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Nikon 35mm f/1.4
© 2007 KenRockwell.com

Nikon Nikkor 35mm f/1.4 AI-s (52mm filters, 13.5 oz./381g). enlarge. You can stil get them brand-new at B&H Photo-Video. It helps me keep adding to this site when you use that link to get yours, thanks! Ken.

December 2007      More Nikon Reviews

Introduction     top

Intro   Specifications    Performance    Recommendations

The Nikon 35mm f/1.4 was found in every photojournalist's bag throughout the 1970s and 1980s as their standard lens.

As of 2000, with faster films and good f/2.8 zooms, they had been largely abandoned.

As of 2010 with digital, they have been forgotten, although they work extremely well on the Nikon D3.

The Nikon 35mm f/1.4 is a full-frame FX lens. It works on DX digital, but I won't cover that here.

The Nikon 35mm f/1.4 was introduced, in the original F mount, in 1969. It was Nikon's first multicoated lens and has been used by NASA in space. Its optics have remained the same throughout both AI and AI-s versions, and is still manufactured today. All versions share exemplary mechanical quality.

Optically this is your father's 35mm f/1.4. It's performance, outstanding for the 1970s, has been surpassed by the modern 35mm f/2.0D AF and the 28mm F/1.4D AF.

Nikon 35mm f/1.4 at f/5.6. Note 9-blade diaphragm.

Nikon 35mm f/1.4 at f/1.4.

Specifications    top

Intro   Specifications    Performance    Recommendations

Name

Nikon calls this The Nikon Nikkor 35mm f/1.4 AI-s.

Optics

9 elements in 7 groups.

Traditional spherical design with floating elements for close-range correction (CRC).

Multicoated; actualy it was Nikon's first multicoated lens back in 1970.

Actual Focal Length

36.0mm.

Diaphragm

Wonderful nine-bladed diaphragm.

Stops down to f/16.

Size

2.4444" extension from flange x 2.6425" diameter (62.11 x 67.12mm), measured.

Nikon specifies 2.7" (67.5mm) around by 2.9" (74mm) long.

The fattest part is the focus ring.

Weight

13.450 oz. (381.25g), measured.

Nikon specifies 14 oz. (400g).

Hood

HN-3 screw-in metal hood.

I don't use it; ghosts aren't a problem.

Nikon Catalog Number

1429, April 2010.

Nikon's Catalog Price

$1,165, USA, New, April 2010.

Performance    top

Intro   Specifications    Performance    Recommendations

Overall

Typical performance for a spherical f/1.4 wide lens: blurry wide open, improving greatly as stopped down. This was state-of-the art until the introduction of the 28mm f/1.4 AF-D aspherical in 1993.

Sharpness on the Nikon D3:

f/1.4

Low contrast everywhere due to the veiling effects of spherical aberration. Very blurry in corners with loads of coma. Sharp most places, just veiled.

f/2.0

Sharp and contrasty in center since spherical aberration is now gone. Gets softer toward sides. Corners still very soft and loaded with coma.

f/2.8

Sharp and contrasty throughout most of frame, with a softer band at about a 15mm radius. Far corners still blurry.

f/4

Very sharp almost everywhere. Slightly softer at r=15mm, far corners softer.

f/5.6

Sharp all over. Farthest corners just a little softer.

f/8

Excellent all over, optimum aperture overall.

f/11

Excellent all over, farthest corners optimum.

f/16

Slightly softer due to diffraction.

Lateral Color Fringes

None on the D3.

It has some lateral magenta/green secondary chromatic aberration on film.

Flare and Ghosts

It has next to no ghosts if you have your light source in the image.

Nikon 35mm f/1.4

Distortion

It has typical barrel distortion. At infinity on film or FX digital, use +1.5 in Photoshop CS2's lens distortion filter to rectify it. This isn't a fact or a specification, it's the result of my research that requires me to climb a bluff on a very clear day and shoot the ocean's horizon.

Falloff (darkened corners)

Typical for its era, there is strong falloff wide open (f/1.4) on film and FX digital.

It improves greatly at f/2, and is gone completely by f/2.8.

Macro

It has close-range-correction (CRC) and focuses very close, to about a foot. Although you can get down to about a 5" x 7" subject, there is a good deal of barrel distortion.

Vibration Reduction

None.

Handheld on an FA I get sharp results consistently at 1/15.

Performance on Fuji Velvia film:

f/1.4

Llots of light falloff. Lots of coma in corners and spherical aberration in center give low contrast all over. Resolution is good.

f/2.0

Falloff. Coma. Getting sharp.

f/2.8

Vvery sharp, no more falloff.

Odd loss of definition in 9-11 o'clock sector 15mm out

f/4.0

Very sharp.

Odd loss of definition in 9-11 O'clock sector 15mm out

f/5.6

great.

f/8

great

f/11

great

f/16

Swell. Random underexposure with FA in aperture-priority (A) mode. Press the depth-of-field preview button and hold it while you make the exposure to cure this, with the FA.

Nikon 35mm f/1.4. Note delicate rear element protector pin.

Recommendations    top

Intro   Specifications    Performance    Recommendations

Try not to use this lens at f/1.4 where the image quality is relatively poor. It has low contrast due to various kinds of spherical aberration and a lot of light falloff. It also has a lot of coma, so points of light at the sides will instead look like little batwings.

What a lot of light falloff at f/1.4 means is that even though it's f/1.4 in a center hotspot of the image, at the sides you really are only getting the light equivalent to f/2 or f/2.8.

Use this lens is if you typically shoot at about f/2.8, at which aperture it performs better than most other lenses.

If you shoot at smaller apertures you don't need this expensive f/1.4 lens.

If you really shoot at larger apertures (as I do) you'll prefer the very, very expensive 28mm f/1.4D AF.

Generally the much more recently designed and far less expensive 35mm f/2.0D AF lens gives better performance at every aperture, although the 35/2 AF gets softer when you are too close. The 35/2 AF also focuses much closer.

If you are fixated on the f/1.4 aperture, remember that due to the huge light falloff that you really are only getting f/1.4 in a hotspot in the center of the image, and that at f/2 both the 35/2 AF lens and the 35/1.4 are giving the same image quality.

I think that this fine lens' time has passed.

I saw lower sharpness 15mm from the center of the image at f/2.8 in two different samples of lens in two different media, telling me that this is inherent in the design of the 35mm f/1.4. I saw it with this lens pictured here on my D3, and I saw it with the first sample I owned back in the 1990s on film.

More Information: Nikon Japan and Nikon USA.

Help me help you         top

I support my growing family through this website, as crazy as it might seem.

If you find this as helpful as a book you might have had to buy or a workshop you may have had to take, feel free to help me continue helping everyone.

If you've gotten your gear through one of my links or helped otherwise, you're family. It's great people like you who allow me to keep adding to this site full-time. Thanks!

If you haven't helped yet, please do, and consider helping me with a gift of $5.00.

The biggest help is to use these links to Adorama, Amazon, Calumet, Ritz and J&R when you get your goodies. It costs you nothing and is a huge help. These places have the best prices and service, which is why I've used them since before this website existed. I recommend them all personally.

Thanks for reading!

Ken

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