MF Utrawide Zooms. How many are there?

[Bill De Jager]

20-35mm AFD f/2.8 is a very nice lens, the MF fell is very nice and smooth and it's very compact, almost no geometrical distortion on top!

I like the lens but I don't like the poor edges and corners wide open.  My copy isn't just soft wide open in the peripheral regions but shows noticeable sagittal/tangential aberrations there.

[Steven Paulsen]

Guessing depth of field, ie hyper-focal distance in setting focus for a digital camera is hit and miss, definitely not recommended, not even for ultra wide lenses. A scale on the lens barrel will not change that.
20-35mm AFD f/2.8 is a very nice lens, the MF fell is very nice and smooth and it's very compact, almost no geometrical distortion on top!

I am mainly speaking towards landscape photography, setting the DOF scale so includes fore and far ground. People, specific subjects all warrant somewhat precise face/eye focus.


With my 20 or 24 "locked" on f8, (aperture & focus,) it allows a lot less hassle trudging through the wooded areas and farmland. Just compose and click.

In my lifetime, I lost more shots due to Af not nailing the subject than my manual focus, point/shoot method.

[Erik Lund]

I like the lens but I don't like the poor edges and corners wide open.  My copy isn't just soft wide open in the peripheral regions but shows noticeable sagittal/tangential aberrations there.

Well, yes not up to high corner standards, fully open, but I guess this is not really what he is looking for, stopped down...

[Erik Lund]

I am mainly speaking towards landscape photography, setting the DOF scale so includes fore and far ground. People, specific subjects all warrant somewhat precise face/eye focus.


With my 20 or 24 "locked" on f8, (aperture & focus,) it allows a lot less hassle trudging through the wooded areas and farmland. Just compose and click.

In my lifetime, I lost more shots due to Af not nailing the subject than my manual focus, point/shoot method.

Did you try live view? To determine correct depth of focus. If not I would recommend to give it a try


Sorry to hear Af is not working out for you...

[Steven Paulsen]

There are several phone apps that I use for reference in setting hyperfocal distance and I'm fine with the results.


This is an older focusing approach that mainly involves using wider primes for landscape shooting.


I only ever use live view for macro on a pod. I also sometimes wish the camera didn't have that annoying rear display, or at least cover for the same.

[Pistnbroke]

Being a bit cheeky but why Not the Samyang 14-28mm?  Well OK its not a zoom but its so sharp you can crop 50% and not notice so thats 28mm .. The Samyang 14mm  F2.8 On a D850  uses 30 MP of the available MP and just set it to F5.6  and 10ft focus and just click away.

[paul hofseth]

if the question  is primarily about MFwide zooms and not constrained by back focus distance, the Leitz 21-35 should qualify, it also is reasonably good.-

Its rear element retaing ring is a bil too long to clear a Canon 5DII mirror, but some careful filing of the  bil that the mirror hits solves the problem-The Leicaflexes and successors  had long flange distances and peculiar mirror mechanics- (a  rear mount lens- cutout is just like the kilfitt wide macro which also has a sloping bit to avoid the mirror (at least my made in Liechtenstein, Alpa-mount copy)

p.