Sharpness

Sharpness at 16mm

The sharpness tests for this review were carried out using a real-world subject rather than a test chart. The Nikkor 16-35mm f4 VR lens was attached to a Nikon D700 body, which in turn was mounted on a sturdy tripod. Exposure Delay Mode was activated. Slight tonal changes are due to slight changes in natural light during the session. The 100% crops represent about 1/300th of the total frame area.

The full frame at 16mm

At 16mm the centre is already pretty sharp wide open, and centre sharpness peaks at f/5.6. Upon close inspection, the effects of diffraction start to become obvious at f/16 and more so at f/22, but not enough to worry about. The same can be said about the edge crops too.

Aperture	Centre Crop	Edge Crop
f/4
f/5.6
f/8
f/11
f/16
f/22