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NIKON 50MM Z SHOWDOWN | F1.4 OR F1.8 S?
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Apr 30, 2025
Photographer Dustin Abbott shares a head to head comparison between the Nikkor Z 50mm F1.4 and 50mm F1.8 S lens - is one better than the other? Z 50mm F1.4 Reviews - Text: | Video: https://tinyurl.com/Z50vid Z 50mm F1.8 S Reviews - Text: | Video: 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 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
View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music]
0:06
[Music]
0:10
hi I'm Dustin Abbott and I am back as
0:13
promised with my head-to-head comparison
0:15
with the 50mm f1.4 released 2024 and
0:20
then the 50mm
0:22
f1.8s which was released I believe in
0:26
2018 Now Nikon's marketing strategy with
0:29
this common prime focal length is I
0:32
think what you would call a little bit
0:34
odd I think initially it probably made
0:37
more sense in that they had the idea
0:40
that rather than going with more
0:42
expensive f1.4 premium primes that they
0:45
would go for a more affordable design
0:48
and an f1.8 lens However unlike most
0:51
f1.8 lenses they decided to make them a
0:54
premium option And then of course there
0:57
was a nice market separation when they
0:58
added in the 50mm f1.2 lenses which you
1:03
know are much bigger and heavier and
1:04
cost you know several times as much
1:07
Everything made sense until they much
1:10
later decided to release a series of
1:14
35mm 50mm and 85mm f1.4 primes But where
1:19
the paradigm shifts is that these are
1:22
more like the entrylevel primes not
1:24
really entry level in terms of build The
1:27
50mm f1.4 is nearly the same size as the
1:31
50mm
1:32
f1.s It's fairly close in cost about
1:35
$130 less And confusingly it has at
1:38
least one key feature that the premium
1:41
lens lacks So is the slower 50mm f1.8
1:45
still the niftiest 50 from Nikon well
1:48
let's find out Now before we jump in to
1:51
give you a clo disclosure on these the
1:53
50mm
1:55
f1.4 is a lens that I purchased from
1:58
retail last year myself Got it from
2:01
Camera Canada which I often go to to buy
2:04
my own gear 50mm
2:07
f1.8s is a loaner from Nikon Canada
2:10
However they had no input on this video
2:13
nor did they see it in advance and so
2:16
they have no input on my conclusions
2:19
which are my own So let's start our
2:21
comparison by talking about well what is
2:25
similar these are extremely similar in
2:28
size They have the same diameter The
2:30
f1.8 lens is 2.5 mm shorter and it's 7 g
2:35
less In other words it's so close that
2:37
you're not going to really notice the
2:39
difference Both of them have 62mm front
2:41
filter threads Both of them as I break
2:43
down the weather sealing diagram seem to
2:47
have a similar amount of seals around
2:49
seven and to have them in similar places
2:52
Both of them have nine rounded aperture
2:55
blades that seem to behave pretty
2:57
similarly in terms of keeping an
3:00
circular shape as it's stopped down Both
3:02
of them are capable of doing aperture
3:05
racks and doing them at about the same
3:07
level As you can see here they both
3:10
exhibit similar levels of focus
3:11
breathing which is to say very very
3:13
little And that is helped by the fact
3:15
that there is a focus breathing
3:17
compensation available in my Nikon Z8
3:19
body Both of them have STM focus motors
3:23
and you know they both seem to have
3:25
pretty similar amount of speed And you
3:27
can see here in my test that it takes
3:29
them about the same uh t same amount of
3:32
time to rack from close to a distant
3:34
subject and back and forth whether
3:36
indoors or outdoors I didn't shoot them
3:39
at the same time shooting the same
3:41
sports However I shot with the 50mm f1.4
3:45
I shot some basketball action Had didn't
3:47
have any issues with keeping focus as
3:50
moved along even in quick burst And then
3:52
I shot squash action with the 50mm f1.8s
3:56
And again I had no problems there Both
3:59
of them seem to deliver pretty similar
4:02
results in my hand test during video
4:04
testing as I transition from my hand to
4:07
my eye and back and forth And so they
4:10
achieved about similar performance in
4:12
that area Both of them have almost no
4:16
distortion And so that isn't really a
4:18
factor between the two of them because
4:20
in either case you could get by without
4:22
doing any kind of distortion correction
4:24
at all So there's actually a surprising
4:27
amount of similarities between these two
4:29
lenses which you know kind of makes
4:31
sense when you consider the fact that
4:33
the price is also fairly similar However
4:37
we'll look at some reasons to choose one
4:39
or the other Starting with the 50mm f1.4
4:43
the newer lens Well obviously the first
4:46
factor to consider is that it does have
4:48
a brighter maximum aperture F1.4 4 is
4:53
2/3 stop brighter than
4:56
f1.8 meaning that this lens has about
5:00
