ED IF VR for Nikkor Primes

[edward chen]

Why haven't they made lenses with these attributes ED IF VR for wide angle

primes?

 

They did it for slow and fast zooms.

 

Would it be nice if we have 28/1.4 ED IF VR?

[edward chen]

It's nice if they put SWM (AFS) in it as well. Would it be stay compact and lightweight? How about price?

[jim_francis]

VR is less and less important for wide angle lenses. I can hand hold my 28 1.4 at 1/15 sec fairly consistently. I can't hand hold my 180 2.8 at 1/15 (and often, 1/125 is iffy).

[edward chen]

Jim....i know..but don't you think it would be nice if, with the help of VR, you can handhold at, 1/5. 1/2?

[lex_jenkins]

An updated 28/1.4 Nikkor with AF-S would be huge and heavy. Adding VR to it wouldn't add much more size, weight or cost. Not sure how much demand there would be for VR with such a lens, but I wouldn't object. I'd rather see Nikon put efforts into making such a lens as near to optically perfect as possible first. VR seems to be a faddish thing tacked onto lenses as an afterthought to boost marketing. It's becoming this era's variation of the "more megapixels" hype.

[walterh]

I would like lenses than can make good coffee on field trips ^^.

 

One advantage of primes is that the number of optical elements is small. Image quality is the "prime" concern. Adding optical elements (especially to the limited interior space of wide angle lenses) that are of limited use does not make sense in this context. Precision in positioning optical elements must be extremely high for wide angle lenses, adding to cost and danger of sample variation. The use is limited as with wide angles once can shoot already at shutter speeds that are slow enough to show even slow movements of people.

[jose_angel]

ED glass has been used essentially on tele lenses, where CAs produce unsharp images. To be short, different wavelenghts (colors) could have different focus planes; this elements help to have this wavelenghts focused on the same plane. Almost all current lenses use this feature in conjuction with aspherical elements. In the past only aspherical elements were used on wides for correction, looks like the more demanding digital sensors ask for ED glass too.

 

As Lex says, VR is the latest botch designed to get usable images from longer lenses under certain unfavorable conditions. My longer lens` VR shots usually have the same sharpness than a non VR wide angle slightly blurred shot. Again, is not as needed on wides.

 

IF is a great feature, designed for better compactness, focusing speed and comfort, also used on bigger lenses or zooms. Wides have a very short throw, instead of this system a rear focusing group system has been prefered.

[shuo_zhao]

Until the FX standard become popularized, I don't think there will be great market demand for a 18 1.4 ED IF VR. IF and VR are always neat to have.

 

It would be neat for Nikon to come up with a few ultra-wide primes for DX.

[ilkka_nissila]

I think the optical design of short prime lenses would have to be changed signficantly to incorporate in-lens VR. This would increase the cost, potentially reduce image quality, and increase the size of the lens, make it prone to flare and ghosting etc. I think VR is unnecessary in short wide-aperture lenses.

[edward chen]

As many have said regarding embedded VR system in all future nikon bodies would be huge improvement for Nikon. Demands show that VR is no longer overlooked. Sure, VR can't never replace solid tripod, but digital is becoming more about casual dan spontanity. I would love to handhold for 1 sec if it's possible. Nikon should plug-in the VR in the bodies or for the rest un-VR-ed prime wide angles and upcoming new lenses.

[donald_weston1]

I would be happy with a line of afs primes for either DX or FX lenses or both. IF you did put VR in some, then make them about 2.8 to keep them smaller, lighter. With a 3 stop VR, that would still get you down to handholding equivalent of f1.0....but with 2.8 DOF and fewer focus errors..

[Peter_in_PA]

[Precision in positioning optical elements must be extremely high for wide angle

lenses, adding to cost and danger of sample variation.] And that's why I suspect

that VR in wide angle primes would actually perhaps degrade performance, as there

are elements always moving, and the tolerances are so tight.

