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Which 50 for D800e, Zeiss or Nikon

Amin

Active member
The latest 50/1.8 G is a slam-dunk (D800e, D3s). One of the best 50s I've owned across Canon, Leica R, Zeiss and CY. Pulls WELL in excess of it's weight (price wise). I knew it would be a bargain (much like the Canon version), but it's performance really surprised me - so much so, I see no need to replacing it...
+1 to all of that. I like the 50mm focal length and have used all the Canon EF 50s (except the f/1.0), Zeiss ZF 50/2, ZM 50/2, and others. The Nikon 50/1.8G is one of my favorites, even without taking price into consideration. It does everything well (optically and AF-wise), and I like its character as well.
 

vjbelle

Well-known member
For my money the 50mm f2 Zeiss is a hands down winner. The 50mm flavors of Nikon are cheap for a reason..... Quality control is at a minimum. I wouldn't buy any Nikon glass without the ability to return it if not happy.

Victor
 

Mark K

New member
After web browsing ...I got 50 1.4d today...the most regretful lens ever bought. A very cheap design...and made in China. Focusing is noisy and images are not sharp.
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
I should have added -- if I was okay with manual focus only, I'd get the Nikkor 50/1.2 AIS. Truth be told, I may get one anyway, but the net difference in performance between it and my 50/1.4G is pretty small for most applications...
 

ajoyroy

Member
I should have added -- if I was okay with manual focus only, I'd get the Nikkor 50/1.2 AIS. Truth be told, I may get one anyway, but the net difference in performance between it and my 50/1.4G is pretty small for most applications...
Even I agree. At least you get a well made lens with very little plastics.LuLa has a good review on it. It is most useful wide open & close distances. It is not that great for landscapes.
Nikons Jewel
 

Hulyss Bowman

Active member
Hello,

I owned some of 50mm (not the 1.8 nor 2.8).

My first one was superb, it was the SIGMA 50mmf1.4. Really nice lens, magical in his way. This is a love affair with Sigma gear but I sold it; I will wait till they build a new 50 in the way of the late 35f1.4.

My second one was the 50f1.4 AFS-G. Nice lens, it do the job but the lack of personality drove me to sold it very quickly.

My third was the Planar T* 1,4/50. I do not have any problem to manual focus, actually I love that more than AF so I was very happy with this one for a looonnng time even in reportage... until I cracked and bought...

... A brand new 50mm f/1.2 Nikkor :) I sold the Zeiss and I can't be more happy with a lens than this 50f1.2. Need to be tamed, of course but what a pleasure !! It work great on D800/E also.

Hope my experience help :)
 

robmac

Well-known member
A lens I forgot to mention that I loved and will buy again (had too many 50-60mms at time) is the Voigtlander 58/1.4 SLII Nokton (Ais lens). Uber sharp, just gorgeous manual focus mechanics and 'feel'. I liked the bokeh, some don't. Considered by some as a poor man's 'Noct.
 

Jan Brittenson

Senior Subscriber Member
AF is a big deal for most D8ooE users .
It is... and the reason is the stock screen isn't conducive to manual focus. (Forget LV and holding a camera at arm's length, not to mention not being able to frame and focus at the same time.) If you miss focus by even a little, or the subject moves between focusing and framing in the case of LV, you lose whatever critical property made you buy that lens in the first place. The exception is "character" lenses used wide open where the focal plane is so soft it's hard to tell where it is, starts, or ends... These have their place of course. But for strict technical performance, AF is pretty much mandatory IMO. (I use single-point AF even for landscapes.)
 
The 50 1.8g is the best one I've used. I got it because I wanted a cheap knock-around lens, and it was so good it became the only thing I used for 5 months on a project.

It is not a fetish lens. You won't be blown away by the way it feels in your hand or by the mechanical quality, and the quality of the blur is quite variable depending on aperture and distance and amount of defocus. I'd say it ranges from very creamy to neutral. A design with a rounder aperture and less mechanical vigneting of the aperture would have improved some of this.

But I don't look to my lenses for "magic" or a "look." I'm looking for a reliable servant to my work, which has some range to it. For me, tools and materials that impose too much of their own personality can become a kind of gimmick or crutch.
 
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jsf

Active member
Friends of mine have the 50mm G f/1.8 and I have seen the results shooting side by side. It is a fantastic lens for the price nothing short of amazing. I use a 55mm micro nikkor for my normal, f/2.8 is fast enough for me and in truth I rarely use any f/stop but f/5.6 or f/8, even in low light. I just very much like the resolution and I think the bokeh quite acceptable. The close focusing and in my case light weight is a further plus. I find that the d800e is fine at high ISO's, and in truth when photographing in really low light I accept a bit of noise as I would have accepted a bit of grain in film. I really do not think that every picture has to look like an 8x10 view camera. If it did I have one and would use it exclusively. Joe
 

pophoto

New member
How about this: A long time ago when I had my D700 I tried the 3) 50 f/1.4G and was not impressed at all, in the end I got the 5) 50 f/1.2AIs and that has stayed with me to this day.

I now own the D800 and got that with 1)50 f/1.8G, unfortunately there was some terrible distortion, an off-axis lens, can be a freak sample, but wasn't going to hang around to find out! I also purchased at the time 2)60 f/2.8G Micro and to be honest I think this is very good lens. For sure it's not as fast, outdoors is no problem, indoors, I pop on a flash and problem solved!

It really depends on how fast you want the lens to be, there may not be other options, but then again my all around lens for the D800 is the newer 24-120mm f/4 VR zoom, which is great, for everything else I have a pretty complete Canon system!
 
...unfortunately there was some terrible distortion, an off-axis lens, can be a freak sample, but wasn't going to hang around to find out!
Nowadays, I don't call this kind of thing a freak ... more like "business as usual," or "roll the dice one more time ..."
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
And here we are about 2 months later and I couldn't stand not having it, so just today ordered the 50/1.2. I suspect mine will never see any aperture other than f1.2 except for a test. Anyway, stay tuned for some example pics ;)

But I'm not selling the 1.4G :D
 
Another quick note on the 1.8g. I recently used it as a landscape lens for the first time, and discovered a bit of field curvature at infinity. It was slight, but made a difference. This was the image (only the top and bottom cropped; there was nothing but sky andd water in the corners):



There was no way to get the building with the smokestack in perfect focus at the same time as the cranes on the left. The difference was a milimeter or two of barrel turn. I experimented with aperture and different focal points, and settled on f8, with the focus backed off slightly from perfect in the center.

The end result is pretty good. Not as great as a some other results I've gotten from the lens. I suspect in addition to the slight curvature it isn't optomized for infinity focus.

I really wish the Japanese would give us MTF charts that contained actual information, so we wouldn't have to figure this stuff out by trial and error.

Any thoughts on how this compares with the other options?
 

etrigan63

Active member
Is that a stitch or a single shot? LR5 has automatic distortion correction for that lens (I have that exact camera/lens combo) and it does a rather nice job. If it is a stitch, you have to correct each shot before stitching and then again after stitching.
 
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