1.66 times more light gathering
5:03
potential than the 50mm f1.8 So that is
5:07
going to have uh going to have some
5:10
factors where it plays into your
5:13
photography Another key issue I not
5:15
noted a feature that's present here that
5:18
was missing on the S-line lens and that
5:20
is a separate customizable control ring
5:24
That's a big deal because it means that
5:26
the manual focus ring can always be the
5:28
manual focus ring whereas the
5:29
customizable control ring can do
5:31
whatever other function you want On the
5:34
f1.8s you have to choose between one or
5:37
the other in the function and so that
5:39
means that it's just going to be more
5:41
limiting on a practical level I also
5:44
found that you can focus about 3 cm
5:47
closer with the f1.4 lens and it is
5:50
rated at a higher 0.17 times
5:54
magnification versus the 0.15 times of
5:57
the
5:59
f1.8s Now that larger maximum aperture
6:02
means that everything else being equal
6:04
you can produce a more blurred out
6:06
background with larger softer specular
6:09
highlights And in a secondary area where
6:12
you can get more blurred out backgrounds
6:13
obviously you can focus a little bit
6:15
closer as well And that also contributes
6:17
to having a more blurred out
6:19
background You also going to get rounder
6:22
specular highlights or boke balls across
6:25
the frame And so it's a little bit
6:27
better as it reaches into the corners
6:29
and is able to achieve rounder results
6:31
there relative to the 50mm f1.8 So some
6:35
good reasons to choose the 50mm f1.4 And
6:38
then of course in addition to that is
6:40
the fact that it is about $130 cheaper
6:44
and so price is going to be another
6:45
compelling factor to consider it But
6:49
there are some equally valid reasons to
6:51
choose the 50mm
6:52
f1.8 First of all if you take a look at
6:54
the MTF charts you can see that its
6:58
performance is much much better This is
7:00
the much sharper lens and in reality it
7:04
is it's it's night and day It has it is
7:08
much sharper all across the frame and in
7:10
a secondary factor it has much higher
7:13
contrast The 50mm f1.4 has a little bit
7:17
more of a classic rendering to it to
7:20
where it's not super sharp or high
7:22
contrast wide open and then it sharpens
7:24
up and contrast increases as you stop
7:27
the lens down The 50mm f1.8s 8s is has
7:31
so much contrast and micro contrast that
7:33
it almost feels like an apochromatic
7:35
lens to me I was very pleasantly
7:38
surprised by how amazing the contrast
7:40
was and its ability to delineate fine
7:43
details and fine textures as a byproduct
7:47
This also has much lower fringing and
7:50
whereas the 50mm f1.4 4 does struggle
7:53
with particularly longitudinal style
7:55
chromatic aberrations The S lens does
7:58
not at all It's really well controlled
8:01
for that It does have a little bit less
8:03
vignette Now both of these are higher
8:05
than what I would hope but this has
8:08
required a plus 71 to correct for
8:10
whereas the f1.4 lens required a plus 88
8:14
Not necessarily a radical difference but
8:16
it's enough to be a factor This also
8:19
surprisingly even though it's at a
8:21
disadvantage in terms of depth of field
8:23
I did find that Nikon's engineers were
8:27
more kind of thorough in developing the
8:29
performance of the lens near the edges
8:32
of the frame And so I found that whereas
8:34
the rendering gets a little bit nervous
8:36
maybe as we'll call it on the f1.4 the
8:38
f1.8 remains nice and smooth right out
8:41
into the corners And so it's a little
8:43
bit better engineered in that regard On
8:46
the autofocus side of things I did note
8:47
that autofocus was largely similar But
8:50
what I did find when I did
8:52
backtoback focus pools um as you can see
8:56
here there's even though there is still
8:58
that occasional rack that I see often on
9:00
Nikon I found that there was less kind
9:02
of fluttering around with the f1.8
9:04
versus the f1.4 And so it just did a
9:08
better job of just going back and forth
9:10
from subject to subject without any kind
9:12
of micro pulsing which I did see a bit
9:14
of on the f1.4 lens Also while the f1.4
9:19
lens does have a higher level of uh
9:23
magnification the f1.8s is a much better
9:26
in terms of its uplose performance It
9:28
exhibits a flatter plane of focus It has
9:31
better contrast It renders more fine
9:33
detail So while you might get a little
9:35
bit more in the image from the
9:37
f1.4 I would prefer the f1.8 lens and
9:41
doing just a tiny bit of crop to get to
9:43
the same magnification level of the f1.4
9:46
because you're going to get a much
9:48
stronger end result Now while the f1.4
9:51
won for having the separate uh
9:54
customizable control ring this has an
9:57
actual AFMF switch which the f1.4 lens
10:00
lacks I always like having that switch
10:03
Even on like my Z8 body it does have a
10:06
you know dedicated control for that I
10:08
still like it better on the lens It's
10:09
just a little bit more of a
