Speaking of the devil
When I was making Nikon 14-30mm lens video a month ago
I wondered if Nikon’s 14-24mm lens would come out soon
Well, it's here
Look, this is the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 lens arrived a few days ago
I am thrilled to get it
This lens can be said to attract much professional's attention
Not only because it is the last one of the Nikon Z Holy Trinity
As far as I know, many Canon and Sony users are also eyeing on it
Take a look at Nikon, which takes landscape as its masterpiece
What kind the surprise could it delivery to us
Australia is under lockdown recently
6 weeks and then extended by 2 weeks
Yesterday it announced another three week extension
There is no way to go out and show the sea of stars in Australia
But these few weeks of introspection at home
It also made me calmly finding new pleasures from this lens
You're watching Colorbee Photography Life
I'm Brian
*All the 14-24mm footage in this video are shot on a pre-production model*
Whether this lens is good or bad
we have to start with the Nikon F mount version
of the AF-S 14-24/2.8 to start
It can be said to be the best representative of Nikon's landscape lens style - Hardcore Landscape
Photography enthusiasts gave it a special name
Called the Big Bulb(zooka)
Pun intended
If you split this phrase up
They represents three characteristics of this lens
It's big enough, looks like a headlight
And it's suitable for ex-gangster shooting landscape
It weighs close to one kilogram
It's a giant in the wide-angle lens
Back to 2007, which was the year that the lens was released
SLR camera wide-angle lens, especially the old rival Canon
Still hovered at the 16-35mm focal length
Nikon broke the routine and launched this ultra wide angle lens
The 14-24mm lens can be said to have the crowd on its feet
Its huge and gangster front lens
which become a symbol of the beauty of the party
Curved front element became the popular landscape lens design choice
14-24 ultra-wide-angle lens for its strong visual impact
And the tank-like body of Nikon's D810 and D850
It is sought after by hardcore landscape and architectural photography gangster
There are several photographers around me
They like this combination of lens and body
Whether it was quick or a very unwilling decision
In the end, they sold Canon and replaced them with Nikon
Just because of this lens
How should I put it?
This is a very attractive lens for landscape photographers
But this lens is too radical because of its design
So it also exposed these inevitable characteristics
Firstly, the front group is too protruding and the hood is relatively shallow
So there will be glare when shooting against the light
In addition, you must and can only use a huge 150mm square filter system
This set of frequently used filters makes landscape photographers suffer
in terms of physical strength, spirit and money
It's the reason why lightly equipped photographers do not choose it
When the mirrorless cameras take over
Nikon designers seem to have taken advice from previous 14-24mm users
They finally took out the last one of the holy trinity
Ultra wide-angle 14-24mm lens
It can be seen that Nikon is cautious about the design of this lens
Let's talk about its first impression. The size is really small
When I got the parcel
I weighed by my hand and I felt happy and surprise
This lens is only 650 grams
It has almost the same weight as the Nikon Z7 body
The old 14-24 lens is about 1 kg
It is installed on the D850 and the totally weighs about 2 kg
But the weight of the new 14-24mm lens and body
which totally about 1.3 kg
This reduces the weight of a standard zoom lens
The size of the new 14-24 mm lens is also greatly reduced
The front group is only slightly protruding
After putting on the special lens cap
Which looks very similar to a standard zoom lens 24-70 mm /f2.8
When they are put together
they can only be distinguished from the focus ring
So that I have to take a closer look before I go out
Just in case I took the wrong lens
Unfortunately, Melbourne has been in lockdown recently
So I can’t let everyone see the landscape of Australia
Within the limited range of activities around
I have felt the excellent performance of this lens
When shooting landscape subjects
The front element of the new 14-24 mm lens is no longer protruding
On one hand,
It benefits from the large diameter and shorter flange distance of the Z mount
Which can shorten the lens group
On the other hand
The front lens uses a special double aspherical technology
Reduced the curvature of the front lens
It uses 4 piece of Extra-low Dispersion glass to greatly control
Edge astigmatism, lateral and longitudinal chromatic aberration
which are prone to happen on ultra wide angle lenses
Its sharpness is excellent when in f/2.8
Which has enough resolution for the 45MP sensor on Z7
It can get excellent sharpness even in the corner
When using the maximum aperture to shoot objects with high contrasting edges
It has dispersion control and flaring control
I can't say that it eliminates everything
But it's the best performing ultra-wide-angle lens that I use
Using one word to describe - clean
The release price of this lens is AU$4,000
Comparable to Canon's RF 15-35
It is $800 cheaper than Sony's 12-24mm lens
In general
After a period time on the market, price will have room to fall
this is cheaper then I expected
It's not cheap, obviously
but it's still a reasonable price
there is a very interesting pricing phenomenon about the top 3 companies
Nikon only have a old rival - Canon in the SLR era
Nikon used this old 14-24 performance monster
smashed the conservative Canon 16-35
But in the mirrorless era
they have different strategies for ultra wide angle lens
Old rival Canon used 15-35 trying to surpass
offers large f/2.8 aperture with image stabilization
also fits flat filter
Seems like trying to use one lens to capture landscape photography and photojournalism
Sony is like Nikon in the past
used a more aggressive focal length which gives a wider lens - the 12-24mm bulbzooka
Those two companies tried their hardest
Crammed as much as they can in the lens
So the weight of their lenses were all around 800 grams
But Nikon seems to chosen to keep the performance and shaved weight
What happened to Hardcore Landscape?!
