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Nikkor Z 50mm F1.8 S Review | Is the OG Lens Still the Best?
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May 7, 2025
Photographer Dustin Abbott shares a deep dive review of Nikon's original 50mm on the Z-mount platform - the Z 50mm F1.8 S. Is it still worth buying in 2025? | Read the Text Review: | Visit the Image Gallery: | Purchase the Nikkor Z 50mm F1.8 S @ B&H Photo https://bhpho.to/3XWrpa4 | Adorama https://howl.link/cvr81ys4etsto | Amazon https://amzn.to/4ieEi6w | Camera Canada https://shrsl.com/4vpdb | The Camera Store https://tinyurl.com/Buy50S | Amazon Canada https://tinyurl.com/Buy50S | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/43V9xjI | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/4imgCxc Check out the DA Merch here: https://bit.ly/TWIMerch | Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/dustinabbott | On the Web: http://dustinabbott.net/ | Sign up for my Newsletter: http://bit.ly/1RHvUNp | Instagram: http://bit.ly/DLAinsta | Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1nuUUeH | Flickr: http://bit.ly/1UcnC0B | 500px: http://bit.ly/1Sy2Ngu Follow Craig @ https://www.instagram.com/craigstoffersen/ Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo: http://bhpho.to/1TA0Xge Adorama: https://howl.link/nt4zdz1goa7ql Camera Canada: http://bit.ly/DLACameraCan Sony Canada: https://www.thesonyshop.ca/?ref=abbott Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HrY64d Amazon Canada: https://amzn.to/3qG1p18 Ebay: http://bit.ly/DustineBay Into the AM Clothing: https://bit.ly/intotheAMda and use code DUSTIN10 for 10% off Fioboc Clothing: https://tinyurl.com/FiobocDA20 and us code DUSTIN20 for 20% off Make a donation via Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/dustinTWI ============================= Table of Contents: ============================= 0:00 - Intro and Concept
View Video Transcript
0:10
hi I'm Dustin Abbott as many of you know
0:13
only it was only a little over a year
0:14
ago that I started to look at Nikon
0:16
Zmount products and bought a Nikon Z8
0:19
for my own test kit as a byproduct I
0:22
actually reviewed the much newer 50mm
0:25
f1.4 4 Zmount lens first but I was
0:29
curious to see how it actually compared
0:31
to one of the OG lenses on the system
0:34
which is the Nicor Z50mm F1.8S that I'm
0:37
reviewing here today it was marketed as
0:40
the premium option but now because of
0:42
the F1.4 lens being released there is a
0:45
little bit of market confusion because
0:47
they're about the same size and weight
0:49
and frankly the price isn't all that
0:50
different either and so today we're
0:53
going to be diving into the build
0:55
quality the autofocus and most
0:57
importantly the image quality to
0:59
determine if this really is the premium
1:01
lens now I will do a subsequent
1:03
head-to-head video later on and so we
1:06
can really explore that together but
1:07
today we're going to dive in and look at
1:10
this lens and how it performs i'm
1:12
filming on it right now let's dive in
1:14
let's take a look
1:16
so last year I did a review of the
1:18
Aerazoom acoustic tiles that I use for
1:21
damping in my office i'm back this year
1:24
to take a look a look at another one of
1:26
their products these unique acoustic
1:28
panels here that have a wooden design on
1:30
them now I'm in the midst of a really
1:33
amazing space here at the church that I
1:35
pastor however we do have one problem
1:37
that you may have picked up already from
1:39
the sound and that is that a lot of
1:41
noise bounces around here a lot of hard
1:43
surfaces high ceilings and so we're
1:46
going to try to install some of these
1:48
i've got 24 of these to put up a couple
1:50
of these spaces like this to see if it
1:52
helps to knock down a bit of the echo
2:10
so obviously this is a really big space
2:13
and there are too few panels i use 24
2:16
here across both sections of the room so
2:18
not enough panels to make a radical
2:20
difference however I do think we might
2:22
be able to detect a little less noise
2:24
bouncing around in here and fortunately
2:26
the Arizona Diffuse Pro panels have
2:29
enough style that I think nonetheless
2:32
whether it makes a huge difference with
2:34
the noise or not it's a cool addition to
2:36
the
2:42
