Lee Brandon's reviews

Nikon 35mm f/1.8G DX AF-S Nikkor

OK, yes there are sharper lenses out there but not for the price, all the critisims made of these cheap as chips lenses are relevent, but where more relevent in the film days when correcting perfomance issues was near as dammit, impossible. These days chromic abberation, minor distortions etc are a just a few clicks in the post processing software which is constantly advancing and to my knowledge something everyone plays with these day.
The time of print as is with perhaps a bit of dodging in the darkroom has long since dissapeared.
I must be getting deaf but I cant hear the SWMotor focusing & speed wise its enough, this is not a sports lens, the worst thing is the focus ring which is very rough to use manually so not ideal for video differential focusing .
I also have the 50mm 1.8D and to be honest I think the 35mm is a tad better probably because the 35mm is computed for DX just the same as the difference is between a Matched Multiplier and a Tele Convertor they both work but the dedicated computation does make a difference in performance.
I have over the years come to the conclusion that over analising anything leads to obsession with the faults and not the overall results.
Dont get me wrong I once was the same except it was with HiFi, I had all the top line kit but ended up listening more for the pops and crackles than listening to the actual music.
The 35 1.8 is a bargain and will produce exhibition size prints with just a little bit of PP work.
Perfect at wide open nop but only very few and very expensive lenses perfom at all stops with the same quality, as the biggest stop is always pushing a lenses abilities to the max.
IMO the 35 is a really good lens and at the price a fantastic lens
Yes its plastic but then most DX cameras are partly or totally made of plastic, will that make the end image worse? no. It has some barrel distortion but once a little PP is done will that slap the image viewer in the face? no. if you want a standard lens for DX the 35 1.8g is the best price/quality on the market if price is no object why are you using a DX?