While shooting some portraits at La Trobe University recently, I was asked to take some simple interior shots of the new Bistro at Glenn College. This area had recently been redesigned by Melbourne based PAD Architects and I had the opportunity to try using the Nikkor 14-24mm 2.8G lens to capture the interiors. My normal lens for this type of work is the Canon 17mm TS-E attached to either a 1Ds MkIII or 5D MkIII, and while I have used the Nikkor 14-24 many times for large group portraits in a confined space, I had never really used it in photographing architecture.

All of the above images were taken on the Nikon D3. While I found the lens to be amazingly tack sharp, my personal preference for this type of work is still the Canon 17mm…I did find that I had to remove a fair amount of distortion in Photoshop, something I still have to do with the Canon lens, but certainly to a lesser degree. Like all ultra-wide angle lenses, there was a significant amount of flair to contend with, which again is something I am used to seeing and dealing with. Focusing is as silky smooth and competent as you would expect from Nikon, and the overall colour and contrast is very nice and natural; all images were shot on a tripod at ISO 200.

I am sure that there will be other photographers with perhaps a different experience or view, and as wonderfully sharp as the lens is overall (particularly in the corners, as is my copy of the Canon 17mm to be fair), I really missed the tilt shift capabilities. Still a superb piece of glass however, and definitely recommended if you are looking for the best Nikon wide angle!