What game is Nikon playing here
After few days of using
it makes me believe that Nikon steps in to right direction
I always say, the good lens is the one that you can take out
Although the landscape is tempting
but what exactly is landscape?
Milky way or seascape long expo? Not everyone has the time and energy
to wait for the light to shoot the natural landscape
and it depends on the weather and luck
during the COVID-19 pandemic
we have to stay at home
shooting landscape
becomes a extravagant hope
But I believe the difference between photographer and ordinary people
is turning things around you into landscape
Tell everyone with photo that our neighbourhood is so beautiful
Young man don't shoot landscape, old man don't shoot girls
Me with my awkward age
Street photography might be the best subject for me
14-24, a low profile looking ultra wide angle lens
Taking it to the street for street photography
is an unprecedented experience. I have thought about it before
But carrying such an exaggerated lightbulb looking lens
to take shots on the street
Would scare away our subject
The new 14-24mm looks just like an ordinary zoom lens
Loosely carry it over our shoulder
And simply enjoy the visual impact that an ultra wide angle lens brings us
Unfortunately, Melbourne is still under lockdown
and social distance rule is enforced
Otherwise I would love to bring it out to the street and take a few shots.
The ultra quality of the new 14-24mm
Brings me the confidence to take a shot of everything around me
As long as you have the frame on your eye
bring your camera up
quickly press the shutter
the camera would capture everything in the frame faithfully
before this new one, I would always hesitate about
the glare whenever I take a backlighting close-up shot
I need to decide whether or not to stop down two stops of aperture to express the texture
Now there's nothing to worry about
Simply take a shot
This 14-24mm realized the convenience of a zoom lens and the performance of a prime lens
Taking it for street photography
is similar to bringing the 24mm 20mm 18mm 16mm 14mm
All of these characteristic prime lenses with you
Unlock the new ability of street photography with this 14-24mm ultra wide angle lens
I am not a huge fan of high pixel count
but with this 14-24
The disclosure of abundant detail of the frame
right before my eyes
I still feel more satisfied
with the Z7 45MP sensor
What do you think of our car shooting system
We came up with this system ourselves
We've used it for a while, it's very simple
It's a suction cup on the top, plus a magic arm
to clamp on to the camera
And put a tripod under camera
as a support
Actually we have used this system last time
we used on Sigma FP
with Canon 8-15 fisheye lens
But the problems are
the Sigma FP doesn't have stabilization
there are still some micro-jitter
so we have to add digital stabilization during post production
And other problem is
this lens has a fisheye perspective
Fisheye lens has emphasis on the center of the image
It does have a wide view, but edge perspective is compressed out of shape
But the benefit of a wide angle lens
It can expand the image
So if you look at the windshield
Sun roof and back window
You will feel that it's quite bright
And another point is
The 8-15 before only has a maximum aperture of f/4
If you shoot inside of the car during day time
You will realize that there's too much difference between the light inside and outside the car
so I choose to shoot this type of content at dusk
So now the 14-24 f/2.8 aperture will show its advantages
Although f/2.8 is only one stop faster compared to f/4
In low light situations
Which lets you have an ideal shutter speed for video
The ISO doesn't have to raised too high either
Most of the time, leaving the camera just on a tripod in the car
You can get footage that's both clear and stable
Just have a look for yourself
What I found out during shooting photos
The hand held stabilization on this lens
I have very high success rate in shooting at 1/4 second shutter speed - Yes 1/4 second
If I go out, first of all I don't need a tripod
I can even leave the camera in 100, 200, 400 these low ISOs
And get usable shots
If you are shooting driving, travel or in car talking
Let's talk about disadvantages,
It's not really a disadvantage, just its filter systems
To cover the large imaging area
The lens must use larger filter systems
Since the user has chosen ultra wide, large aperture, and even a zoom
You would have to make compromises on the filter system
Lucky that Nikon has given you three choices
The new 14-24 included an extremely large lens hood
With this hood you can use a flat screw-on filter
It's just that the size of this filter is a pain in the back side
It's 112mm
Have you heard about this size?
