Affiliate notice
You can trust that our articles are free from bias and you should know that as a participant in several affiliate programs, if you choose to make a purchase using a link on cameraio.com, we may receive a commission (this doesn't impact your pricing in any way).

8 Best Wide Angle Lenses for Nikon DX (2022 Guide & Reviews)

Subscribe to the CameraIO NewsletterPhotography & Camera News + DEALS

The lens is an integral part of your Nikon DX camera. There are many options for the best wide-angle lens for Nikon DX. These wide-angle lenses are suitable for landscape and architectural photography, interior, city, and generally typical everyday photography.

Best Wide Angle Lenses for Nikon DX (Reviews)

Here are some of the best wide-angle lenses for Nikon dx you are likely to come across:

Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 16-80mm f/2.8-4E ED Vibration Reduction Zoom Lens with Auto Focus for Nikon DSLR Cameras

1. Nikon AF-S 16-80mm Lens

  • It has an Aperture Range of f/2.8 to f/32.
  • It’s designed with three Aspherical elements and Four ED elements.
  • Nano Crystal & Super Integrated Coating.
  • Its front and rear elements are Fluorine-Coated.
  • It uses Vibration Reduction Image Stabilization.
  • It has a Rounded 7-Blade Diaphragm with an electromagnetic Diaphragm Mechanism.
Pros
  • It has a compact design.
  • It captures a sharp image.
  • It allows image stabilization.
  • It has a 5x optical zoom and a magnification ratio of 1:4.
Cons
  • It isn’t compatible with older D-SLR.
  • It is costly.

This lens is perfect if you want to take extraordinary photos with outstanding quality and capture the finest details. This zoom lens has a fast f/2.8-4 aperture, and it is suitable for everyday photography as it allows Vibration Reduction stabilization. This, together with the incorporated advanced lens technology, allows coverage of wide-angle views and portrait views with excellent image quality, even in low light and for HD video.

This lens is designed with a bright maximum aperture range suitable for shooting images in low light conditions and regulating the field depth. This lens is designed with Nano Crystal and Super Integrated Coatings, which are responsible for minimization of ghosting and flare to give your images a striking color contrast and accuracy in any setting.

This lens’s optical design is also striking, with three aspherical elements and four extra-low dispersion elements. These are responsible for regulating chromatic and spherical aberrations to give you a sharp and clear image. In addition to these optical elements, this lens is designed with a Vibration Reduction image stabilization system, which ensures a stable and sharp handheld shooting.

This lens’s performance is exemplary, and if you want to capture images with a pro-grade quality, this is the best choice. It uses Nano Crystal Coat to get rid of glare, which allows you to capture vibrant color and detail in images and a rich tone.

This lens can improve contrast and sharpness in images and minimize color aberration using its Aspherical elements and the Extra-low Dispersion Glass. This lens uses Silent Wave Motor technology to produce sharp images. It also has a quiet and quick autofocus performance and a full-time override for manual focus.

There is an electromagnetic diaphragm that ensures there is stability even when shooting at fast and continuous frequencies. The lens has a plastic body, which makes it lightweight and suitable for travel photography.  It has three switches that allow you to switch from Manual to auto manual focus; there is a normal-active VR switch and an on and off VR switch.

This lens has a Nano Coating, which helps in the regulation of flare in images. The lens mount of this lens is metallic, and around it, there is a rubber seal to keep off the dust from the camera body.

This lens is perfect for accurate autofocus performance. It is rock steady and allows you to capture brilliant images, even in low light, without blurring the images. Also, there is a Tripod VR mode, which helps control the impacts of tripod vibration in images. Its electromagnetic diaphragm mechanism functions co-currently with the shutter to ensure a steady exposure control when using high speed.


Tokina AT-X 116 PRO DX-II 11-16mm f/2.8 Lens for Canon Mount

2. Tokina 11-16mm Lens

  • It uses a One-Touch Clutch Mechanism.
  • This lens has a 9-Bade aperture diaphragm with an f/2.8 aperture throughout zoom distance.
  • It has an ultra-wide-angle zoom and it’s multicoated.
  • It has 2 SD glass elements.
Pros
  • It has an excellent, solid build.
  • It doesn’t have lens creep.
  • It is affordable.
  • It produces super sharp images with slight but tolerable vignetting.
  • The manual/ auto slip ring makes it very effective.
Cons
  • It has a short range of focus.
  • There is some barrel distortion at the wide end.

