charlienow wrote:
Hi all, I am considering buying a 50mm Nikkor lens...Trying to decide between the 1.4 and 1.8...back in the film days there was a good argument to go for the 1.4 lens, but is that true in the era of digital photography?
If I were to shoot a subject at f 8.0 with both lenses and all things being equal except one is a 1.4 and the other a 1.8 could i tell any difference in the quality of the photograph...are both lenses of the same quality?
thanks for any advice you can give...
Chuck
Hi all, I am considering buying a 50mm Nikkor lens... (
show quote)
Chuck, My 2 cents, I would go with the 1.8.It is a great lens asa Nikkor Lens user.
Also a in depth review supports the 1.8.
Nikon 50mm f/1.8G vs f/1.4G
Ever since I published my Nikon 50mm f/1.8G review, where I showed that the lens outperforms pretty much any other Nikon 50mm lens, including the more expensive Nikon 50mm f/1.4G, I have been getting a lot of questions from our readers. Some wonder if perhaps I made errors in my assessment of the lens – it seems hard to believe that a cheaper lens would outperform its bigger brother. Others wonder if the 50mm f/1.8G truly is that good, why Lola and I continue to use the 50mm f/1.4G lens for our work (it is also listed in the outdated “Our Gear” page).
Nikon AF-S 50mm f/1.8G
After many years of dedicated service, the Nikon 50mm f/1.4G finally went kaput on us (it has all kinds of focus issues, probably as a result of field abuse, so it is on its way to Nikon for repair). I had no intention of selling the older 50mm f/1.4G, because it shows a lot of wear and tear and I knew I wouldn’t get much for it anyway. Since Lola cannot live without her favorite 50mm lens, as soon as this one died, I knew that I would be getting the 50mm f/1.8G version.
When the lens arrived, I decided to run another comparative test, but this time in a much more serious and demanding environment. Since all of my previous tests were done on Nikon D700/D3s bodies with 12 MP sensors, this time I decided to test the lens on the Nikon D800. There have been a lot of talks lately about the D800 and its high requirements when it comes to lenses. With a 36.3 MP sensor, the Nikon D800 shows the true resolving power of lenses, making their weaknesses more obvious than on lower resolution sensors. In addition, I have been spending quite some time working with Imatest software, which helps a great deal in quantifying lens resolution, along with providing all kinds of tools for measuring optical problems such as chromatic aberration, distortion, etc. Coupled with the two amazing high-tech tools, I tested both lenses in a controlled environment.
As it turned out, on average, the Nikon 50mm f/1.8G still outperforms the Nikon 50mm f/1.4G on a high resolution sensor. It offers great performance wide open throughout the frame and once stopped down to f/2.8, produces very impressive results that the bigger f/1.4G cannot match. At f/4 it reaches its peak performance in the center and its corners also significantly improve. Starting from f/5.6, however, the lens takes a hit in resolving power and that’s where the f/1.4G takes over, giving slightly better performance in the center, as shown in the below graphs:
So what are you going to do?