One of the most widely used autofocus lenses in all of photography. Fast enough for shooting in just about any type of light. Distortion-free images with superb resolution and color rendition. Weighs only 9.0 ounces. An ideal first lens, perfect for full-length portraits, travel photography or any type of available-light shooting. Accepts 52mm filters; HR-2 lens hood.
Introduction: This once-classic lens is now made in China since about the year 2000. Of course all the earlier ones were made in Japan. The glass is still glass and the mount is still metal and it still performs as well as ever. The outside and filter threads are plastic. As you can read at my 50mm lens comparison, optically these lenses are unchanged over the decades. I just broke down and bought one for myself in October 2007 so I can really test it and the other 50mm lenses when my D3 arives.
Specifications: This lens has seven elements in six groups.
It focuses down to 0.45 meters or 1.5 feet.
It takes 52mm filters and the HR-2 hood.
It weighs only 9 oz or 260g.
It's 2.5" (63mm) around by 1.7" (43mm) long.
It has a seven-bladed diaphragm and stops down to f/16.
Performance: AF action is fast! One full turn of the AF screw focuses the lens from infinity to 6.'
It seems to have less barrel distortion than the Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 manual lenses. I'll have to check it out in more detail when my D3 arrives.
Recommendations: This is a great lens. It's one of the sharpest and fastest lenses made by Nikon, and it's reasonably priced.
The f/1.8 has the same image quality. Unlike the 85mm f/1.8 vs. f/1.4 question (where the f/1.4 costs three times as much and is made three times as solidly) I see no such difference in these 50mm lenses.
Random Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D AF Samples from 10280 available Photos: More @pbase.com/cameras/nikon
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Nikon 50mm f/1.4D AF11/28/2007 08:31 PM
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