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Nikkor Z 50mm F1.4 Review | A Great Value Mid Tier Option
Nov 12, 2024
Photographer Dustin Abbott shares a deep dive review of the Nikkor Z 50mm F1.4 - is this the "Goldilocks" lens for Nikon shooters? | This episode is sponsored by Fantom Tracker. Visit store.fantomwallet.com and use code DUSTIN20 for 20% off. | Read the Text Review: | Visit the Image Gallery: | Purchase the Nikkor Z 50mm F1.4 @ B&H Photo https://bhpho.to/4fDi0uj | Adorama https://howl.link/h7gbt0fi5s52l | Amazon https://amzn.to/3Co95P1 | Camera Canada https://shrsl.com/4qx6g | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/3Cp5xMA | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/3YBk66U | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/40CyheP
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Table of Contents:
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0:00 - Intro
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music]
0:10
hi I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today
0:12
to give you my review of the Nicor Z
0:14
50mm f1.4 lens this is an extremely rare
0:18
modern lens in that it is a fast prime
0:21
lens from a first-party manufacturer
0:24
that's actually reasonably priced and as
0:26
I have gone through my review period and
0:28
spent time with this lens the word that
0:29
keeps coming to mind is enough in that I
0:33
really think that this lens is enough
0:35
for most photographers in most
0:37
situations it doesn't feel like Nikon
0:39
has intentionally crippled this lens in
0:41
any way and so as a byproduct I think
0:43
that real photographers real customers
0:45
are actually going to be very satisfied
0:47
with it particularly when it comes to
0:48
Market with a price tag of under
0:51
$500 so we'll explore why this lens I
0:54
think is really quite good in this
0:56
review right after a word from our
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Dustin 20 for 20% off so let's start by
1:50
taking a look at the build and handling
1:51
this lens is a Falls a little a little
1:53
bit oddly in Nikon's current lineup for
1:56
their z-mount lenses not because of this
1:59
lens per se but more because they
2:00
started off with a more premium 50mm
2:04
f1.8 that's typically kind of the
2:06
Plastic Fantastic bottom end of the
2:08
spectrum then you'll have an f1.4 lens
2:10
in the middle and then up at the top a
2:12
premium f1.2 option so Nicor does have
2:15
the premium top end option and I think
2:17
that this lens does slot quite nicely
2:19
into that middle gr but in this case the
2:22
50mm f1.8 is actually a more expensive
2:24
lens than this new 50mm f1.4 that's
2:28
going to obviously create some confusion
2:30
for potential buyers it doesn't all help
2:33
either that this lens is actually about
2:35
the same size and weight as the f1.8
2:38
lens this lens is only 2 mm longer and
2:41
weighs about 7 G more and so neither one
2:44
of those being really meaningful this
2:46
lens is 76.2 MM in diameter with a not
2:51
all that common 62 mm front filter
2:54
thread on it and it is 88.9 mm in length
2:58
so that's 3 in in diameter by 3 3 and
3:00
1/2 in in length it weighs in at 422 G
3:03
or 14.9 Oz and so it's still small and
3:07
light enough that I think actually would
3:08
work fine for those of you that shoot
3:10
apsc and are looking for something with
3:12
a 75 mm equivalent uh focal length this
3:15
slots in pretty nicely and it's neither
3:17
heavy enough nor large enough to where
3:19
it's going to be a serious balance issue
3:21
on your camera this lens does have a
3:24
fairly thorough weather sealing to it
3:26
there's seven different seal points that
3:28
I can see on this D diagram so that's
3:30
certainly obviously very welcome it
3:33
doesn't have anything in terms of
3:35
switches or buttons on it but it does
3:37
have both a control ring and then the
3:39
manual focus ring here now the control
3:41
ring is De clicked and so there's no
3:44
definite clicks to it I tend to use
3:46
Rings like this for aperture control
3:48
manual aperture control I don't love it
3:50
for that in this particular application
3:52
it's just not really quite precise
3:54
enough it's very easy to miss your mark
3:56
in terms of hitting the apture value
3:57
that you want to go too far and then to
3:59
try to come back and go a little bit too
4:01
far the other direction so I don't
4:02
necessarily love the actual uh
4:04
implementation here but it is there and
4:07
you can obviously assign it to other
4:09
