NIKON Z 8 (24mm, f/11, 1/250 sec, ISO180)
Wide angle lenses are great, wild and tricky.
I love wide angle lenses. I love how short focal lengths put the viewer into the scene. The majority of my travel shots are taken with focal lengths of 35mm or shorter. Usually much shorter. During my years with Fuji X my most used lens was the XF14mmF2.8R which is the equivalent of 21mm in full frame. But very wide lenses are tricky. There is massive perspective distortion and of course they cover the whole scene which makes it almost impossible to exclude things. The foreground is very pronounced and if you don’t keep the camera perfect level say hello to falling buildings.
So when I got my Nikon Z8 I also got the Nikon Z14-24mmF2.8S to take advantage of a Nikon summer sale combined with a trade fair discount. I initially had no plans to get this lens at the beginning because of its price but I’m glad that I bought it. It is fantastic. The range might be short but it covers the true wide angle range. From moderate 24mm on the “tele”-end to crazy wide 14mm where things really get wild. With tele-lenses there is barely a real world difference in between 105mm or 120mm but with wide angles every mm counts: 20mm is something completely different compared to 24mm and 14mm is something else entirely.
Here are some sample images of the same scene with different focal lengths (focal length info in the EXIF data under each picture). BTW: from now on every image is 2000 pixel wide (instead of 1.500). Just click on the image to see the larger version.
NIKON Z 8 (22mm, f/11, 1/250 sec, ISO160)
NIKON Z 8 (20.5mm, f/11, 1/250 sec, ISO160)
NIKON Z 8 (14mm, f/11, 1/250 sec, ISO140)
The very first image was taken with 24mm because when I started to take pictures of this scene I still had the Z24-120mmF4S on my camera. A great lens but not wide enough. I would happily trade it for a 20-100mmF4 if Nikon would make such a lens. All other images taken with the 14-24.
I also tried an alternative shot standing right at the small gate (the image above) in which I included the boats on the other side of the boardwalk. I like this shot too because of the lines leading into the picture but went back to the previous composition.
NIKON Z 8 (14mm, f/11, 1/250 sec, ISO180)
NIKON Z 8 (16mm, f/11, 1/250 sec, ISO180)
The last three images I took at 14mm, 16mm and 17,5mm. They were taken within a couple if seconds so they look the same but also different. Most obvious differences: the boathouse and the mountain in the background is smaller at 14mm and there is a birch tree and the snow patch on the right side.
I looked at the images and could not really decide on my favourite. Maybe the one taken at 20,5mm. It looks cleaner because I excluded the second building on the right and also because it doesn’t scream ultra wide. Maybe it is not a coincidence that this is the focal length I’m really used to. I guess I need more practice in ultra wide.
NIKON Z 8 (17.5mm, f/11, 1/250 sec, ISO180)