http://nikonrumors.com/2010/02/08/af-s-nikkor-24mm-f1-4g-ed-af-s-nikkor-16-35mm-f4g-ed-vr-official.aspx I use the term broadside as Nikon has launched a blow towards the biggest advantage Canon had left: ; Certain lenses. Nikon reduces the prices of the old 28/1.4 AF-D (no on board lens motor) on the used market to no more than $2200 I presume, as the new 24/1.4G will be priced at that level. ; The 28mm hasn't been produced in years, and is highly sought after. ; This now becomes Nikon's widest fast lens (AF), as previously Nikon has not had a lens wider than 28mm faster than f/1.4. ; Canon has had a 24mm and 35mm 1.4 lens for some time; I'll bet that Nikon is also working on a 35/1.4 update of their manual focus lens, like the 50/1.2 AF-S in the works (rumored to be announced late this year or next). The 16-35 f/4 VRII is the other kicker, as Canon has a line of f/4 L lenses. ; This is probably the replacement of the old 17-35 f/2.8 lens, as the flagship wide angle zoom is now the 14-24/2.8. ; So you gain 1mm from the old 17-35, lose one stop of speed and gain up to 4 stops of handholdability with the VRII. ; This lens, while not the incredible beast in the corners as it's cousin the 14-24, is still very sharp throughout at f/4 on the wide end but very sharp in the corners at 35mm. ; It has the ability to use filters (something you can't do with the 14-24). ; I think in a small way, this is Nikon's message : we hear you, we're working on what you want. ; I do think they are working on a 35/1.4 as well as a direct competitor to the 24-105L that Canon has (perhaps the 24-120 turned into an f/4 lens with VRII). ; While a 70-200 f/4 lens probably won't happen (the non-VR 80-200/2.8D is still in production and is priced about the same as where an f/4 lens would be), I'm sure they'll fill that hole in their lineup shortly, probably at the same time the D700 replacement is announced.
Bob Krist talks about the new 2 toys: http://www.bobkrist.com/blog/fast-wide-and-handsome/ This post is about the 24/1.4.
As a completely unrelated side note- I have been really admiring this shot since the first time I saw it. ; So I finally went and read the blog you posted a link to. ; The bit on the lighting for this shot was very interesting. ; He used a hand held shoot through umbrella with an orange gel flash and set the camera white balance to tungsten. ; When you do that, it makes the whole picture look blue- except of course for the subject which is in range of the flash and looks normal. ; That's a pretty cool trick.
This is especially cool during twilight, the sky turns to an amazing deep blue and any orange leftover from the sunset turns purple. ; There's a local photographer that I admire that showed me this at one of our local Strobist meets.. an example of his work from that evening
That is awesome. ; Now I have something cool to try with all those gels Code convinced me I should buy!
Bob Krist has a nice blog post today using the 24mm and a neat little light that came in handy. http://www.bobkrist.com/blog/l-e-d-candlelight/ BTW, if you get the light, use Tim's B&H link from here, please.
That's a cool solution but overkill on price... if you've got a flash you can stack 2 full CTO gels to get about the same color temp as candlelight.
Yeah, but you can't use the *current* crop of flashes from Nikon/Canon/Sony for ; video. ; I say current because I'm sure they're working on it. The LED light is a decent alternative for when you're shooting video, a lot better than the old fashioned camcorder bulbs from 10 years ago. ; He was using it as a constant light source that he just happened to also be carrying at the time. ; For when he shoots video with the D300s.... ; (I know he had that because he was shooting the 16-35VR with it, and left the EXIF intact on another pic he posted)
Leo Laporte talked about those Litepanel products on his Daily Giz Wiz podcast a year or so ago. Apparently, he's been using some of them for lighting his in-home studio for their TWiT video stream
16-35 f/4 VRII are in the wild A few places have some pics posted, it appears Europe got their batch today. ; I'm guessing Nikon USA did too, so the US stores should get them Monday/Tuesday. http://www.flickr.com/photos/wspekner/sets/72157623343805413/ http://www.fototime.com/ftweb/bin/ft.dll/pictures?userid=5F20F1B7055C40DA92E55576ECB1301D&inv=8EC2D645E07B7A5&albumid={81A8D70A-10A0-4758-9AB5-EA96DCC8534F}&inv=8EC2D645E07B7A5 (obviously the first four images weren't taken with it, but it was to compare against the 14-24/2.8 ) The last set is from a poster at FM; he is thinking of dumping his 14-24 after seeing the results with this one. ; I looked at the corners (granted it was at 22mm) but at f/4 it seems sharp enough on the full size shots..... ;