This Autofocus lens is a short zoom range made for select Nikon DX-format digital cameras. It has a slightly shorter zoom range that allows your images to have a maintained optical quality at wide-angle apertures. This lens is designed with a fast f/2.8 aperture for excellent optics. It is a tough and fast ultra-wide lens, but it isn’t as ergonomically functional as Canon and Nikon lenses.

This lens has a plastic barrel finish and a rubber-coated ring surface that keeps the lens solid. This lens is designed with such advanced features as the Water Resistant Front element and a One-Touch Focus Clutch mechanism that permits switching between MF and AF manually using the focus ring.

Also, this lens is designed with a 9-bladed aperture to ensure a smooth focus in out-of-focus areas. This rounded diaphragm opening on the nine-blade aperture adds a natural look too out of focus images and elements. This lens has no normal switches, and it doesn’t do well in a wet climate.

This lens uses its Water Resistant (WR) coating, which offers great performance when it comes to oil and water repellence. If there is any smear from fingerprints, dust, or cosmetics on the lens, it is easy to clean it off without affecting the image quality.

The One-Touch Focus Clutch mechanism of this lens improves its performance as it permits easy and fast switching between autofocus and manual focus modes at any spot. This lens is only suitable for 1.6x or DX, and if you use it on full-frame, there’s likely to be black corners in your images.

This lens’s ergonomics are quite okay, too, with a smooth and well-damped zoom that can be controlled with moderate pressure using a fingertip. When it comes to vignetting, this lens has no issues, even when using a thick rotating filter.

This ultra-wide-angle lens is perfect for capturing architecture, especially indoors and in automobile photography. It has a shorter range of focal length compared to other wide-angle zoom lenses.

This lens has a wide maximum aperture of f/2.8 that allows impeccable low light action and quality images with a fairly good background blur to compensate for this focal length. Optically, this lens is great, and it has a more solid build than Canon and Nikon’s lenses.

This lens is suitable for shooting HD videos with your digital camera. It has an internal focusing motor that permits smooth focus transitions and improved multicoating for minimizing aberrations and producing sharp images with excellent contrast.

This lens is suitable because of its ease of use; you can operate it with one hand without necessarily switching from AF to MF on the body. It has a beautiful manual focus and a big metal ring that is smooth and faultlessly dampens.


Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-140mm f/3.5-5.6G ED Vibration Reduction Zoom Lens with Auto Focus for Nikon DSLR Cameras

3. Nikon AF-S 18-140mm Lens

  • It has an aperture range of f/3.5 to f/3.8.
  • It has a 7-blade Rounded Diaphragm.
  • It allows Vibration Reduction image stabilization.
  • It uses a Silent Wave Motor AF technology system.
  • This lens has a Super integrated coating to ensure a quiet Auto-Focus operation.
Pros
  • It has a very high resolution for capturing brilliant images.
  • It has good sharpness across the full focal range.
Cons
  • It has a high distortion at the wide end.

This versatile lens was developed for high-resolution image sensors, and it offers an all-in-one zooming ability over wide-angle or mid-telephoto ranges. This lens opens up a variety of photographic possibilities by shooting images with brilliant quality from any distance and across the full range.

It has a 7.8x zoom range that gives it the versatility to capture beautiful portraits, very detailed close-ups, and excellent wide-angles images. This lens has VR image stability that gets rid of camera shake, which gives you a clear and sharp in-focus of images and video.

It is designed with some special optics that attribute to its performance and functionality.  This lens has Aspherical lens elements, which ensures you capture an exceptional image with edge-to-edge sharpness. The Aspherical lens element is for the reduction of chromatic aberrations while the Extra-Low Dispersion glass gets rid of flares and reflections, which augments color contrast.