room so before we jump in I just want to
2:45
give you my disclaimer the lens I'm
2:46
reviewing today is a loaner from Nikon
2:49
Canada i appreciate them loaning me the
2:52
lens however they have had no input on
2:54
my conclusions nor have they seen this
2:57
video in advance of it being released to
2:59
you so we're going to start by taking a
3:01
look at the build and
3:03
handling one of the things that really
3:05
stood out to me is that this lens is
3:07
very very comparable in size to the 50mm
3:11
f1.4 that I reviewed last year this lens
3:14
is about 2 and a half millime shorter
3:17
same diameter and it is a minus7 in
3:22
terms of the overall weight and so
3:25
obviously that makes the 50mm f1.4
3:28
relatively compact for a uh you know
3:31
f1.4 lens this lens is not particularly
3:34
small for an f1.8 lens however now part
3:38
of that is just going to be the reality
3:40
with Nicor lenses in general because of
3:42
that large Zmount it has a 55mm diameter
3:46
means that all of these lenses are just
3:47
going to start bigger at the base than
3:50
what say a Sony E-mount is going to be
3:52
and that's just part of the reality of
3:54
the design but a a big part of it being
3:57
not particularly small is the fact that
3:58
even though it's an F1.8 lens it's an
4:00
unconventional one and that this is a
4:03
premium lens as opposed to a nifty50 so
4:06
to give you an idea of those dimensions
4:08
it is 76 millimeters right around 3 in
4:11
in diameter it is 86 1.5 millime or 3.41
4:16
in in length and it weighs in at 415 g
4:20
or 14.64 oz like the 50mm f1.4 it is a
4:27
weather sealed lens and when I look at
4:29
the the diagram I count a similar
4:32
basically seven seal points though I do
4:34
note that Nikon's language is a little
4:37
more aggressive in the weather sealing
4:40
for this as opposed to the 50mimeter
4:42
f1.4 now I don't see any real evidence
4:45
or reason for that in terms of the
4:47
actual seal diagram but they certainly
4:50
do give a different kind of feel in that
4:52
and so maybe the weather sealing here is
4:54
a little bit more
4:55
robust as far as features go we
4:58
basically just have an AFMF switch here
5:00
on the barrel near the lens mount and I
5:03
always welcome having that but one thing
5:05
that we have only one of here that we
5:08
actually have two of on the cheaper 50mm
5:10
f1.4 is there's just one ring here and
5:13
so it's primarily the manual focus ring
5:15
but it's also the customizable control
5:18
ring depending on how you have it set up
5:21
whereas the 50mm f1.4 does have a
5:24
separate customizable customizable
5:27
control ring however if you do switch
5:30
its function into aperture control uh
5:32
it's obviously going to be decllicked
5:34
and I found that I could do smooth
5:36
aperture racks no real issue there the
5:39
ring itself it does move very very
5:41
nicely has a nice damping there's a fair
5:43
bit of metals here in the barrel of this
5:46
lens and even the actual manual focus
5:49
ring or customizable control ring
5:50
however you want to look at it the ring
5:52
itself is a ribbed metal and it feels
5:55
fairly fairly premium there are nine
5:58
blades inside in the Aperture Iris and
6:01
it does a pretty good job as you've
6:03
probably just seen in that rack of
6:05
keeping a circular shape you can see
6:07
them a little bit those you know that
6:09
non-agonal shape will show up a little
6:10
bit but overall it does pretty good up
6:13
front we have a 62mm front filter thread
6:16
which I would call typically uncommon
6:19
because I don't see a lot of lenses with
6:21
a 62mm thread but in this case it's also
6:23
shared with the 50mm f1.4 four and then
6:26
both the 35 f1.8 and f1.4 lenses and so
6:30
it is somewhat of a standard here uh
6:33
amongst these lenses you can focus down
6:35
as closely as 40 cm and get a 0.15 times
6:40
magnification that's not as high of
6:42
magnification or quite as close as you
6:45
can get with the 50mm f1.4 however the
6:48
uplose performance is better so you know
6:50
win some lose some the price is
6:55
$630 which on paper you know it feels
6:59
expensive for an F1.8 lens if you're
7:01
looking at this from the perspective of
7:03
it being a nifty50 type lens but as
7:06
we're going to see in the optical
7:07
portion this is anything but a nifty50
