brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

My Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 VR II auto-focuses like ‘zip’, and usually exactly where I want focus. On the other hand, the 50mm f/1.4 G I’ve had for years is more like ‘uh-zip’. It’s been the one frustrating aspect of the lens. Other than that, it yields great images. Reading reviews online indicates that I’m not the only one who feels this way.

So, I’ve been searching for alternatives, and there doesn’t appear to be one. Even the thousand-dollar Sigma ART lens has a few negative reviews.

Have any of you dealt with this? If so, where’d you land? Thanks.

bull drink water Loc: pontiac mi.

is it just you lens or that model in general????????????

brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

I’ve read several articles where the general consensus was that “while the lens seems slow to focus, it is very accurate”. I know that my 24mm and 85mm ‘D’ lenses focus faster.

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

Does it make a difference if you just manually focus this lens?

Mac Loc: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia now Hernando Co. Fl.

Bruce
In response to your request for alternatives, have you considered Nikon's AF D lenses? I have become a big fan of these lenses. They don't have the built in Silent Wave Motors that the AF-S lenses have which makes them smaller, lighter, and less expensive, they AF using the motor in the camera. They also have an aperture ring. Here are links to the f/1.8 and the f/1.4.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/247091-USA/Nikon_2137_Normal_AF_Nikkor_50mm.html


https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/97413-USA/Nikon_1902_AF_Nikkor_50mm_f_1_4D.html


Good luck in your quest.

brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

Honestly, I seldom use manual focus with the lens, but I have to think I could manually focus any lens at about the same speed. It’s more like an obvious longer time to obtain focus, especially after using any of my other lenses. And, incidentally, that time difference can probably be measured in milliseconds, but it’s obvious.

brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

Your advice is appreciated, as I have a couple of those lenses now, and know you are right. I simply like the ability to tweak focus on the ‘G’ lenses when AF is done.

Thanks!

jeryh Loc: Oxfordshire UK

Well, I feel your pain ! The worst lens I had was a 50mm F1.8G. I bought 3 Sigma Art Lenses, having researched them in depth. I can only say they are razor sharp, and I am well satisfied. The 50mm F1.4 is a cracker !

dcampbell52 Loc: Clearwater Fl

I don't know about slow autofocus, but my Nikkor 50mm f/1.2 is my goto low light lens. Its also nice for portraits (remembering that at the widest aperture, the area in sharp focus is extremely small, sometimes about an inch from front to back). I tend to shoot aperture priority and set the Aperture to the f/5 neighborhood (as I don't just want the tip of the nose in focus). But it does allow me to keep my ISO low and use a decent shutter speed. As for speed of focus, my 50mm uses the focus motor built into the camera rather than having a silent wave motor built into the lens. This tends to make it slower focusing than my lenses that have the motor in the lens. However, when I'm shooting portraits, I generally don't need an extremely rapid focus. Now, my Nikkor 80-400mm lens (the older version) also uses the camera motor to focus. It (as is the 50mm) is a full frame lens. NOTE: the newest version of the Nikkor 80-400mm lens has the silent wave motor (SWM) built into the lens and focuses much faster but is also much more expensive.
My point to all of this is that many of the lenses that originally used the camera motor to focus, how have versions with the motor in the lens making them focus much faster. However, the lenses with the motor in them are also much more expensive than the same lens (older version) without the motor. But the lenses with the motor in them focus a lot faster.

cmcaroffino Loc: Sebring, FL

It has been my experience that the AF-S lens are slow to focus. The older style D lens focus quicker as Mac pointed out. The new P lens are the fastest, focus is almost instantaneous but not many of them are available and only one in FX at this time, the 70-300.

brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

Thank you! Maybe a generous sale is forthcoming on these lenses. :-) I've been impressed with what I've seen from Sigma with the ART lenses.

brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

Thanks for your input. I've looked at that lens, and as I said earlier, I like the ability to tweak focus after the lens auto-focuses. I would use it for indoor family gatherings and there are several young members who just can't seem to be still, so I want fast AF. I'll take another look at it.

brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

Hence my dilemma. :-)

Thanks for sharing.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

I've found that my Nikon 35mm and Sigma 10-20 zoom sometimes take a bit to find focus while my Nikon 18-200 doesn't have any issues even at 18 except in low light, low contrast situations. The wider lenses normally have issues when they start near infinity and then try to get down to a few feet, or vise versa, especially in low light. I try to preset them closer to the subject distance when I think about it. Back button focusing seems to help too.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

I've never noticed a problem with my f1.8D.