10:11
straightforward process I also noted
10:14
that while the f1.4 lens can produce
10:16
larger specular highlights or bokeh
10:18
balls this lens does not have any kind
10:21
of fringing on them And so while they're
10:24
bigger on the f1.4 on this lens they're
10:26
cleaner looking and I prefer them
10:28
overall Now if you want a deeper dive
10:31
into the optics between these two lenses
10:33
I do have that comparison that is coming
10:35
up at the end of the video But my
10:37
conclusion is this Actually really like
10:40
the 50mm f1.4 in a lot of ways But when
10:43
you put them headto head there really
10:45
isn't a lot of reasons to choose the
10:47
f1.4 lens unless a you really need
10:51
f1.4 or b that little bit of a price
10:55
difference of $130 is a deal breaker And
10:58
for some people it will be But the
11:00
S-line lens is definitely the premium
11:03
lens Despite having that smaller maximum
11:05
aperture it is much higher performing
11:08
lens It has a little bit nicer build
11:11
quality to it It just feels a little
11:13
more upscale and it certainly performs
11:15
more upscale relative to the cheaper
11:18
f1.4 lens And so I would say it is still
11:21
the lens to buy despite the confusing
11:24
aperture values between these two lenses
11:26
If you want more information I do have
11:28
linked in the description the full text
11:30
and video reviews for both lenses And of
11:34
course we've got that optical breakdown
11:36
if you want to see how they compare
11:37
head-to-head Let's dive in Let's take a
11:39
look Okay we'll start off by taking a
11:41
look at vignette and distortion You can
11:43
see that really neither one of these
11:45
lenses suffers from much of anything We
11:48
have a mild amount of pin cushion
11:50
distortion just like one or 2% on the
11:53
f1.4 A tiny bit of barrel distortion on
11:56
the f1.8 Both of them correct very
11:58
linearly No problem there A slight bit
12:02
more vignette on the f1.4 lens but you
12:06
know it's about a eight or nine
12:09
percentage difference So not huge there
12:12
Much more significant is the difference
12:14
in the fringing And we'll see that in
12:16
real world in just a moment But you can
12:18
see even on the test chart there's a lot
12:20
of uh longitudinal style chromatic
12:22
aberration on the f1.4 4 The f1.8s is
12:26
essentially perfect in that regard Now
12:28
if we take a look at sharpness we'll
12:30
start by putting them wide open So I'm
12:32
keeping the f1.4 on the left for all of
12:34
these comparisons So you can see f1.4
12:37
versus f1.8 The f1.8 lens is radically
12:41
sharper and much much higher contrast
12:43
It's just not even close Uh here in the
12:46
mid-frame radical difference there up
12:49
into the corner And you can see that the
12:51
difference remains everywhere So what if
12:53
we make it apples to apples we'll do
12:55
f1.8 versus f1.8 You can see that while
12:59
the contrast is a little bit improved on
13:00
the f1.4 it's still nowhere near the
13:03
class of the f1.8 sline lens If we jump
13:07
on to f2.8 you can see that the sline is
13:11
just getting sharper whereas the uh f1.4
13:15
lens
13:16
h it's definitely not getting sharper
13:18
the same way And so we can see that's
13:20
true just everywhere that we look It's
13:23
they're probably closest in the corners
13:25
but even there the S-line lens is
13:27
winning by f4 You can just see that
13:30
they're just different kinds of lenses
13:32
They just don't have the same degree of
13:34
resolution The f1.4 lens is really
13:37
lagging in terms of contrast and detail
13:40
F5.6 hasn't really changed You can see
13:43
that we're starting to get a little bit
13:44
of that moir pattern on the f1.4 lens It
13:46
shows that contrast is increasing but
13:49
certainly not to the level of the S-line
13:51
lens Now the f1.4 lens can focus about 3
13:55
cm closer and has uh 0.17 level of
13:59
magnification versus
14:01
0.15 but that's about where the
14:03
advantage ends You can see that it
14:06
doesn't have nearly as flat a plane of
14:07
focus You can see that you know focus is
14:10
just on one little area and then it kind
14:12
of falls off towards the edges Whereas
14:14
we have a much flatter plane of focus
14:16
with the f1.8 lens Furthermore even if
14:18
we look where the two lenses are focused
14:20
it's just not even close The f1.4 lens
14:24
is just not nearly as sharp It's got
14:26
some fringing that's impacting it We
14:28
move over to this zone and already it's
14:29
out of the plane of focus Whereas a
14:31
flatter plane of focus on the f1.8
14:33
produces much more even results Now in
14:36
this comparison we'll see a little bit
14:37
of give and take First of all advantage
14:39
for the f1.4 lens the boke balls are
14:42
specular highlights They're bigger
14:44
They're rounder Uh they're probably
14:45
generally more pleasing If you look
14:47
inside here they're just cleaner less
14:50
busyiness in terms of activity a lot
14:51
more going on than the