values a number of other things exposure
4:11
compensation etc etc and so uh it is
4:14
there the focus rank I think is better
4:16
executed it has a it's nicely damped
4:19
it's nice and wide here it moves well uh
4:22
the I I really appreciate on Nikon that
4:24
Focus Rings like this can be customized
4:26
in camera so that you can choose them to
4:28
be nonlinear or you can choose them to
4:30
have a linear Focus throw and choose how
4:33
far that throw is going to be and so uh
4:35
that's certainly very very useful and it
4:37
makes for more repeatable results in my
4:39
opinion here inside there are nine
4:42
rounded aperture blades you can see that
4:44
the aperture sh shape stays fairly
4:46
circular as we stop down here to uh f2.8
4:50
you can see that the aperture blades
4:53
that you can you can see them a little
4:55
bit even at f2.8 you can see that shape
4:58
a little bit but the overall impress I
5:00
think is still quite circular the lens
5:02
hood is included which is nice to see on
5:04
a non- premium series lens it does have
5:07
internal ribs inside to help you know
5:09
light from bouncing around and it also
5:12
has a gripped portion on either side
5:14
that gripped portion will give you uh
5:16
the ability to have a a nice place to
5:18
kind of grab it when you're either
5:19
locking or unlocking the lens and so
5:21
it's not what I would call a premium
5:23
lens Hood but again it is a cut above
5:25
the more simplistic ones I see in some
5:27
situations minimum Focus distance here
5:29
is a little bit better than either of
5:31
the other 50mm options in nicar zount
5:34
right now you can focus as close as 37
5:37
cmet and so your resulting magnification
5:40
is
5:40
0.17 times as compared to 0.15 times for
5:45
either the f1.8 or the f1.2 S Series
5:48
lenses so overall the build is nothing
5:52
fancy not a lot of bells and whistles
5:53
but it has weather ceiling it has the
5:55
control ring it has a good manual focus
5:57
ring it includes a lens Hood hey what
6:00
more do you need so let's talk about
6:03
autofocus once again we don't
6:05
necessarily have the premium autofocus
6:06
system but though it's an STM or a
6:09
stepping Focus motor here it is well
6:11
implemented here enough that again I
6:14
think that it gets the job done focus is
6:17
quiet it's also quite fast as you can
6:19
see here not quite instantaneous but
6:21
really not far off and so real world
6:24
Focus changes happen very very quickly I
6:26
also found that there was enough speed
6:28
there and enough precision that I was
6:30
able to track basketball action even
6:32
shooting at f1.4 and so shooting on the
6:35
Z8 at 30 frames per second and these
6:37
sequences you can see that Focus really
6:39
stays quite good and quite consistent in
6:41
them so no complaints on that front I
6:44
also found that relative to the 40mm F2
6:47
that I reviewed a few months ago and
6:49
that people might choose between these
6:51
two I found that focus is more precise
6:53
here I didn't have some random Focus
6:55
misses like I did with the 40mm F2 and
6:58
so I was very confident in taking into a
7:01
portrait session where in a variety of
7:03
different scenarios using strobes
7:05
shooting backlit using available light
7:08
shooting at f1.4 I had just consistently
7:11
well-focused results with no concerns
7:13
and no misses when it came to that and
7:15
so really overall excellent results in
7:17
my portrait session I also found that
7:20
when I shot in lower light conditions
7:22
again autofocus didn't seem to slow down
7:24
very much it was fast confident accurate
7:26
really not a whole lot to complain about
7:28
when it comes to stills
7:30
likewise on the video side of things I
7:32
found that my video Focus pools were
7:34
quick and confident as you can see here
7:36
no visible steps not a lot of pulsing or
7:39
settling there now I did find in another
7:42
situation where I was shooting in much
7:43
lower light conditions and I was
7:44
shooting 8K I don't feel like focus is
7:47
always quite as confident when shooting
7:49
8K but in this situation I found that
7:51
there was a bit of a backwards rack uh
7:54
on this Focus pool that you can see here
7:56
and I saw that in a couple of video
7:57
clips so I don't love that but in more
7:59
normal applications no problem I also
8:02
found that I have filmed about four of
8:04
my video episodes like this using the Z8
8:07
and this lens and I had zero issues
8:09
there I also shot two long format
8:12
teaching sessions over an hour long and
8:14
