NIKON AF-S Nikkor 50mm f / 1.8G Lens

Product Information

Ergonomics are just about perfect. They are the primary reason to pay twice as much as the perfectly good 50mm f/1.8 AF-D. For use on Nikon's cheapest DSLRs like the D40, D40x, D60, D3000, D3100, D5000 and D5100, the Nikon 50mm f/1.8 AF-S G is the best 50mm lens one can get, next to the 50mm f/1.4 AF-S. No other Nikon 50mm lens will autofocus on these cameras. Lateral chromatic aberration is, as expected of a double Gauss type standard prime, pretty well negligible with this lens. If you go looking for it towards the edge of the frame you'll find it, but it's rarely going to spoil an image in any way (and of course most current Nikon DSLRs remove it in JPEG processing anyway). The sample below shows just how little fringing you'll see in normal use, even when looking at output from the 24Mp D3X at 100% (if anything this is testament more to the camera's resolution than a failing of the lens). Price: around 200 EUR new (incl. 19% VAT) = reasonable. The old Nikon AF 50/1.8D is around 130 EUR now, the 50/1.4G at 350 EUR. [0] We’ve reported previously on 35 F-mount lenses being discontinued in recent years. Despite this, there are still a vast number of lenses available new, and in the used camera market. A discontinued lens may still be a very good, or indeed a great performing lens. The newest Nikon DSLRs to be released are the Nikon D780 and Nikon D6– both in 2020. FAQ: Can you use Nikon F lenses on mirrorless cameras?

It's a full-coverage FX lens, so it works great on FX digital, DX digital and film. It works especially well on the Nikon D3 and D300. The Nikon 50mm f/1.8 G is typical of Nikon's current amateur lenses: metal mount, glass glass, and plastic everything else. We should also mention the Vibration Reduction (VR) functionality, which really does work well in low light. Much slower shutter speeds than normal still produce sharp pictures, which makes this lens an ideal all-in-one, carry-everywhere choice. You can judge the effect if you look at the shadows at the lower left of the camera body and the mounting-plate. The 50/1.8G does not show any significant change in contrast – which is a good thing. Gallery We test lenses using both real world sample images and lab tests. Our lab tests are carried out scientifically in controlled conditions using the Imatest testing suite, which consists of custom charts and analysis software that measures resolution in line widths/picture height, a measurement widely used in lens and camera testing. We find the combination of lab and real-word testing works best, as each reveals different qualities and characteristics. See more on how we test and review at Digital Camera World.

A compact new 1.0x macro lens for Nikon Z-mount mirrorless cameras, and it makes a great everyday standard prime!

One downside is the rather uninspiring maximum aperture of f/3.5-5.6. This is part and parcel of keeping the lens to a sensible weight and cost, but all the same, those who want to create striking shallow depth of field or beautiful bokeh will want to look elsewhere. Sunstar, car window reflection. Nikon 50mm f/1.8 G AF-S at f/9, highly cropped from center of 100% 16MP DX image. Compared to the 105mm f/2.8 S: the 50mm f/2.8 may actually be a bit sharper at the very center of the lens, but the 105mm f/2.8 S beats it outside the very center. The corners on the 105mm f/2.8 S are consistently excellent and near the lens’ central performance, where the 50mm f/2.8 has more variable performance across the full frame, as noted above. But it's the Opera's image quality that impresses most. Sharpness is excellent, even wide open at f/1.4, becoming simply sublime from f/2 right through to f/11. Purple fringing is very well controlled, right at the corners of the frame, and you can forget about distortion, as there simply isn't any.

Focus accuracy and repeatability is critical to consistently produce sharp shots. Repeatability (the accuracy of focus on the same subject after repeated focus-acquisition) of the Nikon Z 40mm f2.0 is fair (measured 95.3% in Reikan FoCal) but produced no outliers over a series of 40 shots. There is a bit of focus variation whether the lens focuses from a closer distance or from infinity and I had some cases where the lens refused to focus at all when coming from minimum object distance. The lens focuses in around 0.3 sec on a Nikon Z7 from infinity to 0.46m (1:10 magnification), which is very fast. In addition, the AF-S motor gives the ability to use autofocus with a manual focus override, which you cannot do on any of the AF-D prime lenses. Just like the older AF-D cousin, the Nikon 50mm f/1.8G also has Super Integrated Coating, which helps reduce lens flare and ghosting. The lens is designed to work on both Nikon FX and DX sensors, although it is certainly better suited on FX sensors for everyday photography. On DX sensors, the lens is equivalent to a 75mm lens, which is perfect for portraiture, but a little too long for other types of photography. The lens retains the 7-blade diaphragm, which can result in heptagon-shaped bokeh at large apertures above f/2 (see bokeh examples below). NIKON D5100 + 50mm f/1.8 @ 50mm, ISO 100, 1/125, f/8.0 The autofocus system is fast and consistently accurate, even for extreme close-ups, where focus accuracy is critical due to the typically tiny depth of field. Centre-sharpness is outstanding even wide-open at f/2.8 and gets even better in the range from f/4 to f/8. Compared with the Z MC 105mm f/2.8 VR S, however, levels of sharpness drop off a little more towards the extreme edges and corners of the frame. The image on the left shows a sequence of shots against a strong light-source shining directly into the lens but still outside the image circle of a DX-body. It shows how well the lens copes under these adverse conditions wide open and stopped down to f4.0 and f8.0. The only difference between this and the 50mm f/1.4 D and 50mm f/1.2 AI-s is that the faster lenses become sharper at f/2, but all are the same by f/4. The faster lenses also cost two to four times as much and have more distortion.

Intro

Distortion on full frame is a little lower than the older 'D' lens at about 1% barrel; just about enough that it might sometimes be visible in real-world shots. It won't autofocus with the cheapest new AF 35mm 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.