Nikon 40mm f/2.8G AF-S DX Micro NIKKOR Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras

by Nikon

• Compact and lightweight DX-format close-up lens
• Sharp images from infinity to life-size (1X)
• Autofocus to 6.4 inches
• Close-Range Correction System (CRC)
• Silent Wave Motor (SWM)

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 4 x 6 x 6 inches ; 8.3 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B005C50H2Y
• Item model number: 2200
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (76 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
  • #37 in Camera & Photo > Lenses > Camera Lenses
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 10, 2011

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Compact and lightweight DX-format close-up lens
Small enough to be carried everywhere, this standard focal length DX-format Micro-NIKKOR lens provides high resolution and contrast from infinity to life-size (1X). The AF-S DX Micro-NIKKOR 40mm f/2.8G is for taking high quality stills and HD D-Movies and is ideal for shooting general close-ups, delicate flowers, detailed collectables, copy photography, portraits, landscapes and more.

Sample Photography

Reveal Hidden Beauty. View larger

Carry It With You Everywhere. View larger

Isolate Your Subjects. View larger

Features:

Close-Range Correction
Using Nikon's innovative floating element design, each lens group moves independently to achieve focus providing high performance at both near and far distances.

Nikon Silent Wave Motor
A significant innovation in AF lens technology, Nikon's Silent Wave Motor uses ultrasonic (inaudible) vibrations—rather than a gear system—to focus the lens, providing incredibly smooth, silent and precise autofocus operation.

M/A Focus Mode Switch
When fine manual focusing is needed, simply rotate the lens focus ring—M/A mode allows you to seamlessly override the AF system with virtually no time lag.

Super Integrated Coating
Nikon's Super Integrated Coating enhances light transmission efficiency and offers superior color consistency and reduced lens flare.

How to read the MTF curve chart

Lens Construction

Product Description

The AF-S DX Micro-NIKKOR 40mm f/2.8G is for taking high quality stills and HD D-Movies and is ideal for shooting general close-ups, delicate flowers, detailed collectables, copy photography, portraits, landscapes and more. Small enough to be carried everywhere, this standard focal length DX-format Micro-NIKKOR lens provides high resolution and contrast from infinity to life-size (1X).

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

180 of 188 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Affordable all-purpose prime Micro Nikkor lens for Nikon DX DSLRs August 30, 2011

By Let it Be

The AF-S micro nikkor 40mm f2.8G is moderately fast or bright, contrasty and extremely sharp lens,just like all its siblings in the Nikkor Micro (Macro for other brands) interchangeable lenses. It appears that Nikon has consistently improve and exceeded expectations in this "special purpose lenses" category. Historically, every Nikkor (brand name for Nikon lenses) which are stamped with "Micro-Nikkor" are stellar performers and tops its class versus the competition, this new AF-S DX Micro Nikkor 40mm f2.8G is no exception.

This lens is the latest of the lineage dating from the Micro Nikkor 55mm f2.8 AIS mount manual focus lens of early 1980s, its FX-format (35mm film) equivalent is the higher specs current model Nikon AF-S Micro Nikkor 60mm f2.8G ED N which works as a 90mm on the smaller DX-format DSLR. This is an interchangeable bayonet Nikon "G" mount single focal length (prime) DX lens designed for Nikon DX-format APS-C sensor based Digital SLR cameras. It has a "standard" angle of view that is close to "human eye perspective" as proclaimed by SLR camera manufacturers.

Officially it is not designed for and recommended for use with older Nikon 35mm film (FX) cameras without a body aperture control dial. However, when mounted on my compatible film Nikon F5,this lens retains full function and it works like a 40mm f2.8 micro lens at closest distance only,the edges darkens further from the subject. Though seems workable using "DX crop function" it is not recommended for the professional Nikon FX series digital SLRs (Nikon D700, D3 series)which the AF-S micro Nikkor 60mm f2.8 is designed for FX-format sensor.

