Nikon Nikkor 28mm f/3.5 (The Best Budget Nikon 28mm Lens?) | Round Glass Review

The most significant problem with modern lens design is that, some years ago, some savvy marketing person said ‘hey, let’s take all these engineering charts and throw them into our marketing literature. No one will know what they mean but they’ll assume because they’re included that they must be awesome.’ Now lens design suffers because so many new lenses are built to provide awesome MTF charts, not fantastic image characteristics.
Why is that a problem? Because it makes the images from those lenses sterile, drab, and functionally lifeless, not to mention relatively identical across the brands. I can’t tell a modern Canon lens from a modern Sony, Nikon, or Fuji lens, with a handful of exceptions. But I can pretty reliably recognize the image character of vintage Nikon, Canon, Olympus, and Pentax lenses. And I think that losing a focus on image character in the name of technical demonstration has been a great loss to the camera industry.
Part of using old lenses is embracing their image aesthetic and character. Lenses like these were designed on ancient computers equally, perhaps less, powerful as a four-function calculator. Humans with analog computing devices like slide rules still did a significant amount of manual design calculation. These lenses are not close to as technically perfect as a modern lens; that’s a huge part of the magic. The imperfections in these lenses, and let’s be clear that the imperfections are little more than nit-picky little differences in many cases, create photographs that capture scenes beautifully. Embrace it. That’s what these lenses do, and do far better than many new lenses.
In fact, the very same Photography Life review I read that pointed out this lens’ field curvature and mustache distortion recommended the 28mm f/1.8 G over this lens because it’s sharper across the whole field than this lens, but downplayed, at best, that in the center this lens is equally as sharp as or sharper than the modern, faster lens. As a sidebar, I’m certain that their affiliate link also had no bearing on their lens recommendation.
Quality and high-end old lenses are not soft and they are not poor and they do not fill your images with flaws. Quality old lenses give your images a lifelike look and feel that is frankly unmatched by most lens makers today. This is an incredibly high-quality old lens and if you know how to use it your images will look fantastic.
A lot of people come to this video series looking for ways to improve their photography and their lens use, and I believe have an idea that a new lens will hold a secret magic that unlocks their creativity. If that is you, here is the best advice you will ever hear about your photography: Ignore the technical reports and sections in lens reviews. Pick a lens based on what it does for your overall lineup based on sample images you see from it. If that lens has some kind of magic that you need, it’s not going to show it to you the first time out. So pick a lens, slap it on your camera, leave it there for six months, and use only it. Forget everything you think you know about lens technical data and take time to learn the vernacular of lens use from your lenses. Lenses will speak to you, but not on your clock, and only if you try to listen.
Join this channel to get access to perks:
/ @davidhancock
David Hancock's Amazon Author Page with Links to Select Camera Manual eBooks:
www.amazon.com/David-Hancock/...
Video Index:
0:00 - Intro
0:15 - Skip the Intro
3:00 - Nikon Nikkor 28mm f/3.5 Specifications
5:20 - Nikon Nikkor 28mm f/3.5 Tips & Tricks
9:59 - Nikon Nikkor 28mm f/3.5 Lens Diagram & Ray Trace
11:16 - Nikon Nikkor 28mm f/3.5 Video Use
14:39 - Nikon Nikkor 28mm f/3.5 Strengths & Weaknesses
19:53 - Nikon Nikkor 28mm f/3.5 Narrative
References:
lens-db.com/nikon-nikkor-28mm...
radojuva.com/en/2020/05/obzor...
www.momentcorp.com/review/nikk...
imaging.nikon.com/history/sto...
photographylife.com/reviews/n...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ang%C3%...
My Instagram:
/ davidhancock
"Suffer City Blues" by Suffer City used under active license from Epidemic Sound at the time of this video's upload.

[@josephcurry4891]

Your end comments are the sort of real talk I think most people need to hear. And it's honestly the sort of thing I need to hear. I've been going down a bit of a rabbit hole trying to get myself motivated to shoot more again and have started down this vintage in modern road. And I know that when I started out I always shot with what came with the camera I bought. It just so happened my canon ae-1 came with the 35mm f2 concave. But my k1000 came with a 50mm, and my rebel xt came with a kit lens. And at that time I had no interest or ability to think outside of what I had. Now I see myself wringing my hands about what to get or what to use when going out. And I long for the days of less options when I would grab one of my maybe 2 cameras and shoot what I could in blissful ignorance of what it could be. But very aware of what I could get away with.

[@DavidHancock]

Thank you! The best thing I can say about lenses is to shoot with a small number of them, most people really only need one to three prime lenses (fewer for people who use zooms) and getting to know a few lenses well and knowing how they perform is manyfold more beneficial for anyone's photography than owning stacks of gear that gets used once every few years.

[@markorchard2272]

I have just found your channel. Bloody superb!

[@DavidHancock]

Thank you!

[@SpaghettiPaparazzi]

Thanks for the wonderful review.

[@DavidHancock]

Thank you!

[@richardsimms251]

Another excellent presentation. Thank you. RS. Canada

[@DavidHancock]

Thank you, Richard!

