I have been clicking for a long time and I am an amateur/pro-like photographer. :-))
I was planning to buy this lens for a long time (months actually) that would fit perfectly on my D700, but I thought ´´such expensive lens...´´. Before yesterday I bought it, taking advantage that my wife is traveling at her mums house (nobody to review my expense plans...).
I can tell you that when it arrived I immediately started to clicking around... Result: a big wow! That´s impressive, that would unleash any talent you have inside...

I have been using Nikon film and digital cameras and lenses for well over 40 years. I do a lot of Automobile Shows, and often find the need of a very wide angle lense, as most cars a grouped or parked rather close together in confined areas.

I purchased the 14-24mm zoom and started to use the lense immediately with excllent results

Of course when you shoot very wide and close you do get distortion, but from the artistic perspective it is very desirable, especially shooting those fin cars from the late fifties or hot rods from a low angle

This has now become very much my work horse lense for indoor car shows.

I recently completed a trip to the Oregon Coastline and once again shoot lighthouses for the scenic wide angle look out over the coastline into the ocean you cannot beat the results.

I am very happy with this lense, as its a perfect mate for both my D-200 and D-700. Highly recommend this especially for travel photography.

Excellent wide glass performance. Very balanced in handling with fast response. Tack Sharp!!

If you are looking for an extreme wide angle lens for full frame body and you do not mind the weight factor, then this is an excellent lens for you.
I use it for weddings and architecture images and simply love it.
It does not take any filters, so I always freak out when it starts to rain at the wedding shooting outdoor, but so far the lens has survived it without any damage to its front element.
It is incredibly sharp at any f stop.
Just be prepared that after using it for couple hours your neck muscles will feel it. highly recommended piece of art!

I have used this lens for nearly one year now and this lens is amazing if you love super-wide angle photography and know how to use them. The only improvement I can see would be a way to add filters to the front element. Otherwise there is no apparent barrel distortion or pincushion. What a beautiful lens.... I´m going to have to sell my old 15mm 3.5 AiS lens.

This is a fairly expensive lens, and it is as good as everyone says. However, it is not as large and as heavy as you might have been led to believe. The lens is so comfortable on a D700 you might wonder what all those people were talking about. Most important, it is just FUN. You can do portraits, landscapes and all manor of craziness. At 24mm it will just knock your socks off, it is so good. If you want landscapes, I believe this is the best way to get them. And we can all have one of these. Just save your pennies and forgo maybe a few of those other toys. This one is worth the sacrifice.
Now this thing does gather every source of light out there, and you will pick up those sun spots, but you can see them in the viewfinder. Heck, you might even like them, but if you don´t and you cannot avoid them, clean it up in NX2. If you can only have one lens, let it be this one. I have added my first snapshot fooling around with this wonderful lens the day I got it. I hope to become more adept with it in order to double my fun, but I could stay stupid and enjoy this lens.

I love shooting at night. It is very sharp and fast autofocus. Nice wide angle. A little heavy but It is a superb quality lens. Perfect for my D700. Also, this is one of my good investment lens along with my 24-70.

This lens has got to be the most amazing ultra wide zoom or prime equivalents I have ever used and the best zoom among my 24-70 and 70-200 VR1. Excellent sharpness through out the range and aperture. It even beats the equivalent primes I have, all of which I pixel peeped to compare. Only minor issue for me is the no filter mounting capability unless you create your own using the largest Cokin filters and mounting system plus home made fixture to clamp unto the built-in lens hood which is cumbersome on the go. Flaring and distortion are above average for me though. I use a D700.

My example of this lens provides very good center sharpness but losing sharpness noticably in the corners across a wide range of stops. It is not appreciably sharper than other lenses I´ve used that cover a similar angle e.g. Sigma 10-20mm on a DX-sensor camera (this lens is being used with a D700), and is noticably less sharp than my older Nikon 28-70/2.8 which is really excellent for sharpness. That said, sharpness is adequate for my purposes though not stellar. With the 14-24, shots are good but definitely the sharpness does not make you stand up and go ´wow´.

Overall construction quality and feel seems to be excellent.

The lens has significant drawbacks that should be considered:
- the large protruding front element precludes the use of screw-on filters for protection
- the lens is extremely prone to flare as you would expect of a zoom lens with so many elements - the very wide angle exacerbates the problem since it´s so easy to inadvertently or unavoidably include bright light sources in the frame. With the sun in the shot, flare becomes a dominant feature in the shot at typical apertures.
- the lens is fairly heavy

On the whole, I´m somewhat disappointed with the lens particularly when cost is factored in (my rating does not reflect value for price) though it´s ´´good enough´´ to hang on to and use because there is no alternative.