Nikon 50mm f/1.4 AF-S
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Nikon 50mm f/1.4 AF-S. enlarge. We can order it at Adorama right now. It helps me keep adding this site when you get yours from these links, thanks! Ken.

22 September 2008      More Nikon Reviews

Ideal Uses: Perfect for use on FX digital, DX digital and film for just about anything and everything, daylight or moonlight.

The new 50mm f/1.4 AF-S is a far better choice than any zoom for use in low light, and effectively quadruples your ISO, with no increase in noise, compared to any f/2.8 zoom. The 50mm f/1.4 increases your ISO by ten times compared to any f/4.5 zoom, again with no change in noise.

Not for: So long as you can move, immortal photographers like Henri Cartier-Bresson have never needed anything else.

Introduction       top

Intro    Specifications    Performance    Recommendations

Compatibility    History    Pricing

About five years after we've been expecting it, Nikon announced this update to the existing 50mm f/1.4 AF-D on 22 September 2008 at Germany's huge Photokina trade show.

My 50mm f/1.4 is the lens I use most often for photographing family and friends. I kid you not: in the process of writing this page, my wife interrupted me to take pictures of the cute baby, and 177 shots later with my old 50mm f/1.4, I'm back here writing about this new version.

I need this new one. The reason you want this new 50mm f/1.4 is that you can tweak manual focus simply by touching the ring without needing to move a switch, and that its performance ought to be stellar at f/1.4 compared to all previous 50mm f/1.4 lenses made by anyone. The only gotcha is its weird 58mm (not standard 52mm) filter size, and that after over 30 years, close-focus distance is still no better than 1.5 feet (0.45m).

This is Nikon's first completely new 50mm optical design in many decades. Its performance should eclipse every other fast 50mm lens ever made, especially the Zeiss-branded 50mm ZF. If you've got the Zeiss, I'd gamble that now is the time to dump it on before this Nikkor hits the market.

This new Nikon lens uses an advanced 8 element design, while the Zeiss uses the same obsolete 7-element design, softer at f/1.4, as every other old-generation (1962-2008) 50mm f/1.4.

Compatibility       back to intro     back to top

Everything works perfectly on every digital Nikon, both FX and DX. Autofocus works perfectly even on Nikon's cheapest digital D40, D40x and D60.

It's also perfect on decent or recent AF film cameras like the F6, F100, F5, N80 and N75.

The incompatibilities for older or cheaper film cameras are that:

1.) It won't autofocus with the cheapest new AF film cameras like the N55, but if you focus manually, everything else works great. Even if you lose autofocus, these cameras have in-finder focus confirmation dots to help you.

2.) Late 1980s ~ early 1990s AF cameras like the N90s, N70 and F4 will focus just fine. You'll have Program and Shutter-priority modes, but lose Manual and Aperture-priority since you have no way to set the aperture on the camera or on the lens.

3.) You're really pushing it with the oldest AF cameras like the N2020, N6006 and N8008. You'll have no AF, confused exposure modes and confused metering. Manual focus is fine, along with electronic focus indications.

4.) Since it has no aperture ring, it's just about useless with manual focus film cameras.

See Nikon Lens Compatibility for details with your camera. Read down the "AF-S, AF-I," and "G"columns for this lens. You'll get the least of all the features displayed in all columns, since "G" (gelding) is a handicap which removes features.

50mm f/1.4 History      back to intro     back to top

1933: Nikon, formed in 1917 out of three other companies around since the 1800s, makes the first Nikkor lens. This new 50mm lens commemorates the 75th anniversary of Nikkor lenses.

1935: Canon's very first camera, the Hansa Kwanon, used a Nikkor lens. Canon didn't make lenses in the 1930s and 1940s, and instead got them from Nikon. Nikon didn't make cameras until the late 1940s, so no problem.

1945 Canon S Rangefinder with 50mm f/3.5 Nikkor lens, as shown in Canon's historical display in their booth at PMA 2007.

1950-1962: The world's fastest lens ever in 35mm photography, the Nikon Nikkor-S 5cm f/1.4 trumped the Zeiss 5cm f/1.5 for use on rangefinder cameras. This Nikkor has 7 elements condensed into only 3 groups to reduce flare and ghosts. Its performance is OK, but not as good as modern 50mm lenses. I suspect the f/2 version of this rangefinder lens was better, but have never tried it.

1959-1962: Nikon's first f/1.4 SLR lens was the 7 element, 6 group, Nikon 58mm f/1.4. If you have it converted in a machine shop, it still works fine on the D700 and D3. It has low contrast and a dreamy, hazy effect shot at f/1.4, and is super-sharp stopped down.

1962-1976: Nikon's first 50mm f/1.4 has 7 elements in 5 groups. It is extremely popular, and if updated to AI, works great on the newest FX DSLRs.

1976-2008: Nikon updates the design of the popular 50mm f/1.4 to 7 elements and 6 groups, and the mechanics to AI. This same design is sold today as the 50mm f/1.4 AF-D and the still-in-production manual focus 50mm f/1.4 AI-s, which you still can buy brand-new at B&H Photo-Video for about $300.

