NIKON AF-S Nikkor 50mm f / 1.8G Lens

Product Information

As you pull focus, you’ll notice some focus breathing: the image became 2% less magnified when I adjusted focus from infinity to 0.46m. This is hardly visible and should not be distracting when shooting videos. For reasons unknown, even though the mount looks the same as my other NIKKORs, the mounting and unmounting feel is a little rougher than my older, well-worn-in pro lenses.

With the sun in the frame, we see various multi-colored flare patterns, which vary with aperture, becoming more intrusive and destructive on stopping down. Move the sun slightly out of the frame and the picture becomes washed-out by swathes of veiling flare. Overall the moral of the story is to avoid shooting towards the sun.

Best Nikon lens for sports: AF-S 180-400mm f/4E TC1.4 FL ED VR

The lenses on this list aren’t just for DSLRs, however. The best Nikon mirrorless cameras in the Z system have taken centre-stage in recent years, but thanks to Nikon’s FTZ mount adapters, Nikon F lenses can be used on these cameras, too. In most cases, they’ll work with full functionality of autofocus and stabilisation, so owners of mirrorless cameras will also find opportunities for a bargain from our list. It includes a mix of lenses available new, and some that will need to be bought second-hand – a chance to make greater savings. If I was working in nasty, dirty areas, I'd forget the cap, and use an uncoated 58mm Tiffen UV filter instead. Uncoated filters are much easier to clean, but more prone to ghosting. The Nikon 50mm f/1.8 G is typical of Nikon's current amateur lenses: metal mount, glass glass, and plastic everything else. Eagle-eyed viewers will no doubt have noticed that the MTF50 sharpness data at any particular focal length/aperture combination is distinctly higher on FX when compared to DX. This may at first sight appear unexpected, but in fact is an inevitable consequence of our presentation of the sharpness data in terms of line pairs per picture height (and thus independent of format size). Chromatic aberration is the lens' inability to focus on the sensor or film all colours of visible light at the same point. Severe chromatic aberration gives a noticeable fringing or a halo effect around sharp edges within the picture. It can be cured in software.

When used on a DX camera, it gives angles of view similar to what a 75mm lens gives when used on an FX or 35mm camera. With its internal Silent Wave Motor, the first thing that is apparent when using the 50mm f/1.8G is how quiet the lens is when focusing compared to its predecessors. Without the buzz of an AF screw driving the lens focus mechanism, there is a noticeable quietness.

The Nikon 50mm f/1.8 G AF-S is solid, inexpensive and well made (by current standards that accept made-in-China plastic), and it's a great performer. If you don't already have something similar, everyone deserves one of these. Sigma’s previous 50mm lens was renowned as being a heavyweight, but the replacement ‘Art’ edition really piles on the grammes. It gains 50 per cent in physical length and rises from 505g to 815g in weight.

It certainly delivers impressive image quality though, with Vibration Reduction helping to keep shots steady, for which it is to be commended.Sunstar, car window reflection. Nikon 50mm f/1.8 G AF-S at f/9, highly cropped from center of 100% 16MP DX image. The autofocus system is fast and consistently accurate, even for extreme close-ups, where focus accuracy is critical due to the typically tiny depth of field. Centre-sharpness is outstanding even wide-open at f/2.8 and gets even better in the range from f/4 to f/8. Compared with the Z MC 105mm f/2.8 VR S, however, levels of sharpness drop off a little more towards the extreme edges and corners of the frame.

There's beautiful bokeh, and the lens maintains a lovely smoothness in defocused areas when stopping down a little. Colour fringing is almost a complete non-issue with this lens, even in the corners. There’s a lot to love about this lens. It’s refreshingly compact and lightweight, making it a good travel companion for a full-frame Z-series body, while also working really well as a short telephoto prime for DX format (APS-C) Z-series cameras, where it has an effective focal length of 75mm. It’s entirely capable as a 50mm standard prime for general shooting but really comes into its own for extreme close-ups. The only catch is that, to enable full 1.0x macro magnification, the closeness of the shooting distance might be a little too extreme, with only 2 inches between the front of the lens and what you’re shooting.I can't detect any air coming out of my viewfinder as focused. The internal optics move as a unit inside the outer barrel. We’ve reported previously on 35 F-mount lenses being discontinued in recent years. Despite this, there are still a vast number of lenses available new, and in the used camera market. A discontinued lens may still be a very good, or indeed a great performing lens. The newest Nikon DSLRs to be released are the Nikon D780 and Nikon D6– both in 2020. FAQ: Can you use Nikon F lenses on mirrorless cameras? Nikon DSLR users wanting a nicely priced standard prime could do worse than go for the Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8G. It proved a capable optical performer turning in images with good contrast, reduced chromatic aberrations and high sharpness. It handles well too with the lens’ Silent Wave Motor delivering fast, very quiet autofocusing.