again Focus was Rock Steady throughout
8:17
that so no concerns when it comes to
8:19
that you might have noticed in the focus
8:21
pull test that Focus breathing is there
8:24
but it's really fairly well controlled
8:26
so not enough to be a serious factor
8:28
that becomes more obvious here in my
8:31
hand test and uh while I didn't love the
8:34
fact that it didn't always make that
8:35
transition to the hand and didn't move
8:38
forward even when that's the kind of
8:39
obvious thing in the frame I did find
8:41
that in the adjustments where it went
8:43
from the hand to the eye it was fairly
8:45
smooth because again that Focus
8:46
breathing is pretty minimal and so it's
8:48
nothing like a jarring or abrupt pull
8:51
from one to the other I got very good
8:53
results when walking towards the camera
8:56
no issues with that and of course when
8:57
ducking out of frame I found that Focus
9:00
was able to reacquire me quickly and
9:02
smoothly and accurately so again no
9:05
issues on that front and then finally I
9:07
did notice shooting at f1.4 and tracking
9:09
dry grasses that were blowing in the
9:11
wind you can see that Focus was able to
9:14
smoothly just keep up with the motion
9:17
with the action even though obviously at
9:18
that narrow depth of field focus is
9:20
changing very constantly during that
9:22
clip but it was able to do that smoothly
9:25
and without any kind of issue there so
9:27
overall I would say the video Focus and
9:30
stills Focus were really quite good and
9:33
while it's not kind of the top tier
9:34
performance like I have on my G Master
9:36
lens on Sony I would say that I was
9:39
perfectly content with the results that
9:41
I got so let's talk image quality I'm
9:43
going to give you an overview here and
9:45
of course as always the Deep dive into
9:47
the Optics are going to be at the end of
9:48
the video if you want to go deeper this
9:50
is an optical design of 10 elements and
9:53
seven group so it's not the same as any
9:55
kind of older DSLR design there is one
9:57
aspherical Element here if we take a
9:59
look at the MTF chart and we put it side
10:01
by side with the DSLR era 50mm f1.4 we
10:05
can see that there is some definite
10:07
Improvement in this lens higher
10:09
performance really all across the frame
10:12
and even that with the MTF results that
10:14
MTF isn't particularly impressive in my
10:16
eyes but I felt like Real Results were
10:18
better I was never really put off what
10:20
by what I saw in the real world so to
10:23
break that down I did see some
10:24
longitudinal chromatic aberration now
10:26
there can be a bit of a positive payoff
10:28
that will come back back to in just a
10:29
moment for that but certainly in some
10:32
situations you will see some fringing I
10:34
most obviously saw it here in this photo
10:36
of an old SLR and then the imprint of
10:39
the lens or the the lens imprint on the
10:42
front and you can see in those
10:43
transitions of the white to the black
10:45
there's definitely some fringing that's
10:46
obvious there you can stop that down and
10:48
it definitely diminishes and starts to
10:50
go away on the positive note there is no
10:52
lateral chromatic aberration zero issue
10:55
with that I also noted almost no
10:57
Distortion I could correct just the
10:59
tinest amount of barrel Distortion just
11:00
a plus one to manually correct fort on
11:03
the negative Spectrum however there was
11:05
a considerable amount of vignette not
11:07
quite as bad as the 40mm F2 but in this
11:10
case I almost had to max out the sliders
11:12
a plus 88 to fully correct for the vgn
11:15
yet and so fortunately it's it's it is
11:19
low enough that it can be fully
11:21
corrected by the standard correction
11:23
profile but you you could potentially
11:25
have some issue in your Corners if
11:27
you're shooting in lower light condition
11:29
and higher ISO values where you get a
11:30
little bit of noise in the corners cuz
11:32
it's having to do a fair bit of
11:33
correction there for the vignette now
11:36
when I went to my chart test again
11:37
that's using a 45 megapixel Z8 body and
11:41
looking at 200% magnification I found
11:43
that the f1.4 results were acceptably
11:46
good not incredibly good but acceptably
11:48
good on my chart test center looks
11:50
pretty good mid-frame looks fairly good
11:52
Corners are definitely softer but it's
11:54
mostly because of reduced contrast there
11:57
that causes just like almost like a
11:58
little bit of a vast Vine smear to where
12:01
everything isn't quite as crisp as as it
