Nikon 14-24mm vs Zeiss 21mm - Comparison /Review

David Clapps pixel-peeps the Zeiss 21mm ZF lens and compares it to the Nikon 14-24mm. Zeiss lenses are generally considered to be great and the 14-24mm has been considereding amazing for a zoom.

While I love my Zeiss lenses, you have to give it to the 14-24mm, it either matches or clocks the the Zeiss everywhere after f/2.8.

Mark Cargill has thrown together a comparison of the Zeiss 25mm and the Nikon 24-70mm.

Despite my love for Zeiss lenses, I like the color on the Nikkor, however there’s less distortion on the Zeiss- as you’d expect with a prime, but the Nikon definitely looks sharper to my eyes at 100%.

I have a real soft spot in my heart for Zeiss lenses. It all started when I went from a Minolta 650si with CRAP Sigma kit zooms to a used Hasselblad 500cm with the 80mm Zeiss kit lens.

The difference in image quality was astonishing- I’d finally tasted (arguably) the best image quality cameras had to offer and I wasn’t going back.

The difference in image quality between Nikon’s pro lenses and the ZF (manual focus) lenses is not anywhere near as large as I’d seen years ago but I still love the lenses.

The focusing is wonderfully damped, they feel great, they look fantastic and they take great shots. The only thing I can knock them for is their price- the 50mm will set you back ~$5-600, and when they initially came out (when I bought my first), it was $800 wired to Germany to get the 50mm.

I’ve got a 50mm and a 35mm and Zeiss has now come out with the 18mm wide-angle. It’s got a HUGE 82mm filter size to make sure that you don’t chop off part of the image.

Nikkors are tools, Zess lenses are mechanical objet d’art- at least for me.

Click here to read D3Guy’s review of the lens with sample shots.

Zeiss 18mm WA on Nikon D3