Your favorite wide prime in Nikon mount?

The one I use most is the 35/2 pre AI Nikkor O. I also have a 20/3.5 pre AI Nikkor UD, and I plan to get a 28mm when I find the right one.

The 35 spends as much time on the camera as the 50, the 20 is kind of a special purpose lens that I enjoy using; it is quite a good lens, the worst problem is falloff, but I can sometimes use that as part of the composition.

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned or not, but wides with 62mm or 52mm filter threads can easily be reversed for macro photography. I've had my 24/2.8 for about three years, but never tried reversing it until today! According to the BR-2A (reverse adapter) literature, the manual focus 24mm lens achieves an impressive 2.6X reproduction ratio (I don't have a 20mm, but it apparently reaches 3.4X). The biggest downside is that you can only focus by moving the whole camera back and forth, and if you're like me and you don't have a focusing stage, this means picking up your tripod up to move it a fraction of an inch while you try to keep your eye looking through the viewfinder. It's fun though.

I used the 2/35mm Ais for years but it paled in comparison to the 2/35mm Summicron-M I had at the time. I got rid of it when it developed a problem and needed service. Lateron I realised that 28mm worked better for me than 35mm and the Nikkor 2/28mm turned out to be a better lens than the Nikkor 2/35mm. Contrast and resolution are still not as good as with the Summicron but more than sufficient for what I do.

+1 for the 24mm, I have an old 24/2.8 which I had Ai'd and use it on my Nikkormat, FM2, F3HP and digital bodies... excellent optics and feel. On the AF side I have a 20/2.8 AF-D which is good in FX but I didn't like it for DX.

skahde said:

I used the 2/35mm Ais for years but it paled in comparison to the 2/35mm Summicron-M I had at the time. I got rid of it when it developed a problem and needed service. Lateron I realised that 28mm worked better for me than 35mm and the Nikkor 2/28mm turned out to be a better lens than the Nikkor 2/35mm. Contrast and resolution are still not as good as with the Summicron but more than sufficient for what I do.

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The 28mm/2.8 has better resolution and or sharpness than the f/2

That's what testing has shown, agreed, but the 28/2 does have it's own thing going on.

I just got the 20mm UD - very nice lens.

semeuse said:

I just got the 20mm UD - very nice lens.

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That's a hefty little bastard, isn't it? Congrats.
20mm is a FL I have been eyeballing for a long time and there is no version of 20mm Nikkor I didn't want/prefer at some point, but every time I had money something else came up on top.

I seem to have ended up with the 18mm 3.5 and the 20mm 2.8, the 18mm came first but the 20mm was one of those "deals" that you can't resist. Short story, both are excellent but I now always use the 20mm because it is so compact and takes the 52mm filters, makes a big difference.
Often think of selling the 18 but I dropped it a few years back and there is a sizable ding in the filter mount, kinda ruins the resale value! Testament to the build quality though, the optics were not affected in any way....can't do that with a modern zoom!

Doesn't 20/2.8 take 62mm filters? It's the 20/3.5 AI-S and 20/4 that are 52mm.

semeuse said:

I just got the 20mm UD - very nice lens.

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That's a fun lens, isn't it?

Put that and an Ftn finder on an F, every other 35mm camera will seem lightweight.