Nikon, Nikkor 16mm f/2.8D AF Fisheye Lens Review

This lens covers the full frame FX format to give stunning fisheye images. Fisheye images are not for everyone, but if you like the effect and use the Nikon FX format then this is the lens for you.

This lens is a relatively old design but still performs very well and is quite sharp. Fisheye lenses give a lot of distortion especially wit architecture photography, however with the post processing software available today, this distortion can easily be corrected.

This lens can be used in closed spaces to give a very wide perspective. Fisheye lenses can create major distortion to the straight lines in images, but this can generally be fixed to some extent in post processing software. Personally I am not very keen on fisheye lenses due to the distortion, I would prefer to stitch images together, to get a super wide view using a wide angle lens like the 14-24mm f/2.8 zoom. I prefer to obtain a wider angle by stitching several images from a lens with less distortion, using Photoshop stitching or PTGui software. However, as I have commented, the distortion can be corrected to some extent in software, but there is some loss of coverage during the distortion correction process and also some loss of sharpness in the corners. This lens uses ED elements to give exceptional performance both in respect to sharpness and contrast.
Fisheye lenses such as this, need to be carefully used to avoid flare, however the performance of this lens is very good on the FX format.

The lens uses close range correction (CRC) to provide a very good performance at far and near distances.

This fisheye lens gives excellent corner sharpness and an even illumination across the frame. Flare is extremely well controlled and ghosting negligible.

The lens needs to be stopped down for top results. There is a rear mounted filter that can be removed to give better close focusing capacity.

With lenses such as this the front lens element needs to be kept immaculately clean to avoid any flare with back lighting.

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Specification:

  • Lens construction, 8 elements, 5 groups,
  • Picture Angle, FX 180 degrees,
  • Picture Angle, DX 107 degrees,
  • F stop range 2.8 to 22,
  • Closest focusing distance 0.25 metres, 0.85 feet,
  • Maximum reproduction ratio 0.1,
  • Dimensions 63 x 57 mm,
  • Weight 290 grams