Nikon AF-S Nikkor 10-24mm Mini-Review

This is mini review of the widest focal length of the lens. I did not measure any other. I guess that 10mm is most important in evaluation of this lens since there are many good 12mm lenses, but few 10mm lenses.

Update 20130529: I have tested the lens on FX camera for various focal lenghts. Results are at the bottom.

Lens

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 10-24mm 1:3.5-4.5G ED, made in China.

Camera

Body: Nikon D90.
Image: Fine JPG (so chromatic abberation is corrected), ADL off, ISO 200.

Scene 1 - Wall with test chart

Camera is on tripod.
Distance 1.3m from front of lens to wall.
Wall was approximately perpendicular to image axis.
Target is laser print to 4 glued A4-format papers, the indicated 16:9 frame is 48cm wide. It is not very flat which affect the distorsion when viewed from side (corner target).
Light is combined:
- Morning overcast light from side window (so captured intensity depends on distance and angle to window), uneven.
- SB-600 Flash set to 14mm, remote, TTL -0.3 comp. Aiming at target.
Focus: live view, normal focus area size. Focus area placed always at center as live view focus on corner produced worse results. Center focus target when test chart was in corner was black Nikon compact disk as supplied with D90.
Test chart: http://www.graphics.cornell.edu/~westin/misc/res-chart.html. I have modified outer thick border to be 50% gray instead of black to save toner.
All pictures use focal length of 10mm. Shutter was 1/60 for all pictures, but note that flash is running at thousandths of second.

Series A

Target is in center, focus is on center.
Note: As flash was far, the window light contributed more and there is some light falloff at small apertures.

Overview:
A overview
100% crops:

Mouse over the image from left to right to see all images:
Series A
If you cannot mouse over, here are direct links: A f/3.5 A f/4 A f/5.6 A f/8 A f/11 .

Series B:

Target is in corner, focus is on center.
Note: flash was near so light falloff is minimal.

Overview:
B overview
100% crops:

Mouse over the image from left to right to see all images:
Series B
If you cannot mouse over, here are direct links: B f/3.5 B f/4 B f/5.6 B f/8 B f/11 .

Other look at corner (Series B) - all pictures from f/3.5 to f/11, all at 50% crops (as converted with ImageMagick convert -resize 50% -filter point)
B f/3.5 B f/4 B f/5.6 B f/8 B f/11

Can you see any important difference? At this 50% image magnification the full picture on my monitor would be 55cm wide. Is that enough or not?

Note that I have tested throughly only single corner. Others does not look any better or worse in normal pictures.

Scene 2 - Urban landscape

Place: Prague, Czech Republic, Europe. A view from Letna to Old City.
Pictures has been taken so that horizon is diagonal to show detail in corners.
Parameters: 10mm focal length, tripod mounted, ISO 200, ADL off, exposure: aperture priority +0.7 correction to expose for detail in borders, Live view focused on horizon in center, then turned to manual focus.

Overview (two compositions to cover all four corners):
Urban overview 1 Urban overview 2

Mouse over following images from left to right to see all apertures. Picture corner is indicated by red border.
Series P BL
If you cannot mouse over, here are direct links: A f/3.5 A f/4.5 A f/5.6 A f/8 A f/11 A f/16 .

Series P BR
If you cannot mouse over, here are direct links: A f/3.5 A f/4.5 A f/5.6 A f/8 A f/11 A f/16 .

Series P UL
If you cannot mouse over, here are direct links: A f/3.5 A f/4.5 A f/5.6 A f/8 A f/11 A f/16 .

Series P UR
If you cannot mouse over, here are direct links: A f/3.5 A f/4.5 A f/5.6 A f/8 A f/11 A f/16 .

Center - there is no need to wory about sharpness in center except for diffraction.
Series P A Center
If you cannot mouse over, here are direct links: A f/3.5 A f/4.5 A f/5.6 A f/8 A f/11 A f/16 .

Note that f/16 is noticably worse than f/11 in all pictures due to diffraction. In the center f/4.5 to f/5.6 are sharpest, f/3.5 and f/8 are bit worse. In the extreme corners f/11 is best.

Using lens on FX

Using this DX lens on FX camera is not a good idea, however with current cheap FX bodies any photographer using DX cameras scratches his/hers head and ask a question "what would be my upgrade path to FX, do I need to upgrade all of my lenses or some of them will work?". This lens indeed works at some apertures and possibly with some cropping.

I have tested the lens on Nikon D3. Here are the test images: browse all FX test files (nef raw file, jpg files from nef preview, and thumbnail jpgs are included). All files are at f/8.