 

Whenever I read a "we need wide angle primes" post, I wonder if everyone in the

world who actually would buy them at the prices they'd end up costing are just the

people who post opinions about it. I would have bought my 11-16 that I got from

tokina even faster if it had been an 11mm f2.8 for a hundred less (or for the same

price from Nikon!) so I'm one of you, but I truly wonder how many of them there are.

 

As far as AFS goes, I think we'll see it in all future Nikon lenses.

[Two23]

I highly doubt we will ever see Nikon make newer single focal lenses, unless they are special purpose (e.g. shift lenses, macro, long tele, etc.) As the usuable ISO on cameras keeps climbing, the motivation for people to spend big money on something as inflexible as a single focal lens decreases. Nikon has limited resources and I just don't see them getting into niche markets like that. They still have some catching up to do with Canon in some areas for one thing. I don't see the point of making a wide angle single focal lens at f2.8 when Nikon already has their 14-24mm f2.8 that outperforms Canon's 14mm f2.8 as it is.

 

 

Kent in SD

[edward chen]

Nikon latest zoom design such 14-24/2.8 and 24-70/2.8 incorporates ED glass and some claim they outperform some older AF primes which are not ED glass. Why won't they make perfect/super optics for primes that outperform the most current pro zooms in the market? I know they are able to do it. Fine pro zooms like the two i mentioned above were "impossible" ten years ago when all these primes were much superior.

[ellis_vener_photography]

learning some basic handholding techniques solves the wide angle + longer shutter speed problem:

 

left hand holding the lens, right hand cradling the body, elbows braced against your sides and release the shutter as you slowly exhale.

[edward chen]

thanks..ellis..I think my arms can sustain that kinda gesture after 20+ shots...they get really shaky...:)

[ilkka_nissila]

I've come to think that with the D3's high ISO ability and its large pixels, fast lenses (primes) are experiencing a revival in interest. They performed underwhelmingly with the DX bodies at wide apertures due to the higher requirements for sharpness, whereas with the D3, great results are obtained even wide open.

 

I frequently shoot at f/2 and f/1.4 now. I think others will also discover how great it is to be able to shoot portraits in candle light, for example. Can't do that with zooms or TS or Micro lenses. VR doesn't help here either - shutter speed needs to be high to stop even the slightest movement.

 

Prime lenses are also small & compact & therefore less obtrusive as zooms such as the new 24-70. Probably the biggest 24mm lens in the world, ever! Sure it performs great but I feel I'm pointing a cannon at the people I'm photographing. I'd much rather take the 28/2 and shoot discretely, with excellent image quality.

 

Prime lenses inflexible? Perhaps, if the photographer is not very good.

[oskar_ojala]

VR and IF are not so interesting for wide angles. Aspheric lenses are far more interesting.

 

People (or marketing?) are not that interested about primes anymore, whiz-bang zooms sell better. It's a bit of a shame, since there are still many uses for primes.

[Two23]

Not sure that there's "many" uses for single focal lenses, but they do fill some niches. A 28mm f1.8 VR is something you'd think I would be interested since I'm a night photographer, but I'm just not. I'm betting that the cost of something like that would be SO close to the price of the superb 14-24mm f2.8 that it would be difficult to justify buying the single focal lens.

 

The next two lenses I'm likely to add in coming months are the Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 and Nikon 17-55mm f2.8. These are fast, have superlative image quality, flexible, and will do what I want in my night shots. That said, I look longingly at the new 24mm tilt/shift lens. If (or more likely when) Nikon comes out with a 300mm f4 VR the odds are great I'll sell my 80-400mm VR and buy that lens plus either a 1.4x or a 1.7x. I would really like to have the 200-400mm f4 VR, but just can't justify the cost. Also, it's significantly larger and would be more difficult to backpack with.

 

 

Kent in SD

[vojislav_mileti__263_]

New 28/1.4 sure would be sweet. Just, forget the VR, it's not needed in a 28mm lens.

[msitaraman]

Do weights, skip the coffee, practice your holding stance until it is second nature. You'll be surprised by how low you can go with a wide angle. Or get a Pentax or Olympus with in-body vibration reduction and use their excellent wide angle primes...