I have been waiting for a lens like this AF-S DX Micro Nikkor 40mm f2.8G ever since Nikon released its older brother, the AF-S DX Micro Nikkor 85mm f3.5G VR. I did not find the earlier release suitable because I am not into close-up macrophotography shooting bugs and butterflies which the Micro Nikkor DX 85mm f3.5G VR is the most suitable specialist's tool for "bug jobs".

My purchase is made-in-China and the lens came supplied with both front and rear lens caps,the HB61 bayonet lens shade (hood) and a black lens pouch together with a user manual and warranty card in a golden box.

The lens mount is metallic and the feel is typical and standard high Nikon quality although the package is made of metal and plastic. According to Nikon, this is a new design and it really handles well and balanced with my Nikon D5000. However, owner should have the supplied HB61 lens shade mounted to protect the lens as the front lens element extends out of the barrel at nearer to closest focusing distances typical of micro lenses.

Auto Focusing with Nikon's AF-S technology is silent, smooth and accurate, while the manual focus ring is tactile but responsive for manual override focus at close range. There is also a distance and reproduction scale window plus a focusing distance limiting switch.

Being a moderately bright lens, this lens when partnered with the higher ISO Nikon DSLR like the D7000 will perform respectfully under available or low light at the maximum aperture of f2.8 from ISO 1600 to 6400. Recommended body match for this lens is of course, the current D7000/D5100/D3100 or at least D90/D5000/D3000.

This is a great compact and light weight lens to bring on a walk-about when paired with the light weight Nikon D3100 and a great affordable upgrade for D3000/D60/D40x/D40 series of Nikon DSLR camera bodies.

This lens lacks a VR (vibration reduction) mode unlike its 85mm f3.5G VR sibling, but it does not seems to be a handicap as owners would soon find out as it performs excellently at f2.8 maximum aperture which more than compensated for the lack of VR. If your dSLR has low noise ISO 1600-3200 sensitivity, close up photos could be taken at moderate handheld speed of 1/20s - 1/60s without flash and under natural existing indoor light condition with some practice.

Noted that at close distances my Nikon D5000 appears to select program aperture at f3.2 to f4.2, on auto ISO 1600-3200, to optimize depth of field, which seasoned users of micro lenses would know is critical at close range, awesome! It seems that Nikon has built-in some "fuzzy" logic into its firmware. I noted that it is not possible to manually set the aperture to maximum aperture of f2.8 at minimum focusing distance when the lens is fully extended at 0.163m, it could also be due to the optimum design of the lens that this is the case, otherwise, my copy could be defective.

In the DX single "prime" focal length lenses line-up this special purpose "prime" lens does not pair up with Nikon's other offerings, the lens which comes close as competition is the excellent and cheaper AF-S DX Nikkor 35mm F1.8G which should be the better choice if you need the f1.8 aperture to do low light/existing light photography most of the time and do not need close focusing micro/macro function.

In terms of practicality of use and value, the Micro Nikkor 40mm f2.8G is an affordable and excellent multi-purpose lens and would be a special and exciting addition to your DX format Nikon DSLR system as a second lens with added versatility for close-up macrophotography and some low light photography at high ISO.

Image quality and resolution is superb although no special "Nano" lens coating or ED (Extra Low Dispersion) glass element in its design. Samples of first shots with this lens is impressive and would meet all expectations because all of Nikon's proven technology like Close Range Correction (CRC) and Super-Integrated-Coating (SIC) went into this new lens design.

For "bokeh" lovers,this lens produces a pleasing out-of- focus "pastel" background effect at maximum aperture of f2.8 which is quite nice to my subjective liking.

Please also see the unretouched natural lighting pictures taken by myself and uploaded into the image gallery with my TIMEX watch as the main close-up subject. I hope it could give you an indication of what this lens could do for you and your photography, together with all the other images I have uploaded.

I rate this five stars for a highly recommended purchase for Nikon DSLR DX series users who needs one and its excellent performance. Personally, I am very satisfied with this item purchased from a reputable retailer in Singapore, therefore I cannot comment on experience of purchasing photographic equipment from Amazon.com.