2008: The first new optical design since 1976, this 50mm f/1.4 AF-S is the first 50mm f/1.4 lens to use an 8 element design.

Pricing       back to intro     back to top

MSRP: $440, 2008, USA.

Specifications with commentary        top

Intro    Specifications    Performance    Recommendations

Name: Nikon calls this the Nikon AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G.

    AF-S and SWM: Silent Wave (focus) Motor.

    G: Gelded for cost-reduction and removing compatibility with older cameras.

Optics: 8 elements in 7 groups. It's a spherical design without ED glass, without nano-crystal coating and without aspherical elements. It's multicoated, which Nikon calls Nikon Super Integrated Coating.

MTF and cross section, new 50 1.4 AF-S.

MTF and cross section, old 50 1.4 AF-D.

Coverage: Film, FX and DX.

Focal Length: 50mm. When used on a DX camera, it gives angles of view similar to what a 75mm lens gives when used on an FX or 35mm camera.

Close Focus: 1.5 feet (0.45m).

Maximum Reproduction Ratio: 1:6.7

Focus Scale: Yes.

Depth-of-Field Scale: Yes, only for f/11 and f/16.

Infra-Red Focus Index: No.

Diaphragm: 9 rounded blades. Stops down to f/16.

Aperture Ring: None.

Filter Thread: 58mm, does not rotate. What? not 52mm, as its been since 1959? Oh well, it was 43mm

Size: Nikon specifies 2.1" (54.2mm) extension from flange by 2.9 " (73.5mm) diameter.

Weight: Nikon specifies 10.2 oz. (290g).

Hood: HB-47 plastic bayonet, included.

Case: CL-1013 soft case, included.

Teleconverters: Probably not compatible with any Nikon teleconverter.

Introduced: 22 September 2008.

Available: Expected December 2008.

Nikon Product Number: 2180

Price: $440, USA 2008.

Performance       top

Intro    Specifications    Performance    Recommendations

I'll let you know as soon as I get my hands on one. The existing Nikon 50mm f/1.4 lenses have always been excellent, so if you've only shot zooms, you are in for an eye opener.

The only limitations of the existing 7-element design has been softer contrast wide open, especially in the corners, caused by spherical aberration and saggital coma flare and coma aberration.

Nikon claims to have improved these in this new 8-element design, and as the world's most complex 50mm f/1.4 SLR or rangefinder or SLR lens design ever, ought to do it.

I have no idea how its performance will compare to the older aspherical designs of the 58mm f/1.2 Noct manual focus, or Canon's state-of-the-art 50mm f/1.2 EF.

Focus     back to Performance    back to top

Manual Focus

Manual focus is easy: just grab the ring at any time.

M/A - M Switch

Nikon goofed. This switch is supposed to be labeled "A - M."

The "M/A" position means autofocus. It's called "M/A" because back in the old days, when Nikon had almost caught up to Canon who had been doing this for ten years before, Nikon was trying to show off that you could focus manually while in the AF position.

Paint over the extra M if you're easily confused.

Bokeh     back to Performance    back to top

Bokeh is the character of out of focus areas, not simply how far out of focus they are.

The 9-bladed diaphragm ought to give round circles at every aperture, unlike previous Nikon 50mm f/1.4 SLR lenses whose 7-bladed diaphragms could give septagonal blur circles.

Nikon claims that it has good bokeh, which is unrelated to the diaphragm. We'll see; the old design was pretty good, too.

Sunstars    back to Performance    back to top

I'm unsure of how sunstars will look with the rounded diaphragm. It may be difficult to get any sunstars at all.

I'd prefer a straight 9-bladed diaphragm instead of the rounded blades.

Compared to other Nikon 50mm lenses

back to Performance    back to top

Want easy switching to manual focus? This is Nikon's best lens by far, just grab the ring at any time.

Want to use it on a manual-focus camera? Forget it; you can't control the aperture.

Recommendations       top

Intro    Specifications    Performance    Recommendations

I'm ordering one from Adorama. Of all the lenses to which I have access, my older 50mm f/1.4 AF-D is the one lens I use the most often for most shooting, other than my weird ultra-wide shots made with my other favorite, the 14-24mm.

Since I'm shooting in available darkness indoors on FX so often, I don't use midrange zooms like the 24-70mm f/2.8. I use my 50mm f/1.4 instead.

Deployment

I never use hoods. I'd leave it in the box.

I'd leave a 58mm Nikon Clear (NC - UV) filter, or a 58mm Hoya Super HMC UV on the lens at all times. I would leave the hood at home.

If I was going to use this as part of a larger pro system, I'd consider attaching a 58->77mm step-up-ring to convert this to today's pro standard of 77mm, and use a 77mm Nikon UV or Hoya UV filter for protection. This is what I really do; I just put on a step-up ring when I get a lens like this and treat it as if it's a 77mm filter thread len as long as I have it. I'd get a new "pinch" type cap in 77mm too.

If I was working in nasty, dirty areas, I'd forget the cap, and use an uncoated 58mm Tiffen UV filter instead (or in 77mm). Uncoated filters are much easier to clean, but more prone to ghosting.

More Information: Nikon, Japan: News Release and Product Page.

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