If you want a lens that is a great versatile performer, this is the best choice for you. Its 7.8x wide zoom range makes it easy to shoot portraits, landscapes, and telephoto close-ups with rich details. This lens has some state-of-the-art features that offer a magnificent image quality at full range.  This lens realizes a high optical performance using the aspherical lens element and the one ED glass element.

This lens is suitable as it is used effortlessly without necessarily needing a tripod, even in low-light settings. This lens’s VR image stabilization system ensures that camera shake is minimal, so even when you’re shooting handheld, your images will have no blur.  This lens allows the use of slower shutter speeds in low-light situations to get impeccable image quality.

This lens features VR technology from Nikon, which is impeccable in combating blurring that results from shaky hands, and a Silent Wave Motor responsible for maintaining quiet and fast autofocus. This lens is an advanced one, and it performs exquisitely by meeting the high resolution of Nikon D-SLRs.

This lens is designed with Aspherical lens elements that help improve the image color and quality by reducing aberrations. If you want an ultra-fast lens with great autofocus and outstanding optics, this is the lens for you.


Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED Zoom Lens with Auto Focus for Nikon DSLR Cameras

4. Nikon AF-S 10-24mm Lens

  • It has a newly developed optical system featuring three aspherical elements and two ED glass elements.
  • It has two focus modes, Manual focus, and manual priority autofocus.
  • It has a 7-Blade Rounded Diaphragm that gives images a natural blur effect.
  • It uses Silent Wave Motor Technology for a smooth and quiet AF operation.
  • This lens has an Internal Focusing System which prevents the barrel length from shifting during focus.
Pros
  • It allows the capturing of sharp images with stunning quality.
  • It is a good alternative for Nikon users.
  • It offers an incredible Point of view range.
Cons
  • It is slightly costly.

This ultra-wide-angle coverage lens is perfect if you want to take photography and HD video shooting to the extreme. It has a very wide-end aperture that allows the delivery of a dramatic perspective for quality images. This lens has a close-up capability, which allows you to shoot with minimum distortion on images.

This advanced lens is optimized for use with DX-format D-SRL cameras. It utilizes non-spherical surfaces on either or both sides of the glass to get rid of aberrations, which are made possible by the AS lens elements. It is designed with an Extra-low dispersion glass, which is used on telephoto lenses for maximum correction of chromatic and spherical aberrations.

This lens also features Silent Wave Motor (SWM) technology for a fast, ultra-quiet focus, and a SIC to manage flare and ghosting in images. This lens is suitable for achieving peak performance in still and HD video shooting alike. This lens is an IF (Internal Focus) lens, which means that only the internal lens group moves when focusing.

This lens is a mid-range optic that offers a minimum focal distance of 0.24m through the whole zoom range. It has a built-in AF-S motor, responsible for enabling autofocus on Nikon cameras with a manual focus override full time. This lens’s optical formula consists of 14 elements in 9 groups, which includes the aspherical and glass elements for combatting aberration.

This lens was designed compactly to capture the drama and expansiveness of the world surrounding you. It is suitable for taking photos and HD videos of landscapes, architecture, cityscapes, and interiors, among others. This lens is versatile enough, allowing you to focus on subjects at close range with a stunning and remarkable quality enabled by the Nikon technologies incorporate.

This lens offers an ultra-wide, ultra-quiet, and dramatic 110-degree image angle, and as a host of most Nikon technologies, the lens guarantees stunning image quality and very fast handling. This is made possible by the three aspherical lens elements, the two ED glass elements, and the exclusive Silent Wave Motor.


Rokinon 16mm F/2.0 ED AS UMC CS Lens for Nikon F Mount Cameras

5. Rokinon 16MAF-N 16mm Lens

  • It has a wide-angle focal length.
  • This lens has a fast f/2.0 maximum aperture that allows effective shooting in low light and when using a shallow field depth.
  • It has ED and Aspherical lens elements for the reduction of aberration.
  • This lens has a UMC lens coating, which permits the light transmission and reduces flare and ghosting for images with clarity.
Pros
  • This lens allows smooth focus with no slop.
  • It has a solid mechanical design for easy usage.
  • It has Optical sharpness and a Fast f/2.0 focal ratio.
Cons
  • It allows manual focus and aperture only and lacks autofocus.