Thank you for reading my non-technical end-user review and hopefully it is useful and of help to you.

107 of 113 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy this instead of the 35mm f/1.8 DX September 28, 2011

By Phuong Tran Nguyen

Amazon Verified Purchase

Many forum threads have pondered whether to choose the 40mm micro of the 35mm 1.8. I have owned both, used them extensively and can safely conclude that the 40mm micro/macro is the better all-around lens. It can do most the 35 can do, but offers the added bonus of macro and superior sharpness and resistance to chromatic aberration.

Here are the pros of the 35mm 1.8
- affordable prime lens
- fast 1.8 aperture makes it potentially wonderful for indoor and low-light shots when flash is not available or permitted
- extremely sharp if you get a good copy (I've owned two copies. One was tack sharp all the way down to f/1.8. The other had a lot of chromatic aberration and purple fringing wide open).
- great starter lens for a photo class

Here are the cons of the 35mm 1.8
- purple fringing wide open
- blurry wide open (what's the point of 1.8 if you can't use it?)
- lens hood is way too small
- build quality is plasticky (but this applies to 40mm micro as well)

Here are the pros of the 40mm micro
- A great lens for amateur food photography (at the actual restaurant/kitchen with actual food)
- Nikon's most affordable macro lens
- f/2.8 aperture is still very good for general photography
- Macro feature works like a charm
- Lens is lightweight enough that you can get away with handheld shots
- 40mm focal length (60mm on full-frame) makes it good for product photography of larger objects
- has focus limiter switch to disable macro and speed up autofocus
- great manual focus feel

Here are the cons of the 40mm micro
- autofocus hunts more than a regular af-s lens
- you're way too close to subject if you want 1:1 magnification (where 24mm wide object fills length of frame)
- Max aperture is f/4.4 at 1:1, but that's normal for all macro lenses

Because both lenses produce the equivalent of 52/60mm on a film camera, neither is appropriate for head & shoulder portraits, unless you shoot in landscape orientation. Both are great for full body or waist-up portraits. I like shooting up close, so I think you can fit a maximum of two or three people in the shot with these lenses. I would go wider for group photos.

Overall, though, I would choose the 40mm macro lens. It's sharper overall, focus is pretty fast (even when it hunts), and has the added value of close-focus/macro ability. Great for food & product photos.

50 of 53 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Beginners: Wish I had bought this first! October 9, 2011

By Omega Man TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Right now this is my favorite lens. Why? Because on my DX/APS-C camera (D7000) it's a pretty fast "normal" focal length lens (40mm x 1.5 = 60mm, almost indistinguishable from the 55mm norm) and it can focus from "macro" distances to infinity. It essentially "kills two birds with one stone" as they say, and it's only around $80 more than a 35mm/50mm f/1.8G which makes it very affordable. (I thought I was going to have to spend $600+ for a decent macro lens.)

Before this I bought the Nikon 50mm f/1.8G AF-S because the "kit" zoom lenses that I have are pretty slow (f/4 at best). Having a f/1.8 lens is great, but I've found that I really don't usually miss the extra stop that the f/1.8 lens has over a f/2.8 lens, and the f/1.8 doesn't have the same versatility in being able to capture what you want at the moment without attaching extension tubes or something.

I wish I had just skipped the 50mm f/1.8G. I originally bought it due to the near "portrait" and near "normal" equivalent focal length (50mm x 1.5 = 75mm where 80mm is normally the minimum "portrait" length and 55mm is the typical "standard" focal length), and better bokeh. It's a perfectly good lens with a different tradeoff (costs a little less, 1 stop faster, closer to portrait angle), and if you have one I'd say keep it, but I later bought a fast (f/2.8) AF 25mm-75mm zoom lens used from someone and now the 50mm f/1.8 seems mostly redundant. I might just sell it and not buy anything similar until I feel the need for an expensive f/1.4 lens. (I don't find the boke difference between f/1.8 and f/2.8 to be that great.)

