I need some advice on which wide angle lens to buy for my upcoming trip to Asia. My Nikon AF system consist of the following lens...50mm f1.8, 28-105mm, and the 80-200mm f2.8. I hear good things about both lenses and I wish I could buy them both but that is certainly not reality. Help...anyone?

-- Brandon (brandon_999@yahoo.com), September 16, 1999

Answers

Since you have the 28mm in the zoom, go with the 20mm. Some of the spaces in Asia are pretty tight, and it will be nice to have a super wide to get it all in. Be careful with landscapes though - don't include too much sky or foreground. On my Asia traveles, I got very good use out of a 17-28mm zoom. Where are you going exactly?

-- sheldon hambrick (shambric@us.oracle.com), September 16, 1999.

I would also second the 20mm.

-- Gary Wilson (gwilson@ffca.com), September 16, 1999.

Hi Brandon, I agree with the previous posts. You'll find a 20mm most useful in the narrow streets and lanes of Hong Kong, Macau and Japan.

-- Hoyin Lee (leehoyin@hutchcity.com), September 16, 1999.

Thank you everyone for your response. The 20mm was my first choice but I thought it might be a little too wide for my everyday use after my trip...which by the way Sheldon, I'm going to Bangkok, Singapore and Hongkong. I'm not really familiar with the 17-35mm but it sounds like a very good range. I will have to look into that and I think Sigma makes that right? But I will also have to consider the size and weight of the lens. Thank you again.

-- Brandon (brandon_999@yahoo.com), September 16, 1999.

With a longer lens, autofocus is very helpful, but with 20mm it is unnecessary. Consider a (used) 20mm/ f:4 or f:3.5 Nikkor lens. They are terrific, and much smaller, lighter, and lots cheaper. Also they take 52mm filters.

-- Bill Mitchell (bmitch@home.com), September 17, 1999.

Since you already have 28mm in a zoom, the 20mm is a more logical choice. I have both the Nikkor 24mm and 20mm, but I rarely use the 20mm because it is too wide for my taset. So keep that issue in mind.

As far as third-party wide-angle zooms are concern, build quality and distoration may be issues. As mentioned above, an older manual-focus AIS lens is also an option, but you will lose matrix metering with many new bodies. It is true that AF isn't very importon with wide angle lenses.

-- Shun Cheung (shun@worldnet.att.net), September 18, 1999.

**update to my original post** I decided on the 20mm lens...called CWO but they were back-ordered and likewise with B&H. With my trip less than a month away, things did not look good. But by chance I found a used Nikon 20-35mm in excellent condition for a great price ($1020) including lens hood and heliopan filter so I snapped it up. Thanks for all your help anyways!

-- Brandon (brandon_999@yahoo.com), October 25, 1999.

Remember, when using a super wide, make sure to include a strong foreground image otherwise the photo looks average. I have been successful with this even with the 16mm fisheye.

-- Steve Bein (drbein@aol.com), May 17, 2000.