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.