[@alejoniux]

Great review!!

[@DavidHancock]

Thank you!

[@ryanbeer5262]

One of my favorite Nikon lenses. I have the earlier H version. There where several versions all with the same basic optical formula.

[@DavidHancock]

I concur. It's a stunning little lens.

[@paulschmolke188]

Good counsel👍🏽 I like my 24 a little better but I’ve used both for years and they’re a bit different. My camera? Nikon F and Nikon D800. I’ve used the standard F cameras since the late 60’s. Many different types of film. A favorite is the now discontinued Agfachrome transparency film. Another is Tri-X. I’ve shot thousands of rolls of Tri-X and understand how it responds. With the Agfachrome, I just like the color saturation best of all color films. It worked great using Cibachrome as a final print medium. Regarding the lenses, I long ago established a blind trust relationship with Nikon glass and I’ve never been disappointed.

[@DavidHancock]

Thank you! The 24mm is a fantastic lens on your cameras, too.

[@agxiso]

great video. great lens.

[@DavidHancock]

Thank you!

[@blackbelt4488]

Great review. I just picked up a nice copy for $50 and am very satisfied. What film were you using?

[@DavidHancock]

Nice! I used a variety of films or the 35mm shots with this. I don't recall all of them.

[@edwardcrosby5034]

I have the 28mm f2.8 which has the reputation of being the best 28mm lens in the Nikon line-up. My experience is that it produces very sharp images at close range due to close-range correction system. For landscapes I think the f3.5 would be a better choice .

[@DavidHancock]

Thank you! I've never used the 2.8 before but, someday.

[@loukashareangas4420]

I'll add my two cents pertaining to the Nikkor-H Non-AI version that I have. -The aperture ring is unusually thinner compared to most other non-AI lenses, meaning that AFAIK you can mount it on Nikon DSLR cameras with an AI aperture ring and not damage the camera. YMMV! I have modified mine to couple to the feeler as well. -It doesn't read anything on my Geiger counter, however it has a warm/yellowish colorcast and I will at some point bake it under a UV light and see if that goes away. Don't snort the glass powder if you break it just in case! -Nikon tried to keep their standard 52mm filter thread size but that makes the lens barely not cut off the image corners. If you add a medium thickness UV (or other) filter on the front you will probably get black corners (on the very edge though, easily cropable) -Great lens in my experience, can be had pretty cheap on eBay.

[@DavidHancock]

Thank you, Loukas! Those are great points.

[@morgankarno7335]

Just picked a mint copy of this lens for 50 dallors and 30 shipping, I also have a 28 2.8 ais, I love the 28 2.8 but from what I have seen from the 28 3.5 which I bought for infrared performance is an amazing little lens in my eyes. So far as I have only owned this lens for 12 hours , it has a pleasent natural rendering and sharp and soft at the same time it looks glorious so far , it has no coma when shooting stars wide open, as well as beautiful sun stars on Nikon z7ll, on my infrared converted camera it has no hot spots and produces fantastic IR but I need much more testing in this arena. The 28 2.8 on the other hand has beautiful rendering decent sun stars but not as good as the 28 3.5 it has horrible corners for stars though a bit of a stop down and crop fixes it and the 28 2.8 has been disappointing for infrared, and it cost me 3x more just some quick observations and Ihave a good feeling about this little lens from the 70s

[@DavidHancock]

Nice! Having used both, this would generally be my choice between the two. This lens renders a special character into the images.

[@pers4855]

Is there chromatic aberration at 3.5?

[@DavidHancock]

Surpassingly little bit some, IIRC. I don't recall it being a problem that I ran into often or in a way that affected images from those lens.

[@amermeleitor]

My Nikkor 28mm 3.5 have not plastic parts, it's all metal 🤔 Maybe is an older model

[@DavidHancock]

Probably is.

[@westonharby165]

The ais version of this lens is better in every way, and perhaps one of the best wide angles ever made.

[@DavidHancock]

Nice and thank you! I haven't tried that lens yet.

[@westonharby165]

@@DavidHancock I have a good example if you'd like to review it. Nikon has several killer ais lenses that are still excellent choices.

[@robin9339]

@@DavidHancock I totally agree. 28mm f/3.5 AI/AIS version is a very underrated lens. it perform way better than E series version. with very beauitful colour rendering.

[@LEGOTROLL1]

👍✌️🙏

[@thevalleyofdisappointment]

f the lens on my enlarger cost $100 new and is say fairly decent but not flawless in quality and all my printing is analogue could you argue that spending twice the money on that CRC 2.8 is pointless from a purely practical point of view?

[@DavidHancock]

Most enlarger lenses are pretty good, the exceptions being super budget lenses. For the majority of users, the differences between, for example, a Rodagon, Nikkor, and Schneider will be virtually unnoticeable.

[@CRJines]

It's a little soft compared to the 24 mm

[@DavidHancock]

I believe it (not having used the 24.) 24mm lenses tend to be a bit better than 28mm lenses, which I think comes down to the engineering effort put into those due to the higher price.