12:03
could be I found however if I went out
12:05
into the real world for the most part I
12:07
got much better looking results probably
12:09
my worst results were at close Focus
12:11
distances with something that was kind
12:13
of extended throughout the uh plane of
12:16
focus there and so I found that that was
12:18
more likely to produce some fringing
12:20
more likely to produce um kind of a
12:23
generalized softness or lack of contrast
12:26
if I moved a little bit further away so
12:27
that tended to be at close distances is
12:29
if I moved even a few steps back I found
12:31
that actually contrast and detail looked
12:33
better and then of course even looking
12:36
at Infinity I was actually quite pleased
12:38
with the look of this shot for example
12:40
and the amount of detail I was able to
12:41
achieve at
12:43
f1.4 and so in real world use and
12:46
particularly in a portrait setting I was
12:47
actually perfectly satisfied with the
12:49
amount of sharpness I got at f1.4 I did
12:52
find stopping down to F F2 does improve
12:56
that contrast and thus the apparent
12:58
detail that was particularly obvious as
13:00
you can see here in the corners though
13:02
available in the center and mid-frame as
13:04
well uh it continues to improve at f2.8
13:07
and F4 and from F4 to f8 you're going to
13:10
have really consistently excellent
13:12
sharpness from corner to corner by the
13:14
time you get to f11 you'll start to see
13:16
a little bit of defraction and then by
13:18
F16 which is the minimum aperture image
13:20
will soften a little bit further due to
13:22
the effects of defraction though not
13:24
terrible necessarily bouquet quality is
13:27
what I would call mostly good
13:29
and uh in most situations I felt like
13:31
the bokeh was relatively smooth if
13:33
you're manag if you're up close to your
13:34
subject it can really blur out a
13:36
background very nicely with that f1.4
13:38
aperture bokeh was really soft and
13:40
creamy in those situations you get a
13:42
little bit further back and if you have
13:43
some longer period in the transition
13:46
zone the transition zone can get a
13:48
little bit jittery to me but at the same
13:50
time I didn't find a lot of really bad
13:52
outlining or anything like that mostly I
13:54
felt like the bouquet quality was was
13:56
quite good not you know top tier f1.2
14:00
lens good but really quite good overall
14:03
colors as you might expect from a first-
14:05
party lens really looked quite good I do
14:08
find that with some of the color
14:10
profiles in the Z8 that for me skin
14:12
tones can be a little skewed towards
14:14
magenta sometimes uh and so I actually
14:16
prefer some of the Adobe profiles over
14:18
the some of the in camera color profiles
14:21
here but either way I really it was it
14:24
was typical for Nikon and overall the
14:26
color inition was good I also found that
14:28
flare resistance in a portrait setting I
14:31
was using very strongly backlit results
14:33
here very directional Evening Sun and I
14:35
was testing another lens which I can't
14:37
disclose at this moment on another
14:39
platform and it flared really quite
14:40
badly in those situations so it made me
14:43
appreciate how good that this lens did
14:45
with that with only minor ghosting
14:46
artifacts and really pretty good flare
14:49
resistance I used the new godox
14:52
82000 Pro Mark I a flash to um to front
14:56
light in other shots and I found that it
14:59
really balanced out quite well there and
15:01
I was really pleased with the kind of
15:03
results that I could get now one final
15:05
area that I wasn't impressed with at all
15:07
and that was in shooting the Stars
15:10
astrophotography it has pretty strong
15:12
coma smear as you can see in the corners
15:13
looks like the like blue friends
15:16
pterodactyls flying out of frame and so
15:19
I don't love it for that so don't buy it
15:21
to shoot the night sky but really in
15:23
almost every other metric I was pretty
15:25
much happy with what I got so my
15:28
conclusion is this this is a very
15:30
surprising first-party lens and the
15:32
reason why I say that is almost all of
15:34
the 50mm f1.4 lenses in the mirrorless
15:37
era from first-party manufacturers are
15:39
over
15:40
$1,000 now this lens doesn't have all
15:43
the bells and whistles of that g master
15:45
or the newly announced Canon RF 50mm
15:48
f1.4 L but it is way cheaper than those
15:52
and what it does have is weather ceiling
15:55
a hood good autofocus and pretty strong
