Well why waiting the new Canon 5Ds to try and also for the new Sony A7/9 announcements coming, so since I need to shoot a regatta, seems like a good time to try the Nikon system which seems to have gotten amazing color depth and noise reviews. Not surprising since it uses the same sensor as the Sony A7.
So here are the things to drool on based first on the DxOMark telephoto and prime lenses recommendations and then their follow on for wide angle and super telephoto:
Best primes from DxOMark:
Ok, these are manual lenses, but you can really drool at a lense that gives you 35MP of sharpness equivalent out of a 36MP sensor. The for deep, the 400mm F2.8G is a dream.
It’s interesting to see how quality the professional level telephotos are. The Tamron and the Sigma are both great lenses. All are fast enough to tolerate a 1.4x teleconverter where you lose a stop to F/4. That’s not a problem with a lense.
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| Carl Zeiss Apo Planar T* Otus 85mm F14 ZF.2 Nikon | 4490 | 48 | 35 |
| Carl Zeiss Distagon T* Otus 1.4/55 ZF.2 Nikon | 3999 | 48 | 33 |
| Nikon AF-S Nikkor 400mm F2.8G ED VR | 8999 | 38 | 33 |
| Tamron SP 70-200mm F/2.8 Di VC USD Nikon | 1699 | 33 | 28 |
| Sigma 120-300mm F2.8 DG OS HSM S Nikon | 3599 | 31 | 29 |
Then for really lovely wide angle landscape shots, DxOMark recommends the Carl Zeiss not surprisingly, although its absolutely sharpness wasn’t good, uniformity was better although
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| Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 2.8/15 ZF.2 Nikon | 2950 | 28 | 23 |
| Samyang 14mm f/2.8 IF ED UMC Aspherical Nikon | 409 | 27 | 27 |
Then for telephoto zooms we have DxO mark preferring the Tamron SP 70-200 to the Nikon 70-200, but Lensrentals thinks the reverse. The Sigma 120-300
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| Tamron SP 70-200mm F/2.8 Di VC USD Nikon | 1699 | 33 | 28 |
| Sigma 120-300mm F2.8 DG OS HSM S Nikon | 3599 | 31 | 29 |
| Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II | 2699 | 31 | 27 |
| Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/4G ED VR | 1399 | 30 | 29 |
| Sigma APO 120-300mm F2.8 EX DG OS HSM Nikon | 2449 | 28 | 26 |
Lensrentals.com also has opinions about lenses, they don’t have all the measurements but on the other hand, they use them in the real world and they don’t have any advertising or other reason, so here are their picks
Nikon 14-24mm F2.8G ED AF-S. They really like this lense and it is flexible too
Zeiss XF.2 15mm f/2.8 Distagon. This is probably the sharpest lenses out there with the Nikon being a touch behind
Nikon 400mm f/2.8E AF-S FL ED VR also really likes the Nikon 400MM common type, but this is the pro upgrade which is two pound lighter and ePhotozine loves it too. Which they should for a $12K lense!