This lens is specially made for DSLR cameras and APS-C crop sensors, and it is suitable for out-of-focus backgrounds when shooting landscapes, night sky, or even portraits. This lens uses Astro Photography, which allows you to have a smooth focus as well as precise control, which results in images with excellent quality. It features eight rounded blades, which are responsible for the creation of a sense of dimension with amazing background blur, whether you are shooting indoors or doing night shooting.

This lens has a solid and compact construction, which is futuristic of the previous Rokinon lenses. It has a buttery smooth design, which is advantageous when using manual focus because it gives you a good grip. Generally, the design of this lens is good, but you have to be careful with the internal optics of this camera.

This lens has a generally good performance for its specs. It provides a wide angle of view, which results in a 35mm format. This lens is a fast maximum aperture of f/2.0, which enables effective shooting even in low light and ensures a shallow depth of field.

Also, this lens has an ED extra-low dispersion element and two aspherical lens elements, which are responsible for the reduction of chromatic aberrations for color accuracy and contrast in images. A UMC lens coating ensures effective transmission of light and minimizes flare and ghosting in the image.

This lens is perfect for different kinds of photography, but landscape photography brings out its best features.  This lens has a wide focal length, which ensures that the entire scene you’re shooting stays in focus without affecting the composition and image quality. This lens captures environmental-type portrait, architecture, and interior photography impeccably, delivering a brilliant color and a high-resolution image quality with its focal length.

This lens allows manual focus at wide-angle, and its fast maximum aperture makes its performance very impressive. With a minimum focus of 0.2m and a completely manual aperture setting, you can use a traditional ring located on the barrel to adjust your focus as you please. This lens is suitable for mirrorless and SLRs cameras alike. If you want to achieve that pretty type of flare in your images, Rokinon’s usual aperture blade design helps with that.


Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5 EX DC HSM ELD SLD Aspherical Super Wide Angle Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras

6. Sigma 10-20mm Lens

  • It uses an F-Mount lens DX format with an aperture range of f/3.5.
  • It has four aspherical elements, two ELD elements, and a single SLD element.
  • It has a 7-Blade Rounded diaphragm.
  • This lens has a Hyper Sonic Motor AF system.
Pros
  • It has a very good resolution.
  • It has a great and compact build quality.
  • It has low levels of chromatic aberration.
  • This lens is of excellent value for its specs and features.
Cons
  • It has a stiff manual focus ring.

This wide-angle zoom lens is designed for Nikon F-Mount cameras and DX-format cameras. It is suitable for architectural, interior, and landscape photography as it has a constant maximum aperture of f/3.5, which allows effective shooting even in low light conditions.

The optical design of this lens includes a series of aspherical elements and low dispersion elements that help reduce chromatic aberrations and spherical aberrations throughout the zoom range. The lens incorporates a Super Multi-layer Coating that effectively reduces ghosting and flare for stunning images with improved color accuracy and contrast.

Besides, this lens has a Hyper Sonic Motor(HSM), which functions with the internal focusing design to ensure a quick and quiet autofocus performance and a full-time manual focus override. The seven-blade diaphragm helps you achieve an excellent bokeh quality with no background blur.

This lens is relatively fast, and it is a wide-angle zoom lens that covers an effective focal length of 15 to 30mm. It incorporates a relatively fast constant maximum aperture of f3.5, and it has a minimum focus range of 24cm throughout the entire zoom range. Additionally, this lens features two Extra-ordinary-Low Dispersion glass elements and two Super-Low Dispersion glass elements that effectively correct chromatic aberrations in images for a beautiful Bokeh.

This lens has an Ultra wide angle fast aperture of f3.5 throughout the entire zoom range, which is ideal in low light. This 10-20mm f3.5 is ideal for typical photography, and it has a fast fixed aperture that makes it easy for you to capture images with precise control of the depth of field and if working with non-TTL Flash Systems. It allows you to shoot quality images with an exaggerated perspective. This lens comes with a lens hood, a carrying case, and a rear cap for safety.