7:10
in terms of the optical performance so I
7:13
mean I think the price is actually
7:15
pretty fair considering how good a lens
7:17
it is um even if it doesn't have a
7:19
particularly sexy maximum aperture so
7:22
overall the build is nice here it feels
7:24
good everything functions as it should
7:26
it's just you know fairly plain so how
7:29
about autofocus we'll take a a look
7:31
first at the performance for stills this
7:33
has an STM focus motor and you know I
7:36
never get particularly excited when I
7:39
see the word STM because I typically
7:41
associate that with being a lower-end
7:43
focus motor system in this case however
7:46
it is well implemented and so I was able
7:49
for example to uh track action shooting
7:52
squash 20 frames per per second no
7:55
problem keeping up with action
7:57
everything was moving along well you can
7:59
see here in my formal test that focus
8:02
goes back and forth you know if not
8:04
instantly nice and quick no real issue
8:06
there i had no problem in quickly
8:09
nailing focus in people type shots or
8:12
with the animals and so in general focus
8:15
you know it mostly does what I want it
8:17
to one exception being a fairly common
8:19
one uh and that is that if I'm trying to
8:23
focus on a close subject and the
8:25
background is fairly complex focus a lot
8:28
of times will stick on the background
8:30
and really the hardly only way I can get
8:32
it to the foreground to get it where I
8:34
want is through manually focusing and
8:36
that's where having only a single ring
8:37
becomes an issue because if you have us
8:39
have that set up for aperture control I
8:42
mean it's not going to give you that
8:45
fulltime uh override which I
8:47
particularly like for being able to get
8:49
focus in the right zone and then
8:50
allowing autofocus to take over so that
8:53
really was my only complaint when it
8:54
comes to autofocus for stills uh it
8:57
really did a a fine job otherwise
9:00
despite having just an SDM focus motor
9:03
now on the video side of things I found
9:06
that my touch to focus it went pretty
9:09
much as expected i did feel it was a
9:11
little bit more confident than the 50mm
9:13
f1.4 however you do still get an
9:16
occasional quick rack in the wrong
9:18
direction i'm not quite sure what causes
9:20
that but I've seen it on just about
9:22
everything that I've reviewed on Nikon
9:24
so it just seems to be kind of par for
9:26
the course now I did confer with Nikon
9:29
Canada some and I got some instructions
9:31
on tweaking autofocus for my focus pull
9:35
test particularly for my hand test
9:36
because I've I've never been quite been
9:38
happy with that and I discovered that
9:40
for whatever reason that the settings
9:43
that you input for the way the autofocus
9:46
reacts to detecting a subject is
9:48
different from what the way it reacts if
9:50
you're just doing touch to focus if
9:51
you're doing touch to focus you don't
9:52
really have any finite control over that
9:55
however if you're just allowing
9:56
autofocus to detect a subject or to move
9:58
back and forth between subjects you
10:00
certainly can uh have control over both
10:03
the sensitivity and the speed in which
10:04
it reacts and so after some
10:06
experimenting I got something that I'm
10:08
happy with and so I found that I was
10:11
able to get exactly what I was looking
10:13
for in my hand test which is one of the
10:14
first times I've been able to do that
10:16
and so I appreciate the input that I got
10:18
on that i also found that focus did fine
10:21
when approaching the camera what I found
10:23
if you're looking for information on
10:25
that I found that I needed to be towards
10:27
the high end of both sensitivity and
10:30
speed to get any kind of the
10:33
reactiveness that I was hoping for and
10:35
so certainly I was able to achieve that
10:38
and so I was happy with the results that
10:40
I got after tweaking those
10:42
settings now how about the image quality
10:46
this is where the lens really let's just
10:48
say exceeded my expectations we'll give
10:50
you a deep dive optical breakdown at the
10:52
end of the video but right now I'll give
10:54
you an overview this is an optical
10:56
design of 12 elements in nine groups and
10:59
as you can see here comparing the MTF
