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New AF-Nikkor 50 f/1.4G official

fotografz

Well-known member
Boring. I'm sitting here cash set aside ready for some better primes and we get a 50/1.4?

A 50/1.2 like Canon's would've been nice.
 
V

Vivek

Guest
I would have liked to see an f/1.2 lens as well. This 50/1.4 still does not stop Nikon to bring out a faster version. I think they should.

Haven't they made enough cash from the D300s, D3s and the D700s to invest in R&D of more products? Greedy fellas.
 

Jonathon Delacour

Subscriber Member
Nikon have published the technical specifications for this lens, including an MTF chart:



According to Lloyd Chambers (diglloyd):

Manufacturers such as Canon calculate MTF (a measure of lens resolution at specified contrast), based on the optical design. If MTF were measured with real lenses bought from real stores, the optical performance picture might be quite different.​

Zeiss provides MTF charts for their 50/1.4 ZF at both f/1.4 and f/5.6 and states that they were measured "with white light at spatial frequencies of R= 10, 20 and 40 cycles/mm".

Does anyone know whether Nikon's MTF charts are calculated or measured? Is it correct to assume that even if the MTF measurements have been done on a hand-picked sample, they're worth more than MTFs calculated from an optical design?
 

Lars

Active member
Jonathon,
All manufacturers that I have heard of, including Schneider and Rodenstock, publish theoretical MTF curves.

Perhaps Zeiss really measured a lens, but it could as well be a typo in the document you linked to. Admittedly I am not so familiar with Zeiss as they left the large format lens business a long time ago, so I could use some enlightment in that area.

Also noteworthy that Nikon doesn't mention at what aperture the MTF is measured/calculated. I would guess wide open?

As a counterpoint, a 50mm lens is a reasonably simple lens to manufacture (compared to some advanced zooms and DC lenses), so sample variation probably won't be huge.
 

Jonathon Delacour

Subscriber Member
Bjørn Rørslett has just published a brief review of the AF-S Nikkor 50/1.4G (you need to scroll about halfway down the page). His summary:
The new model is an evolution of the older lens, so you don't need to rush out to purchase it unless you can only work with AFS, but anyone looking for an excellently performing normal lens should consider the "G" carefully.
This seems kind of weird, though, because he indicates that field flatness, vignetting, bokeh, longitudinal CA, and flare resistance all show improvement over the AF-D 50/1.4.
 

ptomsu

Workshop Member
I am OT impressed by this lens. It is a hame that Nikon is not able to bring such high end primes to the market as Canon can do already for the past several years.

I meanwhile have the 1.2/85L and man, this is a really exceptional lens. And well built! And BTW, the introduction of the new Nikkor 1.4/50 made me switch to C at least for the high speed primes, because I was simply pissed by the Nikkor release after so many years of patiently waiting!

In my opinion C has left N behind for far in terms oft high speed primes.
 
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