15:57
Optics all for about 500 bucks and so I
16:00
think that for most people in most
16:02
situations this lens is enough for what
16:04
you need for a 50mm Prime and thus it's
16:07
a really great value and I suspect it's
16:09
going to continue to be a great value
16:11
even when some thirdparty options come
16:13
onto the
16:14
frame I'm Dustin Abbott if you want more
16:17
information you can check out my full
16:19
text review that is linked in the
16:20
description down below there is also
16:22
linkage to an image gallery and some
16:24
buying links if you'd like to purchase
16:25
one and of course if you want a deeper
16:27
dive into the optical performance
16:28
perance let's jump in together and see
16:31
how this baby does okay we'll start by
16:33
taking a closer look at vignette and
16:34
Distortion here the uncorrected raw
16:36
image on the left you can see that
16:38
that's basically Distortion free there
16:40
is the ever so tiniest amount of barrel
16:43
Distortion present you can see it
16:45
corrected there on the right but without
16:47
them side by side you probably wouldn't
16:49
notice the difference you will
16:50
definitely notice the difference however
16:52
in the vignard you can see pretty dark
16:54
corners on this and takes a lot of
16:56
Correction to get to this end result
16:58
here I dialed in a plus 88 to correct
17:01
for all of that and so you know
17:02
certainly that will cause you a little
17:04
bit of noise additional noise if you're
17:07
shooting at higher isos you know to have
17:09
to correct those Corners I mean it is
17:11
what it is and that's the one of the
17:12
areas that gave on this particular lens
17:15
another area of relative weakness is
17:17
that it's not fully corrected for
17:19
fringing now I will note that that can
17:21
pay off and a little bit nicer bouqu
17:23
rendering that can be a little bit
17:24
softer and creamier and we'll take a
17:26
look at that in a few minutes but you
17:28
can see
17:29
some fringing before the plan of focus
17:31
but more obvious blue green fringing
17:34
after the plane of focus now you'll
17:36
definitely see that if you've got a
17:38
really high contrast surface so I like
17:41
to use uh the front of lenses a lot of
17:44
times those imprinted and them white
17:46
painted uh lens designation there's lots
17:49
of areas because it's a it's a depth of
17:51
field issue so you'll see that there'll
17:53
be some fringing that will manifest
17:55
itself there so you can see around the
17:56
SMC and Pentax pretty obvious over here
17:59
at f2 it is still there but it's it's
18:02
really reduced and what you'll also
18:04
really see is that the amount of
18:05
fringing like in this Zone and around
18:08
the bokeh uh dis defocused areas again
18:11
it's still present at f2 but you can see
18:13
it's really diminished there and if we
18:15
go further now we have down to f2.8 on
18:19
the side you can see that the fringing
18:21
in this plane is mostly gone and then
18:23
most of the fringing outlining things is
18:26
gone a little bit left in some of those
18:28
specul
18:29
highlights So speaking of the specular
18:31
highlights here's a look at them at f1.4
18:35
so you can see a little bit of
18:36
deformation towards the side of the
18:37
frame we move on to F2 you can see that
18:41
we're now getting a more circular result
18:43
here on this side on to f2.8 by f2.8
18:46
you're definitely able to see that there
18:48
are nine aperture blades a very mild
18:50
nonagonal shape is starting to show up
18:52
there if we punch in and look inside
18:54
there not any kind of like onion
18:57
concentric circles that are going on
18:59
there a little bit of an interlining but
19:01
nothing too severe either now the other
19:03
type of fringing which is lateral
19:05
chromatic aberration that show up near
19:07
the edge of the frame zero issue with
19:09
that here no Corrections here and you
19:10
can see no fringing on the transitions
19:12
from black to white so again no issue
19:15
there now a few of those factors are
19:18
going to come into play here as we look
19:20
at the overall Optical performance in
19:22
terms of sharpness and contrast here's
19:24
the test chart and I'm going to show you
19:25
results at 200% magnification this is on
19:28
a 4 45 megapixel Z8 sensor middle of the
19:31
frame 200% looks good I mean good
19:34
contrast you know it's not top-notch
19:36
contrast very good Detail no issue there
19:39
if we pan over here to the mid-frame we
19:41
see again good amount of detail there no
