50mm Nikkors Part II

OK, some real life photos instead of test shots.

AFD 50mm f/1.8 @ f/2.5. Ireland 2008.

AFD 50mm f/1.8 @ f/2. Ireland 2008.

AFS 50mm f/1.4G @ f/1.4. Singapore 2010.

AFS 50mm f/1.4G @ f/1.4. Singapore 2010.

50mm Nikkors Part I

What is a normal or standard lens?

My love for the standard lens started in 1979, when my pal Ngei was kind enough to let me go out and learn photography with him on his (then) state-of-the-art Canon AE-1 with FD 50mm f/1.8 S.C. and Speedlight 155D. For about 2 years, that was all that we had to play with... but the 50mm taught me lots about photography.

Since then I have had a large number of Nikkor 50mm lenses, in succession, bought (and mostly sold): Ai 50mm f/1.4 (used), then AiS 50mm f/1.4 (used), AF 50mm f/1.8, AF 50mm f/1.4 (used), Nippon Kogaku 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor-S (used), Ai 50mm f/2 (used), AiS 50mm f/1.8 (used), AF 50mm f/1.8D (subject of this write-up), and AFS 50mm f/1.4G (companion to this write-up).

AF 50mm f/1.8D, photographed on the morning before it was sold, sob sob. Sold 23 April 2010.

My 50mm arsenal, clockwise from back: AFS 50mm f/1.4G, Ai 50mm f/2, AF 50mm f/1.8D and Nippon Kogaku 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor-S.

As this was my last chance to do an unscientific test, I grabbed the two AF 50mm and my D300 and did a series of shots, to see if the nearly 4 times price difference was really worth it.

The test

It was raining.... 6pm, just outside my flat. Grab and shot. Was planning on a tripod mounted test, with the other two 50mm in tow, using D60... but this will have to do.

AFS 50 vs AFD50/1.8 at f/1.4 and f/1.8

AFS 50 vs AFD50/1.8 at f/1.8 and f/2

AFS 50 vs AFD50/1.8 at f/2 and f/2.8

AFS 50 vs AFD50/1.8 at f/2.8 and f/4

AFS 50 vs AFD50/1.8 at f/4 and f/5.6

AFS 50 vs AFD50/1.8 at f/5.6 and f/8

Conclusions

1. The AFS 50mm f/1.4G was distinctly soft at f/1.4, improving at f/2 and by f/4 reached excellent performance, improving only slightly at f/5.6 and f/8.
2. The AFD 50mm f/1.8 was, surprisingly, quite sharp and with good contrast at f/1.8, and showed the same trend as the AFS 50mm f/1.4G lens.
3. Under the test condition, photographs produced by the 2 lenses were virtually indistinguishable.

Of course under different conditions others have reported the AFS is slightly sharper, with less CA, etc. That aside, the difference really wasn't worth the price difference.

The AFD 50mm f/1.8 is a real steal for its price.

AF 80-200mm f/2.8D revisited

Last weekend I had a chance to field test this lens while my daughter had a birthday party at the Bottle Tree Park, Singapore.

Spotted this kid trying to play with water while mummy bathed him. Took 2 shots, one at shorter focal length and this one. Nice...

While waiting for lunch took a few quick shots with intermediate distance subject and far background, to check out the bokeh of this lens. Not bad - careful composition can give pretty nice background blur. Satisfied.

One of the guru's at Clubsnap forum likes to shot cats. Well, there was a cat, so I took a few shots. Those shot at f/2.8 had nose and whiskers out-of-focus (OOF) when eyes are sharp. A quick check on the LCD meant using f/4 instead. Nice and sharp.

Other impressions:

1. Lens not too heavy for prolonged use, maybe not for backpacking or mountaining, but certainly manageable for usual travel use.
2. Sharpness in practical use at f/2.8 is good enough, unless there is side-by-side comparison I doubt if it is clear that there is some lost of sharpness.

Overall happy with this lens.

See earlier posting testing at the window.

Checking out VR

I belong to the old school - tug your tummy, practice good handling and shot. I probably have 85% success rate with 1/15s, and 50% at 1/8s. So I never did give VR much or a thought even though I had 2 VR lenses in my bag (AFS 105mm f/2.8G VR and AFS DX 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G VR). In fact I tended to bring along my AFS DX 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G for the slightly faster maximum aperture at 70mm, or put the AFS DX 35mm f/1.8G or AFS 50mm f/1.4G in the bag whenever I envisaged low light photography.

Well, today I had a chance to pick up an AFS DX 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR for slightly better than spare change. Why not? Even though I already have the older AFS DX 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G – the D50 kit lens that I bought second hand for $150.

AFS DX 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR.

So I did a short series of test as I picked up the lens, and while waiting for wify to pick up marketing stuff.

Here goes.

Available light, Nikon D60, ISO400, handheld, aperture priority or shutter priority as indicated.

First of window test, cropped, VR on and off as per indicated, Aperture Priority.

Some gain in sharpness even at 1/15 is visible, ditto 1/8.

Well, 1/4 is probably not usable even with VR on, while at 1/2 the effects of VR is evident, though not usable.

Street Test

All with VR on.

1/15s Sharp.

1/10s. Acceptably sharp.

1/6s some hint of sharpness but look at the words on the MRT poster... no good.

1/4s no good.

1/8s ... sharp

1/4s acceptably sharp.

1/2s ... what was I thinking, miracle lens?

Conclusions

Looks like the VR is extending my handheld sharpness to 1/8s, below which the percentage of acceptable sharpness drops quickly.

This lens is giving me 1 stop VR only, since I can confidently hand-hold 1/15s.

Good enough? Well, depends on the purpose.

(a) Give D60 to my daughter for her projects etc - VR will help.

(b) For my personal use, VR is of not much advantage, just 1 stop.

I will still bring my f/1.4, f/1.8 and f/2.8 lenses whenever I envisage low light shooting.