11:02
charts this is a very different MTF than
11:04
what we see for the 50mm
11:06
f1.4 overall I was not unhappy with the
11:09
optical performance of the 50mm f1.4 no
11:12
it wasn't incredibly sharp or high
11:14
contrast but I felt like it was sharp
11:16
enough and the rendering was nice enough
11:18
that uh I went ahead and bought one in
11:21
fact but in this case we have got a very
11:24
very different reality in terms of the
11:27
detail and one of the one thing that
11:28
this lens really really impressed me
11:30
with is that I felt like its contrast
11:32
and its micro contrast was almost
11:35
apricatic in design very very
11:37
exceptionally good and you as you can
11:40
see here in a a real world comparison
11:42
that there's just it's it's night and
11:45
day in terms of the contrast that the
11:47
f1.8s can achieve as compared to the
11:49
f1.4 non-sline lens i also found that
11:53
this lens has excellent fringing control
11:56
whereas certainly both longit
11:58
particularly longitudinal style
12:00
chromatic aberrations were an obvious
12:02
issue on the 50mm f1.4 as you can see in
12:05
this comparison
12:07
here now as far as some of the other
12:09
characteristics of the lens it has next
12:11
to no distortion distortion is really
12:13
not a problem at all the tiniest amount
12:15
of pin cushion distortion a minus two
12:17
corrected that but frankly if you didn't
12:19
correct it you wouldn't notice it
12:21
vignette is far more noticeable it's a
12:24
plus 71 to correct for that i'm a little
12:27
surprised by that considering this is
12:28
only an f1.8 lens and as you can tell
12:30
it's not particularly small and so I
12:32
feel like that's an area that maybe
12:34
could have been a little bit better but
12:36
it's certainly well within the the realm
12:38
of correctability this lens is very
12:41
impressively good wide open in terms of
12:44
detail and contrast in the center of the
12:47
frame and then in the mid-frame there's
12:49
a bit of a fade towards the corners but
12:51
they're still not bad even wide open at
12:54
f1.8 eight i found that there's just you
12:57
know that near apo look to the micro
12:59
contrast and so really renders fine
13:02
details really really exceptionally well
13:04
without any kind of fringing any loss of
13:06
contrast every all the areas of the you
13:10
know kind of the edges of all the
13:11
textured areas are all just really
13:13
really crisp very well defined i was
13:17
surprised that stopping down to f2 that
13:19
mild one-third stop down actually did
13:21
increase improve contrast a bit more by
13:25
about f4 I feel like the corners are now
13:27
pretty well perfect and so you have
13:29
exceptional sharpness all across the
13:31
frame another thing that stood out to me
13:33
is that there is really great uh color
13:37
depth from this lens and it has a lot to
13:39
do with that amazing contrast and so it
13:41
allows colors to have a really rich pop
13:44
and saturation to them that's really
13:46
really fantastic at f11 you'll start to
13:48
see a bit of defraction and then a
13:51
little bit more by f-16 though I would
13:53
call it mild in this case I think that
13:55
it's still usable at its smallest
13:57
aperture of
13:59
f-16 now when I compared things like the
14:02
uh the specular highlights bokeh balls
14:06
if you want to call them that I found
14:07
that the f1.4 four lens has more
14:09
pleasing roundness or geometry to them
14:12
however it's marred a bit by having some
14:14
fairly pronounced fringing so the
14:16
geometry is not as good on the f1.8s but
14:20
it doesn't have any of those fringing
14:21
issues and so it takes a win there so
14:25
then going out into the real world and
14:27
doing some actual comparisons and
14:29
rendering I was expecting that the 50mm
14:31
would probably look a lot better and
14:33
certainly it is able to achieve a more
14:35
shallow depth of field but when I was
14:36
kind of diving deep into the rendering I
14:39
found that first of all the rendering
14:40
didn't look much different between them
14:42
except for in the corners and one of the
14:44
things that I am observing as I'm kind
14:46
of diving into the S-line designs more
14:48
is that Nikon's engineers are doing a
14:51
better than average job of really
14:53
