22 replies to this topic

[Dallas]

Have you used this lens? If so, let others know what you thought about it by summarising your experiences as a reply to this thread. Please keep all comments on topic.

[Ahmed ghazzawi]

Just unboxed mine from 2 hours , trying to test it under the normal room light , till now i am not impressed , main thing that bothers me is the lack of sharpness at 1.4 , iam not sure if it is sharpness normal 1.4 issue or a soft focus that needs to be fine tuned on my D3 , but till now i have never fine tuned a nikkor lense ...i hate to do it espesially with this one , i am starting to get annoyed about wether it might be a quality control issue like a sigma lense ,as nikon now do thier lenses in china ?
dont know all these thoughts came at once in the previous 2 hrs , i will wait for the morning light to continue what i started then give it a final judgment ,

[Oli N.]

I got my one on December instead the 50/1.4D and use it very often with D80 and D300, it is one of my most preferred lenses. The sharpness and bokeh is very fine. I would not say it's much better than 1.4D, but faster and less noisy ;-)
I'm glad to have one and can't say anything bad about...

Oli

[Ahmed ghazzawi]

ok , i was late for work today , only for the reason to test the nikkor 1.4 g , until now , i fine tuned it till + 10 , then it was ok but not too much ,  my nikkor 50mm 1.8 , is still sharper . also i realised that it gives disturbing luminance in the bright areas of the frame , reminded me of my POS panasonic camera , i will not go to technical details observing the lense rather than what my eye can see . till now the nikkor 50mm 1.8 is better to my eye .

[HansW]

This lens is capable of producing really sharp and colorfull images. This lens sits standard on my D700 and would not leave without it. I really have to pay close attention to focus as the subject may already be out of focus when the camera snaps. Luckily there are plenty of nifty AF features to help me nowadays:)





[img width=1000 height=666]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3089/3138563270_c80fb202bd_b.jpg[/img]

[Longhiker]

This lens is working out OK for me. I was walking around town tonight taking some handheld shots and they seem sharp enough under the circumstances. Here's one shot at 1600 EI with a D700.

Attached Images

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[HarryM]

I bought this lens in December to use on my D40X for a wedding - my son's (whoopeee!).  another guy was taking pictures with a Canon EOS Rebel XTi and a kit zoom.  He was the "official" wedding photographer, but the pictures that I took were unaminously considered to be sharper and better composed.  The camera?  The lens?  The photographer?  Who knows?  But I sure do like the lens.  Now that Nikon has announced a 35mm 1.8G AF-S lens, I am wanting to try one of those out.  Will it ever end?

Harry - in the Missouri Ozarks.

[hughlook]

Very taken with mine so far. Bought it for handheld low-light work on a D300 and D60, and because if I did ever upgrade to FX it would give me a standard lens right away. I'm no sharpness freak, but it seems OK to me.

http://www.flickr.co...ook/3238357006/
http://www.flickr.co...ook/3214558949/

[LSE]

I've experienced some coma flare issues at 1.4 under certain situations. It's a bummer that nikon didn't include aspherical glass on this lens, even if doing so would cost a few more hundred bucks. With the release of the 35mm DX prime, it leaves this prime strictly for professional use...and it is somewhat dissapointing to see that they cut corners there.

however, the lens is up to the quality you'd expect to get. I always use it on FX and it never fails to impress me.

[Ahmed ghazzawi]

i am afraid to say that my copy was indeed a bad one , it is the first nikkor lense that i feel sorry to say that it failed ( with me ) . i sold it and i am happy i did , i bought it to have fun with it but it turned my days into confusion , i dont care if it is sharp , what i care about is when i press the shutter i need a clean photo and not a dozen of them only to pick one that is sharp . a friend of mine with a d700 passed through the same experience like me and he is selling his lense too . i hated that lense so much and i am so happy i got rid of it . and to my beloved 50mm 1.8 i say : i am sorry i neglected you ..those new AFS with all my respect were done for D40, or D60 or what so ever...nothing less and nothing more

[newimage]

Love this lens .. and yes it produces extremely sharp images across the aperture range. I personally like shooting portraits and moving in closer at 1.4 to get the razor sharp detail combined with the shallow DOF.

