Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsReasonable lens for a reasonable price, but with some serious limitations.
Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2015
I am a low noise, low ISO, high detail shooter. That being said I purchased the Nikon 50mm f/1.8G AF-S NIKKOR FX Lens under the impression a primary lens would be clearer than the kit zoom lens. Optics, physics and experience indicate that would be the case. The less number of glass elements, the better.
For comparison purposes I am going to compare this lens to the Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 16 – 140 mm 3.5 to 5.6 G ED lens. If you bought a Nikon DX camera kit, there is a good possibility this is the lens that came with your camera. I use a D7100 24 MPS camera myself, so not judging.
I am that guy that reads the manuals inside and out. I am a firm believer that you need to know your equipment and be keenly aware of the capabilities and limitations of anything you use for a shoot. When I get a new lens, I refine the auto focus for each of my lenses. Everyone should do this as I have found even the most expensive lens can have a focus point a few centimeters off. I have found even the most expensive lenses can be off my a mile. I did this with my AF-S 16 to 140 mm DX lens and it was a +6. After that, it has been dead on.
When I opened the box for the Nikon 50mm primary, I ran an auto focus refinement but for all intended purposes, it was pretty much spot on, so no complaints there. As a matter of fact, I cranked the AF refinement up to a +20 and it seemed to be just as good as when it was zero. I question if it is even possible to adjust the auto focus at all on this lens.
I then started to do some shooting in various lighting conditions. With a max aperture of 1.8, I expected this to be a very fast lens; meaning is should be more forgiving in low light situations. This is where it falls down. With the kit lens, I can crank down the aperture speed to 1/30 and get a decent picture. My kit lens also has vibration reduction which when locked in, does a pretty good job of stabilizing the image for a shot.
With this 50mm fixed lens, there is no vibration reduction. From as far back as the early 1970’s when I was learning photography, it was drummed into me that anything below 1/60th of a second needed a tripod. This was even more important in the days of film as you didn’t find out your image was blurry until after all the darkroom work was completed.
Without vibration reduction, this lens became hit or miss. Even at 1/60 of a second, each image had to be checked for motion blur. Below 1/60th and it was pretty much a given the image was not going to meet standards.
Let me back up a wee bit here; I shoot with an ISO as low as possible. I am always looking to improve detail and reduce noise. That being said, I try to get my ISO to hover around 200 and shoot 100 ISO in most every situation. With my kit lens, I can drop my shutter speed to as much as 1/30 of a second and get a good image. With this lens, I have to stay above 1/60 and in moderate lighting situations; I have to hover around 800 ISO or higher most of the time.
Image quality is what it is all about. It is expected that a primary lens, with a minimum number of glass elements would be sharper than a zoom lens which has a higher number of lens elements and mechanisms that can degrade the sharpness of an image. This appears to not be the case. In comparing image quality of the 50mm Nikon primary to the D7100’s, 18 to 140 zoom (after autofocus refinement and set to 50mm on the lens barrel, on a tripod too) the images were equal. Color and focus at the edges were effectively comparable. I spent the better part of a hour trying to find anything that gave the 50mm primary an edge over the kit lens. If there was anything that benefited the 50mm primary, it was marginal.
I’m not going to say, there isn’t a use for this lens, but I’m going to ask some questions when I fill up my equipment bag as to the necessity of the additional weight, which is actually minimal. It’s a very light lens. If I had to do it over again, I might go with a 35mm primary instead which would be much better than the kit lens in wide angle mode. (less fisheye bowing)
So make your decision and match this to your shooting style. I’m going to keep this lens around, but I don’t think it is going to get much business to justify the $200 I spent.
Regards.