looking at the performance at the edges
14:54
of the frame now obviously that was
14:56
particularly true with the 135
14:58
millimeter Plenna but even with this
15:00
lens as an older design I found that it
15:03
actually does a really good job of
15:04
rendering at the corners outside of
15:06
specular highlights just defocused areas
15:09
and that definitely looks better than
15:10
the f1.4 lens which falls apart a little
15:13
bit more at the edges so I mean the
15:16
rendering I think yes it's just an f1.8
15:18
lens but I think the rendering looks
15:20
really good and when you combine that
15:21
with the far more than expected uh
15:24
sharpness level I think the lens has
15:27
pretty amazing image quality now as far
15:29
as flare resistance it is mostly good
15:32
however I did note a bit of flashing
15:34
when the light source is right out of
15:36
the frame as you can see here so I mean
15:38
you can uh compose accordingly some
15:41
people will like like that look and will
15:43
utilize it and if you want to avoid it
15:44
you just change your composition a
15:46
little bit really not all that big a
15:48
deal so optical performance here is
15:50
really pretty fantastic my conclusion is
15:53
is that on paper this really isn't all
15:55
that impressive a lens but the reality
15:58
of the 50mm f1.8s is just so much better
16:02
than what the premise of the lens
16:04
actually is now I do have to dock and
16:07
nick Nikon that their marketing with
16:09
these f1.8 and f1.4 four lenses is
16:12
frankly rather confusing and I I think
16:14
that there's going to be a lot of people
16:16
who maybe aren't as invested as you are
16:19
in doing their research that are going
16:20
to be be a bit confused why the f1.4
16:24
lens is cheaper than the f1.8 lens so
16:27
marketing aside if you're in the know
16:30
then you will know that the S-line is
16:32
probably the way to go uh it is it's a
16:36
really great lens and yes f1.8 8 as I've
16:38
mentioned it's not a sexy aperture but
16:41
the lens itself is pretty sexy this is
16:44
the kind of image quality that I would
16:45
expect a lens costing over $1,000 to
16:48
achieve and so when I look at it in that
16:50
perspective at a price point of around
16:53
$630 it does feel like a pretty strong
16:56
value and that's true even in 2025 now
17:00
if you want more information you can
17:01
check out the full text review that's
17:03
linked in the description down below
17:04
there's also a buying link there and if
17:06
you want a deeper dive into that optical
17:08
performance stay tuned with me right now
17:10
and we'll jump into that together so
17:12
let's start off by taking a look at
17:13
vignette and distortion we can see the
17:16
tiniest tiniest amount of a barrel
17:18
distortion just a uh two to correct for
17:20
it so I mean nothing significant and
17:22
frankly you could get away with not
17:24
correcting it at all as far as the
17:26
vignette vignette is heavier and as I
17:28
mentioned in the review I'm a little
17:29
surprised by that considering it's just
17:32
an f1.8 lens as you can see it is easily
17:35
correctable even manually a plus 68 to
17:38
correct for that and you get an even in
17:39
result and all of that can be corrected
17:41
via the profiles either in software or
17:44
in camera now really fantastic
17:46
longitudinal chromatic aberration
17:48
control i mean that is pretty close to
17:50
perfect and really one of the things
17:52
that stood out to me is that Nikon
17:54
doesn't claim an apricatic design but
17:57
that's what this feels like to me in
17:59
that I just don't see any of the
18:02
fringing and the amount of contrast that
18:04
is there and thus the ability to render
18:06
all these fine textures this is a very
18:09
difficult scene um and I think that it
18:11
just does an amazing job of handling
18:14
that and so kudos to them on that
18:17
likewise here again you've got shiny
18:19
surfaces and thus a lot of ability to
18:21
have just kind of those spherical
18:23
aberrations that create blooming and
18:26
softness it's just amazingly well-
18:28
handled and so I mean this feels a lot
18:30
like a macro lens type level of
18:32
performance and it has everything to do
18:34
with that micro contrast we're not
18:36
talking about the rendering yet but
18:37
