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Thomas
Joined: 05 Nov 2006
Posts: 5713
Location: Germany
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 Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 4:41 pm Post subject: Nikon Nikkor AF-S 50mm f/1.4 G Review |
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The lens arrived at my doorsteps today and the first shots in dwindling daylight were already taken.
Expect the usual story (yes, including Siemens-stars  ) to unfold in this review thread and let's all hope that the story has a good ending and is not terminated after 14 days (the limit where you still can give gear back that you bought online in Germany)
So stay tuned...
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P.S.: Whether the price difference between the old AF 50/1.4D and the new AF-S 50/1.4G is worth it can be further discussed there.
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WoutK89
Joined: 05 Sep 2008
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Location: The Netherlands, Leeuwarden
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| Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 5:33 pm Post subject: |
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The store ordered my 50 1.4 has not received it, but will be here on wednesday. I look forward on your first insights on this lens!
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Thomas
Joined: 05 Nov 2006
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| Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 7:03 pm Post subject: |
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Wanna see a comparison shot side-by-side with the Canon IXUS 870IS?
Head over here.
Well, it seem's to keep up with the p&s 4x zoom 
~~~
More serious insights will come...
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Thomas
Joined: 05 Nov 2006
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Location: Germany
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| Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 10:10 pm Post subject: |
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Wanna see sharp images at f/1.4? Whoa!!
Yes, they are currently processing before uploading to flickr.
See you after a short break...
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Thomas
Joined: 05 Nov 2006
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Location: Germany
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| Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 10:45 pm Post subject: |
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Now here is the final load of Siemens-stars. All done with intitial AF at f/1.4 then switching off AF and taking the aperture sequence to f/8.0 from that setting. This is to prevent incomparabilities within the aperture-sequence from focus-shift.
We start with the sharpest of the sharpest: f/8 and then go down one stop each row to f/1.4!
To the left is the centre-crop, to the right the corner crop. Keep in mind though that I'm still testing with a lowly DX-format body, so there can be no implication whatsoever on how well the lens performs in the corners of the brand-spanking new D3x!
f/8.0:  
f/5.6:  
f/4.0:  
f/2.8:  
f/2.0:  
f/1.4:  
Following is the second try after some manual focus fine-tuning*.
f/2.0:  
f/1.4:  
Finishing this series is the old AF 50/1.4D.
f/1.4:  
You can clearly see the sharpness of the lens deteriorate below f/2.8. But look at that 2nd and 3rd last row of crops: They are done at f/1.4! For this aperture the performance counts as "very good" in my book.
If you compare these crops to the crops of the Nikkor AF 50/1.4D (last row) you'll find though that the new lens is not necessarily sharper than the old one.
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* This counts as "cheating" in my book as you normally don't have the time to rely on manual focus. And don't think you can do this through the viewfinder: never ever! You need to do live-view from a tripod and manually focus the lens 
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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Pictures
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Thomas
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| Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 11:23 pm Post subject: |
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And finally a real-life shot at f/1.4:
The Grid:
Shot at ISO 200 1/180 sec, cropped to 3595x2542. If you click on the image you can get through to the full glory and peep at pixels until your eyes hurt...
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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Pictures
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pgtips
Joined: 12 May 2008
Posts: 2388
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| Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 11:40 pm Post subject: |
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I see some CA in the upper left corner of that photo. That's with pixel peeping, of course 
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Thomas
Joined: 05 Nov 2006
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| Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 11:51 pm Post subject: |
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Yeah, CA there is. I'll also try the dreaded "dead tree against the glaring sky"-shot to compare to the performance of the Nikon Nikkor 85/1.8D here.
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grahamnp
Joined: 17 Sep 2007
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Location: Melbourne, Australia
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| Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2008 2:27 am Post subject: |
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Thanks Thomas. That's quite a difference between f/2 and f/2.8! Any thoughts about how it compares against your older 50 f/1.4, images maybe?
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Graham
Nikon D80 | 10-20 | 18-135 | 50 f/1.8 | AF-S 60 Macro | SB-600
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Thomas
Joined: 05 Nov 2006
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| Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2008 8:08 am Post subject: |
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Yeah. I'll put up some comparable shots for the AF 50/1.4D soon.
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Thomas
Joined: 05 Nov 2006
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Location: Germany
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| Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2008 10:40 am Post subject: |
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In the meantime...
Shooting around today (a lot at f/1.4) came up with some issues regarding auto-focus. One shot showed a clear focus on the foreground although all focus-indicators lit up on the tree in the background 
So I went back to the lab testing for front-/back-focus. Found some back-focus which could be corrected for with some micro AF adjustment (around -5...-15) but that is not finally conclusive. There is the issue of the micro-focus test-chart being 1m away which might yield other results than some further away subject. Oh boy, this will keep me occupied for sometime.
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Thomas
Joined: 05 Nov 2006
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Location: Germany
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| Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2008 11:56 am Post subject: |
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An hour later...
Yep front-/back-focus depends on the shooting distance 
Close-up to the test-chart at 60cm distance the optimum micro-AF-adjustment was -15, at 1m it was -5, and finally at 1.8m it was around 0. This also turned out to be the optimum (non-)adjustment for further-away subjects (20m). So next time you use a focus test chart try the results at different distances. 
Don't ask me for reasons, perhaps the deteriorating close-up quality of this lens influences these results
Well, now you ask at what distance did I shoot the Siemens-stars? That was at 1.2m so you could expect a little better results when optimal focus is attained at f/1.4 (I've added this shot to the collection above) but as there are some slight focus variations anyway don't expect anything significantly better, not even with live-view (I tried).
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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Pictures
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WoutK89
Joined: 05 Sep 2008
Posts: 299
Location: The Netherlands, Leeuwarden
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| Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2008 12:09 pm Post subject: |
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hey Thomas,
interesting results, hopefully there is no such thing as sample variation in this lens, because the pre-production model had some front focus issues on close focussing. I'm impatiently waiting for my lens to come! 
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Nikon D80 with 18-70 DX, 70-300 VR, 50 1.4G, SB-600
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Thomas
Joined: 05 Nov 2006
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| Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2008 9:26 pm Post subject: |
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I've added f/1.4 shots from the "old" AF 50/1.4D to my Siemens-star post. So with respect to sharpness the old and the new design seem to be equal.
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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Pictures
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Thomas
Joined: 05 Nov 2006
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Location: Germany
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| Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2008 9:47 pm Post subject: |
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Btw. an interesting comparison of bokeh and dof at f/1.4, f/4.8, f/16 and a Canon IXUS 870IS at f/4.5 can be found here. With links to the large original photos.
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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Pictures
D300/18-200VR/SB800+other lenses from 10 to 500mm, Manfrotto055ProB/808RC4, CanonPixmaPro9000...
Last edited by Thomas on Sun Dec 14, 2008 1:02 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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