Camera Labs

I didn't manage to get this lens and I regret it. But i did get the 35mm and I must say it flares quite a bit. I just want the f1.4 but on DX the 35mm is a perfect mate.
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Motor Company

Thanks for the build and AF details Thomas...

Thanks for sharing that info Thomas!

Just a quick note to let you know Thomas's fantastic posts have been compiled into an official 'review diary', here:

http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Nikkor_AF-S_50mm/

Gordon

Congratulations Thomas!

You made a very fine job, and I've appreciated as well enjoying reading it!

Looking further to read more from you!

Cheers,

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jose luis
my flickr

As far as price goes, and where I live, the Nikon compares favorably to the Sigma 50mm EX f/1,4 DG HSM, which costs about EUR 50,00 more.

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Nikon D90 + MB-D80 + SB-600 + AF-S VR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 + AF-S 35mm f/1.8 + AF 85mm f/1.8 | My photos on Flickr.

Yeah, that's interesting: A Sigma lens costing more than the Nikon equivalent.
Looking at the MTF curves of the Sigma

The theoretical curves seems to hold quite well. In fact they look even better than with the Nikon! But there is a very pronounced contrast drop-off in the FX-area.

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

I had an inquiry today with regard to the new AF-S version vs. the old AF one:

Yes, you're right: both lenses are FX-capable and both work on your D80/90 etc.
What made me switch from the AF to the AF-S version was some unrliability I encountered with the older version in auto-focussing. My lens could sometimes be really off on my D80. Not so much that I immediately recogized it when looking through the viewfinder but when reviewing the image on my computer I had to consider the shot a loss.
I assume that this resulted from some type of aberration that this lens had and which fooled the AF-system of the D80 into thinking that the image was perfectly in focus. It did only happen a few times but I became reluctant to trust the lens.
With the new AF-S on my D300 I had some cases where the focus settled totally off, but in this case you could easily see it in the viewfinder and you could give it a second try. When the AF-system found focus the focus-quality is very good.

So all in all it is not easy to give a recoomendation here, because the cases of bad focussed images on the old lens were not often. So you have to decide how much the additional peace of mind together with faster focussing and some better IQ is worth the higher price.

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Thank you for the answer Thomas.
Really appreciate your honesty and advice.

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Nikon D80 - Nikon 18-70mm - Nikon 70-300mm - Nikon 85mm - SB-600

Kevin Verelst Travel Photography

I've only lightly read this topic and I've not seen this obvious question asked:

How does this lens compared to the Nikkor AF-S DX 35mm f/1.8G?

I know about the aperture difference, but there is also a big price difference!

and still a focal length difference too

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- Wout -
Nikon D80 with 18-70 DX, 70-300 VR, 35 1.8 DX
Manfrotto 055XPROB tripod with 488RC0 midi ballhead
Lowepro CompuRover AW and Nova 200 AW

Plus the difference that the 50mm is a FF/FX lens and the 35mm is a DX lens.
You can read photozones analysis of the 35mm here and of the 50mm there.
In comparison the 50mm has less distortion, less vignetting and less CA, whereas the 35mm seems a tad sharper in the center up to f/4.0 (all compared on DX format).

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

I've finally had time to update my usual testshots of this lens to make it even easier to compare to my newer reviews. I've also thrown in as a goody the (near) corner performance on a D700!
So here we go:

Center (D300):


Border (D300):


Border (D700):

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Investigating on the loCA of the new Nikon AF-S 85/1.4G I did a series of test-shots to
(1) give you a comparison of loCA across different apertures and
(2) make the comparison across different large aperture Nikon primes namely the 35/1.4G, the 50/1.4G and the 85/1.4G

So here's the result for the AF-S 50/1.4G showing a crop at below 50%:

Clicking through the image gives you access the 100% crop. Processing was done in CaptureNX2 with standard setting meaning lateral CA removal was ON, loCA removal=OFF. At f/5.6 the greenish (background) and reddish (foreground) hues are almost gone - but not completely.

The second image gives you the results from switching loCA remocal ON at 100% (again, you see the crop here at <50%):

This works pretty good! Bear in mind though that CaptureNX 2's secret sauce for loCA removal seems to depend on the magnification and gets better the smaller the magnification is (this test-shot was at 1:20). That can be confirmed from real-life shots.

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

I got the following question via flickr on 11 Feb 11, 6.23PM CET:

Q: "Hi just read ur review on the Nikkor AF_S 50 mm.
I've got a Nikon D60 and want a Lens to do portrait and event photography. do u think its a good choice for such purpose?

I appreciate ur reply.
thanx"

A: I think it's perfect for both situations, as it works like a short tele on a DX-body. But you might reconsider this choice if your subjects are normally further away from you - street photography might be such a situation where you need more reach, or if you're not close enough to the stage of an event. Then a 85mm could be more appropriate.
On the other hand: If you're part of the crowd at an event the 50mm could even be too narrow and a 35mm or even shorter prime could prove useful.
Best thing to do is analyze some situations where you have used your current equipment (probably one of the standard-zooms) and see which focal lengths you used. You can normally get this information from the EXIF-data of your images.

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses