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Introduction

This great little lens is a refugee from the 70s. No one wants them today, which allows you to get great performance for next to free.

Personally I don't like the 50mm focal length. I use a 35mm as my "standard" lens, and an 85mm as a short tele. I no longer even own any 50mm lenses, and because many people don't, either, you can have these just about for free.

Specifications

It may be the lightest lens made by Nikon at only 4-3/4 oz (135g).

It is 2.5" (63.3mm) in diameter by a mere 1.3" (33mm) long.

It takes standard 52mm filters it's threaded metal front.

It has six single-coated elements in five groups.

It has a seven-bladed diaphragm that stops down to f/22.

It takes the Nikon HR-4 folding rubber hood.

It focusses as close as two feet (0.6m).

Performance

It performs very, very well and is one of the sharpest lenses you can get for your Nikon.

It has no distortion, unlike the f/1.4 Nikkor.

It has only a few ghosts. It is only single-coated, but being such a simple design does not need multicoating.

By aperture:

f/2.0: Great in center. Some falloff and coma, but still pretty sharp all over. Better than the f/1.4 Nikkor wide-open.
f/2.8: very good all the way out to the edges
f/4.0: wonderful performance all over

As you can see, the optics of this lens are superb.

It is better made mechanically than many of today's more expensive lenses, with tighter tolerances and better materials.

It has a solid metal filter thread, unlike the $1,700 80-200mm AFS lens, or any of the under-$1,000 mid range zooms most people use instead today.

I have heard that it may have a plastic focus helicoid, which means please try to avoid dropping your camera on this lens with the lens mounted.

Recommendations

Since the even better made Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AI can be had for about the same price, go for the Nikkor AI version if you have the luxury. The Nikkor version is multicoated, much better mechanically, and just as optically superb.

If you don't have the luxury, don't worry about the Series E lens. For what little you pay for it you get a lens with better optical performance than most other zooms, and it's more than twice as fast as the $1,500 28-70mm AF-S.