Nikkor 20mm

Does anyone use this lens?

I'm looking for something between a 16mm and a 60mm. One option is a mid range zoom and the other is the fixed 20mm. I could find no discussion on this lens on a forum search.

The 20mm would sit easily behind a dome with no extention ring. It seems quite an inexpensive lens, reasonably fast - and close focus looks OK too.

Any thoughts?

great lens!

i have one.. love it on my full frame film camera.. kinda limiting on the crop frame though... sort of in that no mans land...

i think you might be happier with dedicated WA and a mid range zoom....

We use that lense a lot for tourist portrait shots underwater on the GBR.

It works very well in this application.

This was my prime lens while shooting film, now i've gone to 14mm ( +/- = 21mm), like Peter says awesome lens for portraits of diver. what I like about the 14mm is its undistorted field of view, sort of the same as the 16mm fisheye (on a DSLR) but without the nagging barreling. the 20 is fine as you said they are inexpensive and very good performance lenses. they just had a falling of grace with the venue of digital crop sensor. as far as zoom, I also use a Sigma 10-20mm with very good result, Nikon Makes one 12-24 and so does Tamron and Tokina in similar focal lenght (altought zoom gear for them are not off the shelf items for the last two).

The Sigma has good optic, but mine got broken in two from an impact that would not have bothered a Nikon lens (just tought I let you know, the third 10-20 I got is to replace my flooded one when my sailboat foundered (along with my D200, 17-35, 28-105, 80-200Afs &... ) not fun, anyway the fact i'm getting a third one is proof i'm happy with the quality of it.

Hope everyone was OK and you got your boat back up Jean. Yikes!

James

I am less of a fan of this lens on digital. I have one from the days of shooting film, but I have rarely used it on digital. It does have its uses, but I have to admit that it rarely finds its way into my camera bag for trips.

This shot was taken with the 20mm. This is probably my favourite with this lens on digital.

This is about as wide as you can go with it.

Alex

Hope everyone was OK and you got your boat back up Jean. Yikes!

 

James

Yeah James, but I did something stupid , I trew myself in the cabin trying to get the cameras, laptop and GPS in dry bags when the boat started to take in water with the result that when the boat went under by the stern I got sucked in the cabin by the onrush of water, when I managed to pull out I got tangled in the rigging for a few second (pretty intense moment ), that when that diver experience kicked in, but let me tell you, lost my boat (total loss, no insurance), lost my photogear (not all, but a good chunk), my not so tough anymore toughbook and 2 GPS unit, lost my position as a photo instructer recently so, give me the 31 of December now and let's get on with 2007 . in the end me and my crew got out safe, I have not lost anything I cannot replace, that's what count.

Sorry TKR, didn't mean to hijack your thread back to your lenses issue.

Damn Jean!!!!

Tough luck! Hopin for the best for you..

Jean,

This is terrible news, but as you say - you got out of the boat safely and so did your crew, which is all that is really important. I feel for you, but mostly I'm glad you and your crew are OK.

Frogfish

Hi Mike, at least it happened in the Canadian Lake Erie part, had some decent beer to drown mt sorrow (no offense neighbors)

Thanks Robert, indeed alive is good

Jean,

Any chance of salvaging / lifting the boat ?

Boat is out already, damages to the keel, the port sides and the loss of the rudder made it uneconomical (more like unrealistic) to repair, man ! made me cry like a baby when I saw her coming out all banged up. the cause of foundering is as usual a variety of little events coming together a the same moment. we were confronted with two choice, 1rst was a large commercial shipping channel all clogged up with a laker coming out and a barge with two tug coming in, bad place to be you end up being a nuissance to those guy's more than anything else, 2nd choice a narrow channel on the west side which happen also to be closer to us (after 10 hours sailing the proximity does influence your judgment), we go for it start the outboard, lower the sails, proceed under power then this is where all hell broke loose, we got swamped by the stern and the motor flooded (wave where +/- 6 feet and wind in the high 20's knots), no time and no space to trow the anchor, no time to restart the engine (it did but I didn't even had a chance to put it into gear), the wind caught us and pushed us in the rocks, the waves made sure the boat would take a beating, coast guard came and pulled us out to open water but we connected with a boulder under tow and that rip the side wide open from then on we had 45 seconds (that when I pulled my stupid irrationnal stunt) and all that was left was 2 feet of mast above water. The worst is I want to get another boat pronto, but my wife has put her common senses foot down, there was a thread quite a while ago about boys versus girls and how we react to underwater photography, guys are known for the bigger toys syndrome, i'll vouch for that anytime

I have never used my 20mm since I put my film cameras away and went digital. I use a 12-24, but mostly on the wide side.

Jean,

I used to have bad dreams about a sequence of events and contingencies like yours. It can happen all to easily, all too fast. I just recently (about five weeks ago) became an ex-boat owner. I'd owned my 28-ft sloop since 1984, and had many great times. I also dropped a lot of $$ over the years. They say the two best days one ever has while owning a boat are the first and the last, and I think they're right.

Frogfish

I guess if you part with the boat on your own terms it apply

I have to agree with Robert's take on boat ownership.