and a bunch of tri x. it's an excellent street shooting lens. great for environmental portraits. if i had to choose only one of my lenses to keep this would be the one. i must admit though, if i could afford it, i probably would buy the 35 f/1.4.....

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28 f/2.8 nikkor, 28-70 f/2.8 sigma, 85 f/2 nikkor