8 replies to this topic

[Dallas]

If you have had the pleasure of using this lens, please let others know what you think of it. Please read the guidelines of this board before commenting as posts that do not conform to those guidelines may be deleted or moved to other threads without notice. This thread will be indexed on our Reviews page.

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[Erik Lund]

Simply outstanding, a worthy upgrade of the old workhorse 35/1.4 Ais
Very similar IQ to the new 24/1.4 AFS sharp contrasty and nice Bokeh.
AF is on the slow side for my liking, it's an ultra small SWM and a plastic gear box, only real drawback...

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Edited by Erik Lund, 01 June 2011 - 20:31 .

[stenrasmussen]

A biggish and slowish focusing lens but that's where the negatives end.
Lovely bokeh, contrasty and sharp. Quite excellent flare resistance but not perfect.
Here's a a couple of examples:

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[palalaikka]

I find the IQ from this lens outstanding. Especially the 3D-look is something I have not been able to get from any other 35mm lens I have used (17-35/2.8, 16-35/4, 35/2, 24-120/4, 35/1.8 DX). Mine seems to live at f/2, but IQ at f/1.4 is nearly identical.

What I don't like is the weight of the lens, but once one sees the pictures this minor negative side is soon forgotten.
AF is not super fast, but I haven't missed any shots because of it. Tracking of moving subjects (running children) works without any problems.

I earlier used 35/2 AF-D. Even though 35/1.4 AF-S costs ~5 times of 35/2 AF-D, there is so big difference in IQ that I find the high price justified.

f/2.8:


f/2:


f/2:


f/2.8:


f/1.7:


f/2:


f/2:

Edited by palalaikka, 17 July 2011 - 09:18 .

[Colin-M]

I have rented this lens for some indoors events where the light levels will be low.
It's the first time I've used a 35mm prime, so am slowly getting the hang of it on my D300.

This shot was taken using f2.5 @ 1/6th, whilst braced against a tree trunk:



So far I would say I am having to get used to focussing more carefully. My other initial impression is that, whilst the options for subject isolation are impressive @ f1.4, the lens shows a lot of purple fringing round point sources when wide open. Have been experimenting with removing this in PP.

Here's an example before correction:



..and here, after using 50% Axial Colour Abberation correction in Capture NX2

[Jan Anne]

I absolutely adore this lens, very sharp wide-open and the way it draws the image is stunning (as it was designed to do). It balances perfectly on the D800/E.

All images wide-open on the D800E

[kskeie]

My favourite go to lens, I use it loads for reportage work. Most of the photos from my project in Bosnia is with the 35 f1.4s, including this picture.

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Edited by kskeie, 08 December 2012 - 18:59 .

[kskeie]

Sorry, here is a link to my Bosnia project!

[pluton]

This lens does not produce 'sharper' or more detailed lmages on my [now former]D3 and [current]D800(E) than my Zeiss ZF35/2, but it's imaging 'style' has it's own unique and pleasant character. It is one of the few Nikon AF lenses that is a pleasure to operate for manual focus, both because of the brighter finder it yields, and the mechanical focus action being well executed. Also, it's very good in the close up range(1:10, 1:15, etc) and seems to have a relatively flat field as well.