[Luc de Schepper]

Just got this lens, I need an 50mm AF to compliment my 50mm f1.2 MF. I chose the Nikon over the Sigma.
First impressions, built quality ok, but of course the 1.2 is much better build. Autofocus rather slowish, ok let's call it slow 
Image quality and sharpness quite ok, but rather bland compared to the 1.2, might take some time to get used to.
I think the modern AF-S Nikon lenses like this 50mm and 24-70mm are very balanced and neutral but also a bit boring.

First testshots.

1. f2.5  iso 1.600


2. f2 iso 1.600

[Fish_Shooter]

This lens is a very good value. Very sharp for low light, low contrast, reflected light shots, not so good for high contrast back-lit shots. I suppose Nikon could have produced a better 50/1.4 but for much more money such as the same price as the Leica M 50/1.4 ASPH. >

I am presently traveling with just 3 lenses, this is one of them.

[Preston]

I've bee shooting with the 50mm f1.4 G on a Nikon D700 for about six months and I'm very pleased with it.  The center sharpness wide open is quite good.  I'd judge it to be on par with the 50mm f1.8 D at f/4.0.  Auto focus is a bit slow on this lens, but it is easy to tweak it manually.

[Airy]

A very good lens overall, with no big flaws. Good night shots - but I have had no opportunity to compare it with the Noct Nikkor for instance, or the 50/1.2 which also seems to be a good performer at night.

Contrast is a bit low wide open. Distortion is not a problem for me, since I get it corrected (with DxO - while I sometimes decide not to correct vignetting, I correct distortion systematically with this lens).

[img width=100 height=150 alt="_DSC2776_1000"]http://nikongear.com/ngallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=33272&g2_GALLERYSID=50f976cc54c320f9091a81728a4971b9[/img]

[Marc Schlueter]

I rate it the best Nikkor 50mm wide open till f/2.8.
It is sharper and with more contrast between f/1.4 and f/2.5 than the AF 1.4/50mm, is less troubled with flare and produces no hotspot in the studio with white background.

The bayonett lens hood attached to the lens body is another welcome feature. My AF 1.4/50mm got a bit "wobbely" after some years of stress the lens hood put on the mechanics.

Wide open it's a little bit soft, but get's sharper and pics up contrast with every 1/3 stop you close the aperture. At f/2 it's allready better than the 1.2/50mm AiS.
The distortion seems to me a little bit stronger than the AF 1.8/50mm, AF 1.4/50mm and 1.2/50mm AiS.
From f/4 onwards it doesn't matter IMO which Nikkor 50mm you use. They are equal enough. The AF 1.8/50mm has the lowest distortions.

I gave my AF 1.8/50mm and AF 1.4/50mm happely away for it and kept the 1.2/50mm AiS just for its "differend" soft rendering wide open.
AF is about as "fast" as the AF 1.4/50mm on my D300 and D700. No focus issues that I am aware of.

D700, f/1.8 at 50cm

Edited by Marc Schlueter, 08 December 2011 - 08:07 .

[AndyE]

D700, f1.4, 30sec

[Tom]

Voted "above average".
Pretty astonishing performance wide open even in the corners of a D300 and a D700. Good contrast even when the sun is in the image, little flare/ghosting. Heavy sagittal coma flare at f/1.4, almost gone at f/2.8. AF produces less outliers than the old AF 50/1.4D.
You can find more detailed information and sample images via my signature.

[lenmil]

Been using mine since i got my D700. Love it in low light and easy to carry in a small bag. Works fast and quiet to me, but i don't have many lenses yet to compare. But no regrets buying it and i will keep it for sure.

[Dave Rosser]

Had mine for some time now and use it quite a bit on my D700.  Stopped down it is of course excellent


At full aperture it works well in real photography,  I've put this version of this picture here as it shows background blur better than another version in my gallery here

Edited by Dave Rosser, 01 July 2011 - 13:15 .