This lens is perfect for typical photography, and it guarantees excellent image quality with less glare and ghosting thanks to the Super Multi-layer Coating. Suppose you want to capture the perfect portraits, architecture, interior, and wedding photography. In that case, this lens has four aspherical lens elements responsible for correcting distortion and d an inner focusing system that gets rid of front lens rotation so you can use polarizing filters comfortably.


Rokinon 10mm F2.8 ED AS NCS CS Ultra Wide Angle Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras with AE Chip for Auto Metering (10MAF-N)

7. Rokinon 10mm Lens

  • Fast f/2.8 maximum aperture for low-light conditions.
  • Manual focus design for selective control.
  • Nano-coating system for improved light transmission and suppressing fare and ghosting.
  • Two aspherical elements and one ED element to minimize chromatic aberrations and distortions.
Pros
  • It has great sharpness when stopped down.
  • It allows very smooth focusing.
  • This lens has an improve lens quality compared to the previous lens.
Cons
  • It doesn’t allow the focusing of close-up images and distorts the image.

It has a relatively small and compact size, and it is lightweight, which makes it a great travel partner, so you can do amazing travel photography without straining. It has an aperture ring towards the mount and a big manual focus ring located on the front, which allows better control of the lens. Despite this lens’s narrow focusing range, this lens has a depth of field scale that functions quite well, considering how wide the lens is.

This lens has a better build and feels compared to its predecessors from Rokinon. The manual focus ring’s functioning is part of the reason, as it is way smoother, allowing for better control of the camera and lens focus when shooting. This lens has a very robust construction, but it isn’t too heavy, making it ideal for a more compact body camera.

Rokinon lenses perform quite well in the production of quality, still images, and HD videos alike. This lens uses manual focusing to achieve brilliant image quality with improving color contrast and detail. This lens’s focusing is very smooth, and if you use it with the depth of field range, you are guaranteed an amazing shooting experience.

However, it is not suitable for photographers who aren’t okay with manual focusing but should you decide to go for it; your photography gets a sharp and critical focus.

This lens has a manual focusing ring, which is smooth and easy, and pleasurable to operate. It is easy to apply fine adjustments to the lens focus, and there is a hyperfocal scale on the lens barrel, which is well spaced for the accurate setting of the lens. Rokinon lenses have a very high optical quality, and this is no exception. This lens is affordable enough for a super sharp lens with excellent image quality, and there is no color fringing.

This lens has an extremely wide-angle, and there is a petal-shaped hood that is built into the lens design. It has a close focus range of 24cm, making it ideal for occasional close-up photography or shooting in confined environments. This lens has low dispersion glass incorporated in the optical design, which causes issues for photographers who want to do astrophotography.


Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-300mm f/3.5-6.3G ED Vibration Reduction Zoom Lens with Auto Focus for Nikon DSLR Cameras

8. Nikon AF-S 18-300mm Lens

  • It has a fluorine coating for repelling dust and dirt.
  • It has an electromagnetic aperture.
  • It has an effective Vibration Reduction system.
Pros
  • It is sharp with a very compact design.
  • It has a 5x optical zoom.
  • It allows image stabilization.
  • It has a 1:4.5 magnification ratio.
  • This lens is compatible with some older D-SLR.
Cons
  • It is a bit expensive.
  • It shoots dim corners at maximum aperture.

This lens is a high-performance DX zoom lens with a focal length of 18-300 mm and a bright f/3.5 aperture. It incorporates the latest technology and has a very compact build quality. This lens is versatile, with a 5x zoom that allows the shooting of brilliant images in a full-frame format.

It uses Nikon’s Vibration Reduction (VR) to ensure still images are sharp, opening up a whole world of shooting possibilities. It has a lightweight body for a steady balance on the camera and an electromagnetic diaphragm for precise exposure. This lens is suitable for photographers who want more from their gear, and it has a fluorine coating for protection purposes.

With a focal length of 18-300mm, this lens is designed with a great lens construction, which accounts for its performance. It has a maximum aperture of f/3.5-6.3G and a minimum of f/35 and seven rounded blades. This lens comprises seven elements in groups, which is inclusive of 4 ED glass elements, aspherical lens elements, and Lens elements. This lens construction design incorporates a Nano Crystal Coating and a fluorine coat, which acts as a protective glass element.