If you have not used a prime (fixed focal length) lens before and only have the zoom lens that (most likely) came with your camera, you REALLY need to try a prime lens! You will be relieved by the extra speed, surprised how much you can just "zoom with your feet" and how little you will miss the zoom capability in most situations. I find that zoom lenses are really only useful in situations where you often need to go from "wide angle" (perhaps you can't step back far enough) to "short telephoto". I've hardly used my 18mm-105mm since I bought a prime lens, though the 80-300mm is pretty essential to me for situations that require it. If you don't entirely believe me, at least try the older less expensive Nikon 50mm f/1.8D AF (if you have a camera with a screw drive in the body or don't care about autofocus) which I think you can get for around $100-120.

If you don't have a lens capable of focusing at very short distances, you also really need to try one. There are all kinds of boring everyday things that become interesting at very close distances, and sometimes it is just much easier to get close for some relatively common types of photos (such as a photo of a cat's face).

So, in short, if you're relatively new to this DSLR stuff, this lens will satisfy your need for both a fast normal length prime lens and a so-called "macro" lens, and trust me.... you do need these things. If all you have right now is a kit zoom lens, the next lens I'd buy would be either something like an 80-300mm zoom of some sort (if you really think you are more likely to need that first for subjects you are interested in) or this lens. Those are pretty much the only two types of lenses that I'd consider next if I only had the kit lens.

About the only lenses that I'd consider as an alternative to this one, and only for special needs, are the Nikon 85mm f/3.5G AF-S DX ED VR Micro Nikkor or *maybe* some sort of zoom lens with macro focusing capability. While I haven't used the Micro 85mm, a longer macro lens is supposed to be pretty important for situations like trying to photograph bugs where you can't get too physically close without risk of disturbing the subject and ruining your opportunity. Of course, a lens like that will cost you twice as much and so far I haven't really run into a need for it as I don't plan to photograph bugs. (If I do, I'll probably try my 35-70mm f/2.8 zoom with extension tubes though that will not be as good.)

As for the actual quality of this lens, I'd say I'm pretty satisfied with it. All of the AF-S lenses have a bit of a "cheap" plastic feel to them, and they're more delicate due to the built-in focus motor, but they still seem to be built well, have a 5 year warranty, and this one is no less well built than my other AF-S lenses. Autofocusing can be slow especially if you don't use the switch that disables autofocus for short distances. Basically because of the "macro" focus ability, the range of lens element motion for focusing is much larger than a normal lens, and if the autofocus system starts "hunting" then it can spend a lot of time going through the whole range. Luckily there's a switch on the lens that disables the macro portion of this range, making it off limits to the autofocus stuff and saving time when you know you aren't going to be at macro distances.

This lens also focuses up to the "life size" reproduction ratio of 1:1 which makes it a "true" macro lens, unlike most zoom lenses with a 1:4 supposedly "macro focus" feature. So even if you do buy some sort of supposedly macro zoom lens in addition to this one, you'll probably also end up using this one anyway for real macro photography.

While the manufacturer claims that this can be used as a "portrait" lens, I would not use it for that at least at close distances (such as head or upper body shots) because 40mm (60mm equiv) still introduces too much distortion according to portrait photographers. Instead I'd switch to your kit lens and set it to *at least* 50mm (75mm equiv) unless you need better speed or bokeh. With decent software you can probably correct for barrel distortion a bit so if you're willing and able to do that, or you don's care about the distortion, then 40mm may be OK.

I can't really speak much to the optical quality of the lens (edge distortion, chromatic aberration, etc) compared to other lenses as I just don't have the experience with different lenses, or much of an eye, needed to evaluate this. However, Nikkor lenses are pretty much always a safe bet since Nikon, as a top optics manufacturer, isn't likely to ruin their reputation when it comes to optical quality.

So if you read nothing but this last sentence, get the 40mm f/2.8 Micro instead of the 35mm or 55mm f/1.8 if you are trying to decide between the two.