General impressions
This is one of the popular Nikkor lenses among the pro-shooters and the serious amateurs. Also one of the
reasonably priced ones. It is being sold at approximately twice the price of the consumer grade 50 1.8 AF lens. The large aperture makes
this lens excellent for low light shooting and for special effects using shallow
DOF including portraiture.
The finishing is very good even if it is still a bit plasticky and the AF motor is a bit
noisy and slower than an AF-S lens, but this has never been a real issue in
practice.
Another application for this lens is to use it in combination with extension tubes (my favorites are the Kenko tubes because they provide the full connectivity (AF kept) and because they are relatively cheap). With the three tubes in the kit on a 50mm lens you get a magnification of approximately 2:1, allowing to take amazing macro pictures. Optical quality being excellent, this is a fantastic combo for macro (not for bugs because of the working distance - too short)
The lens does not come with a pouch or a sun hood, only the lens
caps (pinch type for the front one) are being delivered in the package.
I would recommend to buy a cheap rubber hood you can easily fold or unfold. I am
not always using a UV filter on that lens to avoid vignetting on an FX or film body.
And as usual for lenses with an aperture ring, lock the aperture on the highest
value (smallest aperture), f22 in this case. Only then you'll be able to select
the aperture on the camera (DSLR).
A comparison between the different 50mm versions:
on the left the 1.4 AF, in the middle the 1.2 AIS and on the right the 1.8 AF with its plasticky finishing.
Pros
- not cheap but good value for money
- excellent image quality
- normal field of view on a film camera, a short telelens on a DSLR
- ideal for portrait, low light shooting, and to play with thin DOF
- excellent build quality, not on par with pro lenses, but much better than the 50 1.8 for instance
- large aperture (1.4)
Cons
- focal distance not perfect for DSLRs - not equivalent to the normal angle of
view as for an SLR
- plastic build
- non AF-S motor
- no sun hood provided
Highly recommended - a lens every serious photographer should have, probably the best value for money in the superfast Nikkor line-up.