19:43
problems as we pan on down let's take a
19:46
look at our bill here looks pretty good
19:48
on this corner and just a little bit
19:49
lower contrast on the bottom right but
19:52
nothing severe as we get towards the
19:54
edges however you can see it almost
19:55
looks like there's a little bit of a
19:56
Vaseline smear over the top of things
19:58
and definitely contrast is reduced a bit
20:01
now how real world detail looks I found
20:04
really situational so if I was shooting
20:06
on a high contrast Target like this that
20:09
extended right through the plane of
20:10
focus where that fringing became the
20:12
factor you can see it looks a little bit
20:14
softer the contrast is not really top
20:16
tier overall image doesn't look too bad
20:19
and again the fringing Isn't So severe
20:21
that it's viewable even at a global
20:23
level it's really only when you look in
20:24
at a pixel level but I mean not
20:26
fantastic you step back just a little
20:29
bit and this is a little bit more of a
20:30
two-dimensional subject so PL of focus
20:32
doesn't extend quite as far I look in at
20:34
a pixel level and that looks fine to me
20:36
I have zero complaints about that no
20:39
it's not the most bitingly sharp I've
20:41
ever seen but it's certainly sharp
20:42
enough at
20:43
f1.4 likewise as we get towards Infinity
20:46
here you can see that contrast and
20:48
detail here in the area of focus again
20:51
no problem I have zero issue with that
20:54
and this image here looking at it f1.4
20:57
contrast and detail actually looks
20:59
really great there and so I have no
21:01
complaints about that either most
21:03
importantly for portrait work I was
21:05
perfectly content with what I got at
21:07
f1.4 and so obviously depth of field is
21:10
affecting a little bit of the face even
21:12
here so this is the eye that's in Focus
21:14
you can see detail looks crisp lips look
21:17
good skin textures all look fine uh hair
21:20
detail also looks good A defocused area
21:23
in this shot looks good other than this
21:26
little bit of jitteriness here that
21:27
we'll get to in a moment in the
21:29
transition zone second shot here and you
21:31
can see I mean look at the detail on the
21:33
eye eyelashes are all perfectly
21:35
delineated lip textures look really good
21:38
uh one final shot here and we can see
21:41
once again that uh detail where on the
21:44
plane of focus all of that looks good
21:46
and defocused area looks nice so I mean
21:49
I don't see anything to complain about
21:50
in terms of real world sharpness so if
21:53
we start to stop down here f1.4 compared
21:55
to F2 you can see that contrast
21:57
definitely Improv proves here in the
21:59
center of the frame so that looks better
22:01
mid-frame you can definitely see that
22:03
improved contrast in the hair on the
22:05
right compared to the left it's going to
22:07
be most obvious here down in the corner
22:09
where it's like the haze is Lifting and
22:12
things are starting to look more sharp
22:14
and in detail here as you move on to
22:16
f2.8 that becomes even more obvious to
22:18
where now the results are looking really
22:20
crisp here and more normal levels of
22:23
magnification and with real world shots
22:25
here 100% magnification f2.8 in the
22:28
center of the frame detail looks great I
22:30
mean all the textures and those bricks
22:32
and then the colors of the paint all
22:34
popping nicely but we can go right over
22:36
here to the very corner of the frame
22:38
again it's not as sharp as center of the
22:40
frame but it's certainly sharp enough I
22:42
think for pretty much anyone to be
22:44
satisfied basically from F4 through f8
22:47
you're going to get really excellent
22:49
results you can see here at f5.6 f5.6 is
22:52
really popping to me looking fantastic
22:54
we'll go over this direction this
22:56
mid-frame result looks good up here into
22:58
the upper left corner looks really
23:00
really fantastic nice and crisp down
23:03
here in the lower left corner again
23:05
really fantastic and then finally upper
23:07
right corner all good I'm inan good
23:09
detail everywhere that we look good
23:10
centering as well that's going to allow
23:13
real world landscape shots to just look
23:16
excellent so here at
23:17
f5.6 we can see you know this individual
23:20
drops being caught in the air but here
23:23
in the area that's not in motion we can
23:25
see that the detail just looks really
23:28
nice all throughout the frame good
23:30
contrast good detail good color all good
