On Fri, 16 Oct 1998 13:02:12 -0400, Fabian Wong wrote:

>I am considering the Nikon series E 28mm f2.8 lens for my next purchase
>and am wondering about the performance of this lens. Does anyone out
>there have any opinions about this little lens, good or bad. I have read
>some reviews on the web and some are good re optical quality and some
>are not so good.
>
>I own a nikon 100mm series E f2.8 lens and I feel the optical quality is
>excellent, the ergonomics feel more solid than the latter AF lenses and
>IMHO very good value for money.

Maybe one of those "reviews on the web" (my Nikkor evaluation list,
under "I babble" on my web page...) was one of them...? ;-)
I've tried several, and unlike most of the other E lenses, which are
first-rate, the 5-element 28 E (and same-optic'd first-version AF...)
is one of Nikon's worst efforts... I think the differences in opinions
may arise from differences in the weight people give to edge/corner
performance. The center is quite sharp, but the edges/corners are
poor (even stopped well down, except in the rare better sample...).
For me, a lens that is not capable of reasonably sharp corner
performance at a particular stop is not sharp at that stop (and if
corners are not good at ANY stop....). BTW, the current Pop Photo
reviews the optically-improved AF-D version and raves about it - but
for me, this is still second-rate, and far inferior to the *AIS* MF
Nikkor 28mm f2.8 which is sharp in the corners at most stops.
With wide angles, the edges are often within DOF - but if the lens
can't render the edges sharp, what good is it? (For this reason, I
have a low opinion of most wide-angle zooms, too...)