This lens has an advanced optical design, which consists of 17 lens elements with Nano Crystal Coating and a front glass element with fluorine coating. This helps in the active repelling of dust, water, and dirt without affecting the image’s quality. This lens also includes four Extra-low Dispersion ED glass elements and three aspherical lens elements with a M/A switch to allow switching to priority when using manual focus.

This lens is easy to use, with a rubber ring around the metal mount, which is responsible for retaining moisture and dust that otherwise affects your photography quality. The focus ring and the zoom ring are well-damped, and there is a Silent Wave Motor Technology that is incorporated for quiet and accurate autofocus within the entire zoom range.

Besides, this lens has an electromagnetic aperture that offers precise exposure when shooting at high speed. The 18-300mm is a squat lens, which weighs about a pound but has a good balance on most Nikon SLRs.

The lens barrel is polycarbonate as all modern Nikkor lenses, and it has rubberized rings and helps with zooming and focusing.  This lens is designed with a reversible lens hood and a front and rear cap. The lens hood is rectangular with rounded edges.


Things to Consider Before Buying A Wide Angle Lens for Nikon DX

Budget:  A budget helps you to narrow down the options and choices you have to avoid making the wrong investment. If you want a quality lens, be prepared to pay more for it, but its specifications and performance will be worth it.

Usage: The purpose of your camera determines what lens is suitable for it. If you are buying a wide-angle lens, you need to decide what you’ll use it for because it helps you determine if you need a fixed wide-angle prime lens or a zoom lens.

Aperture: The aperture allows light to enter the camera, and the bigger it is, the more light there is. If the lens has a lower aperture number, this means a bigger hole, so consider a higher aperture lens if you want to shoot in low light conditions.

Focal length: This is the range between the lens and the zoom.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q1: What type of lens is used to get a wide-angle view?

Ans: If you want to get a wide-angle view, use a lens with a zoom range of between 16-35mm. The majority of the standard zoom lenses go down to 24mm or 28mm, but there are wider lenses on the 10mm wide-angle view (rectilinear) and 8mm angle of view(fisheye).

Q2: How can you tell if a lens is wide-angle?

Ans: It is easy to tell if a lens is full-range if using a full-frame camera. Any lens that has a 35mm focal length or more is considered a wide-angle lens. If it is 24mm or wider, the lens is considered an ultra-wide-angle lens. A lens can also be considered wide-angle if it covers an angle of view between 64° and 84

Q3: Is DX or FX better?

Ans: Nikon uses DX and FX-format sensors in their lenses, with the DX-format being a smaller sensor compared to the FX sensor. The FX sensor has a more “light gathering” area, and it offers higher sensitivity and lower noise in general, making it a better choice than the DX-Format sensor.

Q4: How do I capture a wide-angle photo?

Ans: To capture a wide-angle photo, you first need to fill the space in the frame. You should use a low perspective and get closer to the foreground. When capturing wide-angle photos, take advantage of distortion while being attentive to corners. Should you decide to use filters, look out for vignetting, and make sure, you focus well.

Q5: Can you zoom with a wide-angle lens?

Ans: All lenses come with either a zoom version or a prime version, including wide-angle lenses. If the lens has a prime version, you can alter your field of view by moving further away or closer to your subject.

Conclusion

It is challenging to select a suitable wide-angle lens for your camera, especially if you haven’t determined what to look for. Such factors as the lens’s desired usage, focal length, aperture, and budget come into play when buying a suitable lens for your Nikon.

Related Posts:

Subscribe to the CameraIO NewsletterPhotography & Camera News + DEALS
Dion Lewis
My name is Dion Lewis. Photography is my life and I have taken it as my profession after my graduation. I am a professional, I almost cover everything from fashion, architecture, editorial topics, and corporate lifestyle. I have worked with clients such as CNN, Alabama State University, Steelcase, LiveStrong, and more. I'm based in Alabama. If you need my service, just feel free to contact me.

Subscribe to our newsletter