23:33
now because of defraction at f11 you're
23:36
going to see just a little bit of
23:37
softening to the image still perfectly
23:39
usable by F-16 I would still call it
23:41
usable but you can see it is noticeably
23:44
softer though not extremely bad but I
23:46
would say still the corners at F-16 look
23:49
better than what it did at f1.4 for
23:51
example and so that isn't always the
23:53
case so defraction is going to be
23:55
present but not going to be terrible now
23:58
up close performance is a little bit of
23:59
a mixed bag you can see here that if we
24:01
punch into the the area that's in Focus
24:05
kind of all of this Zone a contrast
24:07
isn't off the charts but it's okay but
24:09
you can also see that quite obviously
24:11
that's not a flat plane of focus and so
24:13
we have a almost like a little bit of a
24:15
pop out here in the center of the frame
24:17
what should be two-dimensional becomes a
24:19
little bit three-dimensional because it
24:21
blurs out towards the edges fairly
24:23
strongly so obviously you're not going
24:25
to want to use this for reproducing
24:27
negatives for example so up close out in
24:30
the real world you can see again
24:32
contrast isn't mind-blowing but again
24:34
not bad and so and then you can see the
24:37
effect on the bouquet here is beautiful
24:39
it's really beautifully defocused and
24:41
nice coloration
24:43
there uh this shot I think shows that
24:46
the lens is capable of you know good
24:48
contrast at f1.4 but also there's a
24:50
decent amount of three-dimensional pop
24:52
in that image this is kind of the right
24:54
distance for that to really show up
24:56
defocused area looks pretty good than if
24:59
you have a little bit of area in this
25:00
transition zone if you have any kind of
25:02
hard lines there it does look a little
25:04
bit of little bit jittery in that
25:06
instance a shot like this again detail
25:09
and contrast up close not picture
25:12
perfect but good enough you to make the
25:14
image work and the defocus here is again
25:17
not top of the heat but pretty nice
25:19
overall this shot I think generally
25:21
looks nice subject looks good as you can
25:24
see we look in here the fringing
25:27
actually doesn't look too bad on this
25:28
particular image overall bouqu looks
25:30
pretty good down in this Zone again it
25:32
looks a little bit jittery to me and so
25:35
that there will be areas in images
25:36
depending on that Focus distance if you
25:38
hit some edging in the transition zone I
25:41
think that's the weak point for the
25:42
overall rendering a shot like this has
25:44
no transition zone and it all just looks
25:46
soft and creamy and subject detail looks
25:49
really good this image however is a
25:51
little bit more that mixed bag subject
25:53
looks good and crisp overall rendering
25:55
in this area looks good down in here
25:58
it's a little bit busy for my taste of
26:00
course your mileage may vary as noted uh
26:04
this is not a great lens at all for
26:06
capturing the night sky we do get some
26:08
fringing around these really bright star
26:11
points and as you get towards the edge
26:13
they take wings and they start to fly
26:15
yes those are stars those are not
26:18
pterodactyls or birds or bats or
26:20
anything like that these are supposed to
26:22
be star points but coma is bad on the
26:25
lens finally when it comes to flare
26:27
resistance this is shot at f1.4 using
26:29
available light a little bit of ghosting
26:31
you know a little bit of veiling up in
26:33
this Zone but subject looks good A
26:36
little bit of glow to everything I don't
26:37
mind that at all stop down and you can
26:40
see that flare resistance is actually
26:41
really good you can see the sun's coming
26:43
through intensely there we've got the
26:46
shafts of light coming off of it but of
26:47
course I'm using a strobe to front light
26:50
detail looks great and uh no problem
26:53
with that another shot here I actually
26:55
kind of like the this particular
26:57
Sunburst effect creates a nice addition
26:59
to the image and overall I'm really
27:01
quite pleased with the flare resistance
27:03
for a large aperture Prime like this and
27:06
so as you can see this is a lens that
27:08
does have a few Optical flaws but none
27:10
of them I think are fatal this is a lens
27:12
that I'm very per very strongly
27:14
personally considering adding to my own
27:16
Nikon kit as always thanks for watching
27:18
until the very end have a great day and
27:21
let the light in
27:23
[Music]