Levels of chromatic aberrations are a little on the high side towards the edges of the frame at fast apertures, but fringing decreases as the lens is stopped down to below 0.5 pixel widths. The levels at wide apertures may become visible in images with high contrast edges placed near the edges of the frame. China. The 50mm f/1.8 D has always been made in China. Its optical performance is as good or better than Japanese-made zooms costing fifteen times as much, so there. On Nikon F-mount lenses this stands for Vibration Reduction; Nikon’s name for its optical image stabilisation system. Image stabilisation keeps a lens steady when it’s being hand-held, allowing for the use of slower shutter speeds without the need for a tripod. Nikon F-mount lenses: FAQs

We should also mention the Vibration Reduction (VR) functionality, which really does work well in low light. Much slower shutter speeds than normal still produce sharp pictures, which makes this lens an ideal all-in-one, carry-everywhere choice. Before using the 50mm lenses, I performed AF accuracy tests using the LensAlign lens calibration tool. None of the 50mm lenses from Nikon, including the Nikon 50mm f/1.8G required any adjustments and the AF accuracy was dead on. Note: Unlike AI lenses, the aperture rings of these pre-AI lenses extend a bit past the mounting flange. I made a differential measurement from the flange mounting surface, not the overhanging aperture ring.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. This is as expected from a unit-focusing lens: the entire optical cell moves in and out as one unit as focused. One downside is the rather uninspiring maximum aperture of f/3.5-5.6. This is part and parcel of keeping the lens to a sensible weight and cost, but all the same, those who want to create striking shallow depth of field or beautiful bokeh will want to look elsewhere. Everyone needs a 50mm lens, and it's about the only lens you'll need. This 50mm f/1.8 G is super sharp, focuses perfectly, and has superb bokeh as well.

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. Here is how the lens compares against the older Nikon 50mm f/1.8D (Left: Nikon 50mm f/1.8D, Right: Nikon 50mm f/1.8G): Supplied Accessories: 58mm Snap-on Front Lens Cap LC-58, Rear Lens Cap LF-4, Bayonet Hood HB-47, Flexible Lens Pouch CL-1013 We consider falloff to become perceptible when the corner illumination falls to more than 1 stop less than the centre. Falloff is slightly better than average for its class on full frame at 2.3 stops wide open, falling to 1 stop on stopping down to F2.8; this may be annoying to users brought up on smaller formats.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. This Nikon 50mm f/1.8 G is Nikon's latest iteration of their classic 50mm f/1.8 lens, first introduced in 1978. This new version adds the first new optics since 1978, and updates the traditional screw-focus system of 2002's Nikon 50mm f/1.8 AF-D with a modern AF-S system. Therefore, this new lens allows instant manual-focus override simply by grabbing the focus ring at any time. As usual with full macro lenses, the widest available arrow shrinks at very short focus distance, in this case to f/5.6 at full 1.0x magnification. Similarly, the narrowest available aperture shrinks from f/22 to f/32.

This unassuming lens is the best budget choice for a D3 or D700, much better than any zoom, to get you the fast autofocus, great low-light performance and the sharpness for which you bought a D3 or D700 in the first place. If you do buy one of those expensive cameras, consider as well the 50mm f/1.4 version. Wide-angle lenses (around 8-35mm) are good for capturing expansive scenes like landscapes, and conveying scale in architecture. Standard lenses (40-75mm) provide a natural perspective, useful for street photography and documentary photography. Telephoto lenses (80mm and higher) are good for bringing distant subjects like wildlife into sharp focus, or flattering facial features for portraits.

Comments

The lens I am reviewing is this 6-element Nikon 50mm f/2, which was introduced in January 1964. It was first called the NIKKOR-H Auto. Its optics were unchanged through the AI NIKKOR version which was made until 1979. Multicoating was added in 1972. Except for the multicoating, nothing changed optically from 1964-1979; it's all the same lens but in many different cosmetic variations. Late 1980s ~ early 1990s AF cameras like the N90s, N70 and F4 will focus just fine and you'll have Program and Shutter-priority modes, but lose Manual and Aperture-priority since you have no way to set the aperture on the camera or on the lens. In the corners on a D3, spherical aberration makes it a bit less contrasty (but still well defined) at f/1.8, and it's just about perfect by f/4. Focus accuracy and repeatability is critical to consistently produce sharp shots. Repeatability (the accuracy of focus on the same subject after repeated focus-acquisition) of the Nikon Z 24-50mm f4-6.3 is very good (measured 99.4% in Reikan FoCal) with no outliers over a series of 40 shots. At 50mm focal length the lens focuses in around 0.3 sec from infinity to 0.58m (1:10 magnification), which is very fast and comparable to the Z 24-70mm f4 S.

I have received several inquiries from our readers about weather sealing on Nikon 35mm and 50mm lenses. The short answer is “No”, these lenses are not weather sealed. While I have been using my Nikon 50mm f/1.4G lens in hot/cold/dry/wet weather conditions and never had any issues, Nikon lenses without gold rings are not designed to withstand tough weather as professional lenses. That’s why Nikon does not specifically mention weather sealing in their marketing materials on these lenses. If you take a good care of the lens and use a protective filter in front of the lens, you should have no problems with using it in various weather conditions. Just remember to take extra precaution when changing the lens in very dusty/windy conditions. Since the rear lens element moves in and out during focusing, get used to rotating the focus ring to the infinity mark before mounting or dismounting the lens. NIKON D3S + 50mm f/1.8 @ 50mm, ISO 250, 1/3200, f/1.8 The H in Nikkor-H means Hex, or six elements; the fact that all Nikon 50mm f/2 lenses have 6-blade diaphragms is coincidental.

Our verdict

Announced in April 2011, the AF-S 50mm f1.8G is the successor to the ageing, but still popular AF 50mm f/1.8D. It’s the first renovated f/1.8 prime lens for FX bodies sporting AF-S in Nikon’s current range, with the 85/1.8D and 35/2.0D still awaiting an update. And that is sorely needed as the top-of-the-line f/1.4 primes that Nikon updated last year are pretty expensive – the only exception being the 50mm f/1.4G. So it will be interesting to see how the new 1.8G lens performs against it’s bigger and pricier cousin. Focus: Focus speed is a bit more variable with this lens than I was used to. When used in Full range on more distant subjects, focus was often fast and unnoticeable, though I detected a few times (on the Zfc) where there was a clear hesitation in focusing, typically when the Auto-area AF was moving between human and non-human subjects. For generalized work, I'd put the lens in the category of moderately fast for focus speed. But it's not a speed demon, by any measurement. However, it’s impeccably built, with comprehensive weather-seals, a physical aperture ring for refined Aperture Priority and Manual mode shooting, and a high-grade optical path that includes an aspherical ED (Extra-low Dispersion) element. The nine-blade diaphragm is well-rounded. The increased size of the G-series lens means the rubberised manual-focus ring is also larger than on previous models. But this is something of a paradox: with no aperture ring on the lens, it cannot be properly used on a manual-focus Nikon camera. However, it does prove useful when shooting in live view to ensure the subject is precisely in focus. 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.