I am eyeing a light 35mm wide lens for Nikon mount but I don't read too many good reviews on Nikon E 35mm F2.8. Is this E lens really that bad? Any good alternatives from Tamron, Vivitar or other 2rd party makers?
Pony up for the Nikkor 35 2.8, I have one with a gouge in the glass and it makes tack-sharp images. Excellent color saturation. You can find them for around 100 dollars in much better shape than mine and it is well worth the investment.
I have a Series E 35 mm f2.5, didn't know there was a f2.8 version as well. The f2.5 version is compact, suffers from little distortion and I guess it's pretty sharp as well.
The very best Nikkor 35mm f/2.8 is the K or early Ai version, look for serial number of 77xxx or in the 80xxx, those have a different optical formula, extremely low distortion, great sharpness (a feature of every 2.8) and very nice bokeh (better than the others).