First impressions
The lens is pretty much the same weight as it’s predecessor and made of the same quality plastic. It has a metal mount and has a good feel to it. The zoom ring is a little stiffer than the 12-24 but only in a way that increases the feeling of quality.
Unlike the 12-24 the 10-24 actually changes it’s physical length at different focal lengths, being at it’s shortest at about 13-14mm. Zooming from 10-13mm it decreases it’s length by about 5mm and from 14 to 24mm, increases it by about 10mm.
It can of course be used with a 77mm filter but for the following samples I had my filter removed.
All sample pictures are jpegs straight from the camera, no post processing.
Barrel distortion
Camera (D300) was on a tripod. Set to aperture priority I took 6 pictures of a grid printed on an A3 page and pinned to the wall. As I increased focal lengths I moved the camera back a little for each shot so that approximately the same portion of the grid showed in the viewfinder each time. ISO 200 and f5.6 was used for all barrel distortion shots.
10mm, f5.6
12mm f5.6
15mm f5.6
18mm f5.6
20mm f5.6
24mm f5.6
Corner sharpness
From my experience, corner sharpness seems to be an improvement over the 12-24. At 10mm wide open pictures are still very unsharp and “blurry” at the extreme corners but quality increases quickly and dramatically as you move towards the center of the frame, where it really is quite good to excellent. Stopping down increases the quality of detail in the corners also, but not really much before f8. In my sample it appears that the top corners suffer most.
As one would expect, the sharpness improves as the focal length increases.
10mm f3.5
crop lower left corner
crop upper left corner
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10mm f5.6
crop lower left corner
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10mm f8
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crop lower right corner
10mm f11
crop lower left corner
crop upper left corner
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18mm f4.2
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18mm f5.6
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18mm f8
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18mm f11
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24mm f4.5
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24mm f 5.6
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24mm f8
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24mm f11
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CA’s
CA seems to be very well controlled with just a hint of yellow and red fringing. Between f5.6 and f8 CA was almost non-existent in these shots. at longer focal lengths the results were pretty much the same. f5.6-f8 it just wasn’t much of an issue. The following samples are almost 100% crops from the center of the frame. I should add that the degree of CA was a little more pronounced at the edges of the frame, but only slightly.
10mm f3.5
10mm f5.6
10mm f8
10mm f11
Flare
Flare is extremely well controlled. At 10mm and wide open there is no visible flare in my test samples and it doesn’t become visible before f8. At f11 it becomes mildly worse.
10mm f3.5
10mm f8
10mm f11
At 24mm flare is visible from wide open and smaller apertures, but it seems to remain almost constant and still quite well controlled.
24mm f4.5
24mm f11
Conclusion
I have found this lens to be somewhat of an improvement over the 12-24 and not just because of the extra 2mm. Corner sharpness seems to be the biggest improvement compared to my sample of the 12-24. In my opinion it can now compete with the overall sharpness of the Tokina 11-16! (which I have also tested)
Autofocus is extremely accurate and as fast as you would expect from the built in motor.
This lens is also usable on an FX camera (such as the D700 and D3/D3X) from about 15mm to 24mm so it will possibly prove to be a valid substitute to the much more expensive Nikkor 14-24mm for those that dont want to spend the extra $$.
