This is a lovely lens that needs to be judged for is character rather than the more antiseptic specs that usually dominate lens reviews. It has a level of artfulness that all other of my lenses lack. Painterly and cinematic would be perfect adjectives. Sure it has some CA, the bokeh is not buttery smooth, it is hard to find exact focus due to such a shallow DOP (6mm). Because of this, a lot of reviewers say it's soft. Good rule is to shoot a series. With the shallow DOP, click off 5 or 6 shots, your body moves enough to bring objects in and out of focus.
Don't force this lens to be like your other lenses, let it make you do what it wants.
Something about this lens makes everything special, like I have never experienced, not even with my 85mm 1.4. I shot the inside of a closed diner with nothing more than ambient street light and it was amazing. The color of the sky after dusk was more vibrant than I have ever experienced. And I shot all this at 200 or 400 ISO wide open with a 60th shutter. Every time I would look at the back of my D700 I was giddy.
Strengths:
Not a neutral antiseptic lens, it has a strong character, a "look".
The build on the AIS in second to none, feels like a piece of panavision glass.
Cinematic, beautiful DOP.
Fast Fast Fast!
Weaknesses:
Hard to find exact focus wide open.
Some may not like the character of the bokeh.
I tend to only use this lens in extreme low light conditions, taking advantage of it's exceptionally fast f1.2 aperture. Good for dreamy shallow DOF portraits and shooting in ambient light after dark.
Strengths:
Exceptional aperture of f1.2 is killer for ambient light and low-light applications. Candle-lit portraits are dreamy wide open on this baby. As you would expect, the shallow depth of field at f1.2 is wonderful (if you're into shallow, of course), as is the bocce. Contrast is quite low on the lens, and images can often have a milky quality that is quite impressionistic and painterly. I must say that for sharper, contrastier images I favour my f1.4 Nikon AIS lens, and tend to use this more as an 'effect' lens.
Weaknesses:
It's bulky as you'd expect, with large front and rear elements. Not the sharpest Nion lens I've looked through.
Similar Products Used:
Nikon f1.4 AIS lens...tends to produced higher contrast and sharper images at wider aperture settings. I tend to favour the f1.4 for general use. I have a wide range of manual focus Nikon lenses and swear by them!
Customer Service:
My f1.2 lens actually did not have an AIS mount when I bought it (older model) but I was able to have a tech adapt it for me, to use on my FM2 body, with appropriate metering coupling.
The lens is very fast. If you want a shallow depth of field this is the best lens you can find. I read a mixed bag of reviews here and the people seem to either love it or hate it. The ones that hate it all complain that it is soft - clearly they don't know how to focus properly. This lens is very sharp when in focus when out of focus by just a small amount it will give you blur that can ruin the shot.... in other words the lens is very unforgiving.
You need to realize that it is only manual focus and as such if you have a cheaper camera with a poor viewfinder this lens is likely to give you soft results because you wont be able to get a good focus. When I used it on an older digital camera with a less than perfect viewfinder I take shots while slowly moving the focus ring because I know I can't focus it perfectly with the viewfinder. On a good camera it is priceless.
Strengths:
very fast very sharp and very shallow DOF
Weaknesses:
Manual focus and unforgiving. You need a camera with a good viewfinder... would highly recommend you have a split screen in your view finder for best results.
This is a truly amazing lens when used properly. At wide apertures, focus is absolutely critical due to the very shallow depth of field. I have made beautiful photographs with this lens. The images have a rich, full, almost "3D" quality which is really hard to adequately describe. Bokeh is beautifully "creamy" - better than any other lens that I've used so far. Build quality is second to none - solid metal construction with the buttery-smooth focusing that manual-focus Nikkors are famous for. Sharpness is excellent, but as I mentioned earlier, accurate focus is critical. To sum up: this is a fantastic lens that will make amazing images if you take the time to use it correctly. Mine is a keeper, and hopefully Nikon will soon introduce an AF-S (or even AF) version. When they do, I'll buy it!
Strengths:
Sharp, superb image quality and bokeh, superb build quality
I bought it second hand, convinced by it s fair price. The first test revealed that the Nikkor 50mm f 1,4 AI-S I already owned was better wide opened. The Nikkor AI-S 50mm f 1,2 is quite soft at 1,2....due to the coma and the spherical aberration that also lowers the contrast. The corners of the image become sharp only at f4, while its f 1,4 brother gets the same results at f 2,8. The distortion is normal for 50mm and the built quality is very good, typical for Nikon lenses. It takes common 52mm filters.
Finnally, I think that this lens is outperformed by the slower concurrents. If you have one of them, do not pay the extra money for the heavier, bigger, brighter but not bettter 50mm f 1,2. Unless the price difference justify the temptation of making some test comparisons...as I did.
Strengths:
Built quality and still the optical performance.
Weaknesses:
Optical quality wide opened.
Similar Products Used:
Nikkor AI-S 50mm f 1,4
Micro Nikkor AI-S 55mm f 2,8
AF Nikkor 50mm f 1,8( the first version ), still the best 50mm Nikkor lens i ever used
SMC Pentax A 50mm f 1,4
SMC Pentax A 50mm f 1,7
SMC Pentax A 50mm f 2
SMC Pentax M 50mm f 1,7
SMC Pentax M 40mm f 2,8
Canon EF 50mm f 1,8
Minolta AF 50mm f 1,7
Minolta AF Macro 50mm f 2,8
Minolta AF Macro 50mm f 3,5
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