frankly this is not bad in the defocused
18:39
area either so it's a great mix of good
18:42
contrast here and fairly soft there
18:45
which is hard to pull off likewise
18:47
lateral style chromatic aberrations are
18:49
very well controlled no issue with that
18:51
in these transitions near the edge of
18:53
the frame so here using the 45
18:55
megapixels of the Z8 and results shown
18:57
at 200% you can see that fantastic
19:00
contrast and detail right off the bat at
19:03
f1.8 in the center of the frame as we
19:05
move to the mid-frame it is pristine
19:08
great contrast great detail and as we
19:11
pan down you can see it looks great here
19:13
it looks great here and then right off
19:16
into the very corner it looks great all
19:19
the way out to about right here and then
19:22
there's just a little bit of falloff
19:24
right towards the edge however we can
19:26
see a good amount of centering um and
19:29
that it is you know it's it's basically
19:32
equally sharp in all the four corners
19:34
that's also important as well so for
19:37
real world perspective I mean it's super
19:40
contrasty and you can see that
19:42
delineation of all of those fine little
19:44
hairs everywhere around the plane of
19:46
focus if you look at the whiskers no
19:48
chromatic aberrations there and that's
19:50
very common to see on cats you know I've
19:52
taken a few cat pictures at this point
19:55
and it's a really really fantastic job
19:57
even though there's lots of light that's
19:58
coming through this window right here so
20:01
lots of opportunity for some issues and
20:03
I just don't see them this image
20:06
actually really really impressed me
20:07
looking at it globally it's not all that
20:09
impressive other than the fact that it's
20:11
you know shooting right into the evening
20:13
sun and held up well but if you zoom in
20:15
to 100% you can see that in all of these
20:18
areas where bright light is coming
20:20
through and it's these fine things that
20:22
can show aberrations uh you can get
20:24
blooming on them and a loss of contrast
20:26
it's just not there it looks really
20:28
great now interestingly if you stop down
20:30
to f2 you can definitely see a
20:32
difference in contrast and that's
20:33
particularly in the bright areas i don't
20:36
know that necessarily the dark areas are
20:37
darker but you can definitely see that
20:39
the bright areas have brightened so that
20:41
means that this text right here is
20:43
popping even more if we move into the
20:45
mid-frame here you can see again that
20:47
there's just more brightness
20:49
illumination and all that so again that
20:51
means that the blacks stand out more I
20:53
think in relation to the uh light areas
20:56
of the frame and if we move up into the
20:58
corner we can see that while it's not
21:01
radically improved yet it is starting to
21:04
improve by f2.8 it's a little bit better
21:07
with a more obvious improvement here at
21:10
f4 where now the corners are starting to
21:12
look really crisp look at the contrast
21:14
on this area here versus here and if we
21:17
pop down into that lower right corner
21:20
you can see it's looking really really
21:21
crisp at f4 now things will continue on
21:24
through f8 at f11 you'll start to see
21:27
some loss of contrast due to defraction
21:29
though frankly that's still looking
21:30
really really good even at f-16 you can
21:33
see you've definitely lost something
21:35
here versus here at f11 however it's
21:38
it's definitely not terrible and at 100%
21:40
magnification it would still be very
21:42
useful just to give you an idea there's
21:44
what 100% magnification looks like i
21:47
mean I think you would still be really
21:48
happy with that now here is the minimum
21:51
focus distance and while the
21:53
magnification level isn't super high the
21:56
amount of detail you can produce is very
21:58
very high great contrast in detail and
22:01
also what I'm seeing here is a nice flat
22:03
plane of focus to where we've got decent
22:06
detail off towards the edges of the
22:07
frame that's just not true at all with
22:09
the f1.4 lens so let's take a look at
22:11
the rendering we've already determined
22:13
that this is a super high contrast lens
22:16
great detail as you can see here but as
22:18
we look towards the defocused area it
22:21
