Photozone's review showed that the 14-24 is extremely vulnerable to flare, and one picture of the lens showed that the hood isn't sufficiently covering the front element, resulting in the lens "bending light from almost anywhere (quote)" and cause all the bad flares.
Again, whether the 14-24mm or 16-35mm is the lens for you, I would advise on the following consideration factors:
1) Is budget a top concern for you? If budget is limited, 16-35mm is a no brainer
2) Do you absolutely need a f/2.8 UWA? If yes, 14-24mm is a no brainer
3) What's the main purpose of you buying this UWA? Is it to shoot mainly landscapes and architecture at narrow aperture?
a) YES: Do you use the D800, or you make extremely large prints where you need absolute quality and resolution?
- YES to BOTH of a): 14-24mm absolutely
- YES to either one of a): The D800 being a 36MP brings out a lot of details, which means flaws will be magnified. Similarly, if you make large prints. If it bothers you or it's not acceptable to you or your client, 14-24mm. Else, 16-35mm makes sense.
- NO to a) OR 16-35mm makes sense. See, if you are not very "anal" about the corners nor a pixel peeper, you don't use D800 nor you make large prints, you're probably just posting online and use web-size, then 16-35mm indeed makes ALOT of sense to you. At low image size and shooting at narrow apertures like f/8 onwards, you can't really tell if the picture is shot with the 14-24mm or 16-35mm. They will look both as good. And the 16-35mm saves you quite a handsome sum of money!
b) NO, my main purpose is not landscapes nor shoot with narrow apertures:
- If you need f/2.8, refer to 2)
- If you intend to have a UWA as a walk around, or bring it for travel, then 16-35mm makes ALOT of sense in this aspect - for the VR. When you travel, you may want a light package. The 16-35mm is LIGHT, and the VR will help you a lot when you walk around without your tripod. When shooting at night (stills, like streets, buildings etc), VR will come in handy for shooting at shutter speeds like 1/4, 1/8 or 1/10. Of course you can argue that the 14-24 is a f/2.8 which handles low light.. but f/2.8 is still a little slow at night. And f/2.8 is just one stop of light. VR allows you up to 4 stops of light to control handshake at low shutter speeds, and you get up to 35mm of focal length compared to 24mm (still too wide for street/walk-around).
4) Do you need to use filters, especially CPL and Big Stopper?: No brainer, 16-35mm is your choice. The 14-24mm cannot mount conventional filters. LEE have a special system for the 14-24mm but it's extremely expensive. The starter set will set you a good $500 plus back, and it supports GND as of now. Have not heard announcements that they will launch NDs and Big Stopper for the 14-24 filter system.