14:53
f1.8 However the f1.4 is marred by that
14:57
fringing that shows up there And of
14:59
course that fringing shows up here also
15:01
And so it does kind of uglify things and
15:04
it robs it of some contrast as well
15:07
Whereas the Sline lens is just really
15:09
really well corrected Now something
15:11
interesting here that I don't often see
15:14
and that is by f2 we can see that the
15:17
situation's kind of reversed where the
15:19
specular highlights are actually a
15:20
little bit bigger on the S-line lens I
15:23
don't really often see that So that's
15:25
that's unusual for me You can see that
15:28
fringing has improved but definitely
15:30
still present You can still see it there
15:32
and so it doesn't go away quickly and it
15:35
is still there in the outlining of the
15:37
specular highlights Both of them are
15:39
starting to show the shape of the
15:40
aperture blades a bit though the general
15:43
impression is roundish We'll go one step
15:47
further here And so we can see at f2.8
15:49
fringing is leaving but not yet
15:53
completely gone Less of it around the
15:55
specular highlights a little bit less
15:57
pronounced And again we see that trend
15:59
where the S-line lens is actually
16:02
producing the bigger and not necessarily
16:04
softer You can see it's still smoother
16:06
in the f1.4 4 But I mean that's
16:08
certainly some advantage there It was
16:10
this comparison that surprised me a
16:12
little bit And so I expected here is
16:14
where the f1.4 lens was going to get
16:16
some clear wins And certainly you can
16:19
see if you look in this zone here it is
16:21
softer and more defocused than what it
16:24
is on the f1.8 lens And obviously
16:27
specular highlights as we can see here
16:29
are a little bit bigger and softer on
16:31
the f1.4 lens If we look at the subject
16:34
here the focus is not in identical
16:37
places on here but I mean mostly if you
16:39
look in this zone you can see that the
16:41
contrast is not as good on the chain
16:43
here I mean there's definitely some
16:45
differences but where I was a little bit
16:48
surprised is in this zone transition
16:50
zone You can see that the f1.8 lens is
16:53
actually softer If we move off towards
16:55
the edge of the frame things are
16:56
starting to get busy in this area
16:58
There's a little bit of busyiness in
16:59
this zone but definitely this area here
17:02
Much smoother on the f uh 1.8 S-line
17:06
lens Likewise on this side where it gets
17:08
a little more chaotic The fringing
17:10
doesn't help but you can see it's
17:12
handled a bit better And then up in this
17:14
zone in particular I felt like this
17:17
starts to get really nervous looking
17:19
whereas it's a lot softer looking and
17:21
just it's better on the f1.8 lens And of
17:24
course if we stop down to f1.8 on the
17:27
f1.4 4 lens that advantage really just
17:30
kind of continues to improve And now it
17:33
doesn't have the same advantage when it
17:35
comes to the specular highlights And so
17:37
it just means that in general I think
17:39
that the bokeh is just not as smooth as
17:42
what we're seeing on the uh S-line lens
17:45
And frankly as I said that did surprise
17:47
me Now I chose this setting because the
17:50
previous one is a a complimentary scene
17:53
This one is not This is a difficult
17:55
scene because there's a lot of like bare
17:56
branches And it's here where I think I
17:59
do prefer the rendering from the f1.4
18:01
lens Whereas here you can see that the
18:04
darker contrast makes this area look
18:06
darker and thus grab the eye more On the
18:09
f1.4 lens the lower contrast actually
18:12
helps to where you see the subject more
18:15
and you see this area this area here
18:18
less And so as you transition towards
18:20
defocus it just I think it works better
18:23
on the f1.4 lens If we look in this zone
18:27
um I think that there's not a lot of
18:29
difference but again the lower contrast
18:31
does help in that area Just draws the
18:34
eye a little bit less One final
18:36
comparison stop down to f2.8 You can see
18:39
that even here the contrast being lower
18:41
means that you know all things being
18:43
equal my eye is still less drawn to this
18:45
than what it is on the f1.8 lens Now if
18:48
you look at the subject you can see that
18:50
you know it's kind of night and day in
18:52
terms of the contrast and detail there
18:55
But again in in areas like this here I
18:59
mean I think that the
19:00
f1.4 lens wins in that kind of situation
19:04
So it does have some advantages but most
19:07
of the optical advantages go to the
19:08
S-line lens And so as you can see in
19:11
most of these contests the S-line lens
19:14
definitely wins in a pretty compelling
19:15
way There's a little bit of a win here
19:17
and there for the 50mm f1.4 but I think
19:21
at the end of the day this is the high
19:23
performer optically and it shows As
19:26
always thanks for watching Have a great
19:28
day and let the light in
19:31
[Music]