Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Nikon NIKKOR Z 50mm f/1.8 S | Premium large aperture 50mm prime lens (nifty fifty) for Z series mirrorless cameras

Top positive review

Insanely good lens

Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2024

Probably the best 50 Ive owned; tack sharp even wide open, silent, quick focus, good build, not too heavy. The falloff wide open is beautiful, and so far zero chromatic aberration, fringing, or anything at all. Its been written in more than a few places, this is the best 50 Nikon has ever made, and compared to my older G its a nice step up; I only wish it was smaller, but with all the elements and mirrorless etc, its still reasonable in size. Given its size, I did end up returning it, and sticking with the 40mm that came with my ZF camera; the 40 isn't nearly as sharp wide open, but stopped down its nearly identical and a much smaller much lighter lens.

One person found this helpful

Top critical review

Critical reviews›

Nikkor 50mm Z - Sharp but uninspiring lens.

Reviewed in the United States on October 25, 2023

The lens is sharp but uninspiring. For a “nifty-fifty” with 1.8 aperture, plastic construction, and no aperture ring, the lens would better be priced at $289 or perhaps $300.

650 total ratings, 143 with reviews

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From the United States

Ayla D

Insanely good lens

Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2024

Verified Purchase

One person found this helpful

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F. Anderson

My favorite lens

Reviewed in the United States on January 14, 2024

Verified Purchase

For some a 50mm may seem boring, but I absolutely love this lens. It is surprisingly solid. I was expecting a plastic feel, but not so. It has a lot of glass and that glass makes for super sharp images. I also prefer to shoot wide open at f/1.8. It is extremely sharp wide open and has excellent bokeh. Not only do I have no regrets, I am very very satisfied.

One person found this helpful

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fhu868

Perfect overall lens

Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2022

Verified Purchase

This may be one of my best purchases ever. It took a while for me to bite the bullet and get a z lens for my z6. I have an FTZ mount for all my legacy zoom lenses and its been perfectly fine but wanted to get a prime lens with a native z mount. I settled on this 50mm because I wanted to be kinda close to my subects so i didnt want a 85mm which would put me far from my subject. And I didnt want any distortion from a 28mm. The 50mm seemed like it would be very practical. At f1.8, its fast and gives a popping depth of field. All my lenses, are f2.8 and do not have nearly the same beautiful separation of depth of field as this f1.8. To me its a big difference in and very aestheticly appealling. All the pics ive taken witb this lens have been beautiful. The dof separation is very realistic. The clarity of the photos and the eye af works perfectly. Eye af picks up fast. I rarely have lost a shot. The focus is super sharp. Its also physically a great size, especially since not needing the FTZ mount, to do street photography. Very comfortable and easy to take around anywhere and on shoots.

To me, it was a big decision to invest this amount of money for a lens but with all the compliments I get on my photos with this lens, I have no regrets on this investment! I hope this helps if you are not sure about a Z prime lens purchase.

17 people found this helpful

Helpful

Christopher J. May

A New Era for the "Nifty Fifty"

Reviewed in the United States on August 12, 2021

Verified Purchase

Once upon a time, every entry level camera kit came with a 50mm lens of somewhere around f1.7 to f2 speed. With time, these fell out of disfavor as camera buyers either wanted a convenience zoom or a f1.4 or faster lens. Eventually, these moderate speed 50mm lenses found their niche as cheap, small, light but optically good lenses that were easy to throw into a camera bag.

This lens takes that mantle and runs in a new direction with it. Maybe it's not quite as small, light and cheap as something like a Nikkor 50mm f1.8D but it makes up for it by being absolutely stunning optically. The first time I opened a file from my Z7 using this lens, I was blown away. Wow. Just wow. The lens has the kind of sharpness and microcontrast that I generally expect stopped down from a really good lens. That sharpness covers most of the frame, too. The extreme corners aren't quite up to the level of the rest of the image but they're not too far behind. Shooting this lens at f4 or f5.6 produces the kinds of images that I thought were only accessible by using something like a Zeiss Otus. For a $600 lens to be playing in that league is nothing short of remarkable.

Other features of the lens -- resistance to flare, lack of chromatic aberration, etc. are all on an exemplary level, too. The bokeh is not the most neutral/pleasing I've ever seen but it's not bad at all. Certainly not something that will draw attention to itself. The one caveat about that, though, is that the lens does produce some cat's eye bokeh towards the edges of the frame when shot wide open or close to it. Not a deal breaker but something to be aware of.

So, while it's not quite as cheap as the old era of "Nifty Fifties" were, it offers the kind of performance that used to require thousands of dollars of investment to achieve. Very highly recommended.

