Best Performing 24mm Lenses for Nikon D800

Best Performing 24mm Lenses for Nikon D800 camera. The 24mm lens can provide an extensive field of view and good close focus capability and has been one of the most popular wide-angle models. The test results of Samyang 24mm f/1.4 ED AS UMC (AE) lens has been published by DxOMark. And they listed the best performing 24mm lenses for the Nikon D800 DSLR camera. Price at $669, Samyang 24mm f/1.4 ED AS UMC (AE) lens provides excellent performance.

Lens Price DxOMark Score Sharpness P-MPix Buy now
Carl Zeiss Distagon T 25mm f/2 ZF.2 $1,699 34 22 Amazon
Nikon AF-S Nikkor 24mm f/1.4G ED $1,839 34 17 Amazon
Samyang 24mm f/1.4 ED AS UMC $669 33 21 Amazon
Carl Zeiss Distagon T 25mm f/2.8 ZF.2 $1,004 23 15 Amazon

Below is DxOMark conclusion on the Samyang 24mm f/1.4 ED AS UMC (AE) lens:

The best performing 24mm lens on the Nikon D800 is, surprisingly perhaps, not the relatively new AF-S Nikkor 24mm f1.4G ED but the marginally more affordable manual focus Zeiss Distagon T* 2,0/25 ZF.2. As we can see from the DxOMark score it’s highly corrected, like the Nikkor, but along with a more modest maximum aperture it has noticeably higher peak sharpness. Although the Nikkor is a superb performer, the Zeiss is sharper at every aperture. Even at the initial aperture, the Zeiss has better sharpness and uniformity than Nikkor at f2.0. In third place is the Samyang. It has almost the same DxOMark score, while peak sharpness surpasses even that of the excellent Nikkor.

Given the price, the Samyang is a tempting choice but it lacks the outright performance of both the Nikkor and the Zeiss where it counts most for this type of lens. Nevertheless, performance is still very good at the wider-apertures, and as this model has both the convenience of a built-in CPU and an auto-aperture it’s a far more attractive proposition than the EF mount version is to Canon users. It’s not the best performer optically, that title goes to the Zeiss and if you must have AF, the choice then is limited to the Nikkor, however the Samyang is a decent performer and offers great value.