really looks not too bad now obviously
22:23
f1.8 is not going to give you the deep
22:26
uh defocus of the background so if in
22:28
this kind of situation this is a really
22:29
really big uh busy scenario now great
22:33
obviously is the fact that you get nice
22:35
kind of threedimensional pop there
22:37
because of that great apo level contrast
22:40
but in this situation that background is
22:43
it's not blurring away at all and so it
22:45
kind of catches your eye in more
22:47
favorable scenarios like this I think
22:50
that the bokeh looks really great and
22:53
the combination of that that great
22:55
detail and contrast and then with that I
22:58
think is really quite pleasing here
23:00
we've got an even more advantageous
23:02
ratio where the foreground subject is
23:05
closer and the background is further
23:06
away and everything here I think looks
23:08
really soft and of course the detail and
23:11
contrast on the subject looks great
23:14
likewise here you can see how well
23:16
aberrations are controlled whether it's
23:18
in the imprint there or on the shiny
23:20
bits there now as far as the specular
23:23
highlights there is definitely some
23:25
busyiness in them the there there's no
23:27
question that they're smoother on the
23:28
f1.4 lens however you also don't have
23:32
any kind of fringing on the outside edge
23:34
now as you get up into the corner you're
23:36
going to get that typical kind of cat
23:37
eye effect uh stopping down to f2 it's a
23:40
little bit better f2.8 by this point
23:43
you've got basically round across the
23:45
frame f4 a little bit further and yes if
23:48
you take a closer look you can see a
23:50
little bit of the aperture blade shape
23:52
but not too bad really it's staying
23:54
pretty nicely circular even this small
23:57
of an aperture overall I felt like
23:59
images look pretty great and a
24:01
combination of great color great detail
24:04
and contrast and then a really pretty
24:06
decent rendering I think stands out well
24:08
here we've got bright sun up above this
24:11
but you can see that the image is
24:13
holding up very nicely and you know my
24:16
overall kind of impression now if I look
24:18
closely I can see it's more like a lemon
24:20
here but my overall impression as I look
24:22
at this is of nice round bokeh and so
24:25
that's awesome i think that the micro
24:28
contrast is amazing on this lens i mean
24:31
look at all of the fine kind of texture
24:33
and detail and how inky the darks look
24:35
on there very very impressive here even
24:37
at f1.8 you can see there's lots of
24:41
detail and contrast there colors are
24:43
really rich this image really stood out
24:45
to me for holding up beautifully against
24:48
a bright sun and that contrast level
24:51
again it really feels like an approatic
24:53
lens here in this uh setup you can see
24:57
good detail on the subject and as I'm
24:59
going to highlight more in the breakdown
25:01
versus the f1.4 lens it's in the zone
25:04
near the edge of the frame where I feel
25:06
like this holds up better than that lens
25:08
does and in the more defocused
25:10
background I think the rendering overall
25:12
looks pretty good this is probably the
25:14
only you know kind of busy area there's
25:17
a similar one over on this side but
25:19
overall I think the image looks just
25:21
fine now as far as flare resistance
25:24
there is as I showed previously with the
25:25
video there's a little bit of a flashing
25:27
effect that you can get when the sun is
25:29
just right out of the frame i think it's
25:31
fairly artistic so I'm not overly
25:33
concerned about that here we can see
25:35
with the sun just being kind of clipped
25:37
by the edge of the eaves there you can
25:39
see some very mild ghosting artifacts no
25:42
big deal overall here with the sun right
25:45
in the frame it's holding up fine and
25:47
even when stopped down as it is here
25:50
it's holding up fine there so overall a
25:52
really nice optical performance so
25:54
thanks for sticking around throughout
25:56
the optical breakdown i will follow this
25:59
video up with a head-to-head with the
26:01
f1.4 so stay tuned for that as always
26:04
thanks for watching have a great day and
26:06
let the light in
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