16 people found this helpful

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Ashwani Gupta

Three Things I Love About the Nikkor Z 50mm 1.8S

Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2020

Verified Purchase

I've been using the Niikor Z 50mm 1.8S for a few days now and have been testing it. Instead of listing the specs-list, here are the top three features of this lens that jumped out the most:

1. Image quality: Strikingly beautiful due to Nikon's color science and exceptionally sharp edge-to-edge thanks to good distortion control, color aberration control, and vignette control. 50mm is a great focal length for street, portrait, landscape photography, and this lens is well-suited for most of the types without a doubt. For a f/1.8 aperture, the image quality is at par with some of the f/2.8 lenses out there. However, if it's bokeh (out of focus background and foreground) you're looking for, this Nikkor does well and not as good as some of the f/1.4 or f/1.2 lenses. That's just physics! Overall, the image quality is THE reason you should get this lens for your Z camera body, perhaps the very first lens to invest in. It will last decades!

2. Focus breathing: for those of you into videography, you're in for great cinematography in the form of virtually non-existent focus breathing. Remember how in movies and TV shows things that emerge into the scene from out of focus to in-focus? Lenses that focus-breathe tend to distort the subject coming into focus seeming like everything including the subject is coming closer as you focus in. Well, nothing like that happens with the Nikkor 50mm 1.8S. Subject and the background remain where they are with only the focus going in and out. It's just beautiful. I am not a videographer but I can imagine how well this lens will perform in such situations. In addition, the focus ring on this lens is made of metal and has a good throw, and is super smooth reminding me of my Voigtlander 58mm 1.4 SL II lens.

3. Camera-linked customization: Assuming you will use this lens of Z body (obviously!), the lens makes use of two of the most important features from my perspective - in body image body stabilization (5-axis IBIS) and the ability to customize the focus ring to do other things than manual focus. This is game-changing, to say the least. The lens doesn't have image stabilization (VR - vibration reduction) but impeccably uses Nikon Z's IBIS and it's super important to get steady vibration-free images. (Quick tip - even with IBIS, make sure to keep the shutter speed above 1/50th of the second to get really sharp images.) Secondly, the focus ring customization. You can make the focus ring change the aperture settings or change the shutter speed or (my current setting) change exposure compensation. It makes the process of making images so much more enjoyable and convenient.

In summary, two words aptly describe this lens: "worth it"

16 people found this helpful

Helpful

Joseph J.

Razor sharp pictures for a prime!

Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2020

Verified Purchase

I love using prime lenses. I used to be a Canon shooter for many years and invested in some L glass, which at the time I thought was incredible! Enter the Nikon Z glass...I have been blown away by how much detail these lenses are able to gather. They are shockingly amazing. I am shooting on a Z6, with the latest firmware (2.2 at this moment), that I was using an adapted 50mm 1.8g, the nifty fifty for f mount. I was very happy with the results I was getting from that setup but couldn't help from cringing every time I would wake the camera from sleep (sounded like gears were grinding).

I know, stupid reason to buy a new lens, but here is what I noticed immediately after mounting the 50mm Z lens:

Pros
• Auto focus much more responsive and quick
• Tack sharp images with no sharpness fall off in the corners
• Pretty good bokeh
• No grinding noise (as present in the adapted 50mm 1.8 f-mount)
• Much better continuous AF in video and stills modes
• Excellent color and contrast
• Build quality - Metal construction / smooth ring operation
• Internal focusing - there isn't a heavy front element sliding back and forth on the front of the lens
• Weather sealed - could account for some of the cost inflation...not many 50mm are weather sealed in this range

Cons
• Expensive for a 50mm
• Isn't all that light or compact
• Lens hood makes it as long as the 24-70mm f4

26 people found this helpful

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Regina Espinosa

Great lens

Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2023

Verified Purchase

i am a beginner and this lens made it easy to catch action pictures. This lens focus was very fast. Picture taken with a nikon z6

Helpful

Jesse

Amazing clarity with this lens

Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2024

Verified Purchase

Great Clarity, lightweight.

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tsmdav

Perhaps the sharpest Nikkor Z S prime lens.

Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2023

Verified Purchase

Pricey (compared to other 50mm 1.8 lenses) but some rate this as the sharpest Nikkor lens ever made and perhaps the sharpest from any lens manufacturer.

Helpful

NormC

Sharp

Reviewed in the United States on November 28, 2023

Verified Purchase

Sharp. So sharp. If sharpness matters to you, this is the 50 for your Z. I nearly cut myself on the resolution of this beast. Don't run with it.
Pro: Sharp. Fast focus. The best focal length (fight me).
Con: Not very nifty (large and heavy for a fifty). Nor cheap. I guess all that sharpness has to be paid for somehow.

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