"T P" <tp@nospam.com> wrote in message news:nsa6hv08mitrd8ppp53fut67nma169fa1u@4ax.com...

> "Jim MacKenzie" <jim@dusykbarlow.sk.ca> wrote:

> >I care. :) And I realize the limitations of my 20-35 at f/2.8 and f/4. I

> >shoot the lens at f/2.8 because I have to; if I don't, I stop down.

> >Intelligent use of the lens gives me good results.

> >

> >I found the corner sharpness of my 28/2.8D to be extremely good. It blew

> >away my 35/2, which is generally considered to be an excellent lens. Maybe

> >I got lucky and so did Popular Photography, but I know a lot of other people

> >who share my enthusiasm for the lens, so I'm inclined to think you saw a bad

> >one. I have, however, never used the AI-S. The D is certainly head and

> >shoulders above the E lens, which I do know well.

> Well said, Jim. My experience seems identical to yours; my 20-35mm

> was the best of the three examples I have tested and the 28mm f/2.8D

> was simply amazing.

>

> The AF 28mm f/2.8D Nikkor is not only a huge improvement on the very

> good non-D version, but it also beats the excellent AIS version.

>

> I rest my case.

The "D" 28mm f2.8 AF I tried was an improvement over the non-D,

but was not particularly good at the edges and corners, even stopped

well down. Since it is a 6-element non-floating element "step-up" from

the generally rather poor 5-element non-D AF and E, it's performance

was about as expected: better, but not great. The AIS 28mm f2.8 is an

8-element design that includes a floating element for better correction

with distance changes, and as one might expect, it is a better performer

than either of the AF 28mm f2.8s (though it is not perfect). And it does

give surprisingly good images wide-open (as does the newer 28mm

f3.5 version also), unlike the Nikkor 28mm f2 or f1.4 (or the AF 2.8s).

My favorite of the bunch of Nikkor 28mm lenses for overall image

quality remains the 28mm f4 PC, which surprisingly (along with the

28-70 f3.5-4.5 Nikkor) showed better backlight brilliance than the

AIS f2.8 or the f1.4. The 28mm f2.8 D does show excellent contrast

and brilliance, which can make the image look sharper than it really

is - but, then, mebbe thet'z awl thet reely cowntz...;-)