It's a very uncommon size
Let me show you guys how big it is
This is a 95mm filter
This is a 77mm filter that we use often
The 95mm is already quite huge
112mm is significantly larger that 95mm
The price tag for such a huge filter is also huge
Nikon's OEM CPL costs $1249
Good news is that when this episode was filmed
NiSi has started the pre-production of its own 112mm filter
we should be able to purchase them on the market soon
If we use this lens for just landscape shooting
We need Variable ND to control high contrast scenes
Filter holder system is generally unavoidable
In the near future, filter manufacturers will introduce new generation of filter holder system
You can continue to use the 150mm filter
I found something interesting
I was just giving it a shot
the 100mm filter
I realized that it can fit onto the front of 14-24mm
and it's perfect without a gap
Let's imagine if 14-24mm can work well
with 100mm filter system
We can reduce the cost significantly
We want to ask NiSi to
make a 100mm filter holder system for us
The 3rd option is in the new 14-24mm
we can use rear gels
Rear gels can save us a lot of space in the bag
All we need to do is inserting them in to the back of the lens
However, you need to remove the lens to install them
So they aren't ideal for outdoor shooting where users need to change the filter frequently
Also the rear gel filters must be stored and cleaned very carefully
As even the tiniest particle can ruin your photos
Another drawback is
you have to bring air-blower and cleaning cloth with you
The front element has Fluorine Coating
so you can use paper napkin to absorb any water drops
But when shooting landscapes, we usually want sunstars
so we stop down apertures
Wide angle lens with small aperture will have very deep depth of field
So if there are dusts in the front element
it will become full of sunstars in the entire image when shooting against the light
We need to pay special attention when doing street photography.
Use the cleaning cloth to clean the finger prints
then blow the dusts off with the blower
So two more items on the road in the future.
Summary
compared with stand wide angle and standard focal length lenses
Using ultra wide-angle requires
highly skilled photographer and great shooting environment
We shoot street photography with 14-24
is to have more usage on this lens
You can use it more than just for traveling
If you already have a standard lens
you can consider expanding your style of shooting
In mirrorless era, different manufacturers keep making innovations
The knowledge we know about ultra wide angle lenses
and how to choose a good ultra wide angle lens
is often a hard choice for me
For example, as a Sony user
in order to use compact gimbal I have to choose 12-24 f/4
But the small aperture and vignetting makes me
love more about the image quality in the new 14-24 f/2.8
Such a dilemma
For Nikon Z-mount users, we are lucky to
have two native lens choices:
14-30 is good for landscape shooters who mainly shoot during the day
such as architecture photographer who can control the lightning condition
Or users who cares more about size and weight
14-24 provides one stop brighter aperture
it opens up the door for nigh landscape
especially astrophotography
Also for topics that heavily rely on natural light:
such as street videos and nature videos
Due to the light weight of 14-24 f/2.8
it can be mounted on to an Ronin-SC
So one single zoom lens can realize all wide-angle lens functions
also the minimum focusing distance is only 28cm
so it can also be used as a macro lens
If you turn on the crop, it becomes a 35mm lens
it's very versatile, very convenient
Nowadays, the image quality of the new lenses are fantastic
As far as which lens to choose
depends on your shooting environment and lighting conditions
But keep in mind, to get one stop brighter aperture
the price doubles, so it's up to you pocket
Well this is our review of
the new 14-24mm from Nikon
If you have any questions
Please comment below
Thanks for watching, I'm Brian
See you in the next video!