Posted by Andrew Yip on August 15, 2008 at 12:17 AM
I had a chance to try the new Nikon 14-24 with ND grads to see how the coverage works with that fixed lens hood.
Unfortunately even the 4x6 grads do not give you much coverage. In a vertical composition you can just barely use them starting at 16mm, but that's if the transition is centered. If you move it up/down too much your fingers and/or the edge of the filter will show.
With a horizontal setup it's worse...you can just barely start to use it at around 19, if the transition is level and you have a steady hand.
It was actually mounted on a Canon full-frame body (long story), but the results should be the same as for the D3/D700.
These were pretty rough tests, so you should test for yourself before writing off the lens entirely.
And I'd love to know if I'm doing something wrong and someone has found a way to make this work...
Posted by Scott Reeves on August 15, 2008 at 12:32 PM
Not the best news, but good to know. Thanks Andrew.
Posted by Mike Horn on December 4, 2008 at 11:12 AM
I have read that review also Andrew, and have been seriously wondering how that lens being as sharp as they say works with filters. Obviously no poloraizer is going on it, if you say the coverage of the GND's are starting off @ 16mm and higher horizontally, how do you get around that? I would like to know also if there are any tricks in making this work,
Posted by Andrew Yip on December 4, 2008 at 11:35 AM
Hi Mike, I'm afraid I didn't find any tricks, so I ended up returning the lens . I really prefer to use GNDs instead of HDR or exposure blending techniques, so it just didn't seem like it was going to work for me. Sure was a sharp lens though.
I just skimmed it, but he seemed to be very happy with the combo. He did some blended exposures at sunset, so the lack of GNDs wasn't an issue for him.
Discussion
5 repliesUnfortunately even the 4x6 grads do not give you much coverage. In a vertical composition you can just barely use them starting at 16mm, but that's if the transition is centered. If you move it up/down too much your fingers and/or the edge of the filter will show.
With a horizontal setup it's worse...you can just barely start to use it at around 19, if the transition is level and you have a steady hand.
It was actually mounted on a Canon full-frame body (long story), but the results should be the same as for the D3/D700.
These were pretty rough tests, so you should test for yourself before writing off the lens entirely.
And I'd love to know if I'm doing something wrong and someone has found a way to make this work...
But if you haven't seen the review at 16-9.net yet, it has a lot of image samples:
http://16-9.net/lens_tests/nikon_14_24mm_1/nikon14_24mm_a.html
Did you see David Clapp's review of the 14-24 on the 1Ds III last week? Here's the thread:
http://www.naturephotographers.net/imagecritique/bbs.cgi?a=vm&mr=36602&CGISESSID=1d38552109d1d52bfc6b0fc6dc96a809&u=31084
I just skimmed it, but he seemed to be very happy with the combo. He did some blended exposures at sunset, so the lack of GNDs wasn't an issue for him.