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Historically, 50mm lenses have been the standard lenses for 35mm film SLRs. Back in 1972 when I bought my first SLR, it came with a 50mm/f1.4 as a “kit lens,” although we did not use such terminology back then. That was an era when zoom lenses were not nearly as good as they are today, while 50mm lenses have been fairly easy to manufacture and are not that expensive even for the f1.4 versions.
Today, a lot of full-35mm-format FX users still purchase 50mm lenses because they are fast and affordable. Additionally, the DSLR market is dominated by DX-format (APS-C) DSLRs. With the 1.5x so called “crop factor,” 50mm lenses are fairly good as portrait lenses. Their angle of view is just a bit wider than the traditional 85mm to 105mm portrait lenses for FX, and the typical fast f1.4 or f1.8 maximum aperture means the photographer has a lot of flexibility to control the depth of field and background blur.
Since 1986, Nikon’s 50mm/f1.8 lens has been AF and then AF-D versions that do not have an auto focus motor built into the lens. It was fine as a portrait lens for DX in the early days until Nikon introduced, in late 2006, the D40, their first DSLR that has no built-in AF motor. Since then, all new affordable Nikon consumer DSLR models have no AF motor built in. All of a sudden Nikon is selling a lot of consumer DSLRs that cannot auto focus with the 50mm/f1.8 AF-D, and the need of an AF-S version with an AF motor built into the lens became serious.
Following the introduction of the 50mm/f1.4 with AF-S in 2008, Nikon is finally adding an f1.8 version with AF-S. While the price has gone up to US$220, it is still in the affordable range and in line with the $200 35mm/f1.8 DX AF-S.
Accompanying this review, I have an image folder here on photo.net, where I have several images of two 50mm/f1.8 AF-S lenses I used, showing them from different angles, as well as quite a few image samples captured with those lenses, on the Nikon D7000, D300, and the full FX frame of the D700: Nikon 50mm/f1.8 AF-S Image Samples
Lens Construction Quality
Similar to the f1.4 version and the 35mm/f1.8 DX AF-S, the 50mm/f1.8 AF-S has a good-quality plastic barrel, but the lens mount is metal. For a fairly small lens, I think this type of construction is perfectly fine, but those who prefer the all-metal lenses from the manual-focus era in the 1970’s and 1980’s, they are not going to be satisfied.
Two 50mm/f1.8 AF-S Lenses, Focused to Infinity and Closest
When focused to infinity, the front element of the 50mm/f1.8 AF-S is deeply recessed so that a protection filter is not very necessary. As you gradually focus closer, the lens elements move forward together within an internal tube while the outer barrel neither extends nor rotates. Therefore if you attach any polarizer, the filter will also not rotate. In terms of size, the 50mm/f1.8 AF-S and its f1.4 bigger brother are surprising similar; both accept 58mm front filters, but the f1.4 is considerably heavier due to the larger lens elements to let more light in. The 50mm/f1.8 AF-S comes standard with an HB-47 lens hood, the same hood the faster 50mm/f1.4 AF-S uses.
AF Speed
Similar to the 50mm/f1.4 AF-S, AF is not extremely fast on the new 50mm/f1.8 AF-S, but it is still a small lens such that even AF from the closest distance to infinity does not involve the lens elements traveling a great distance. During AF, you feel that the elements are moving at a slower speed to achieve excellent AF accuracy. It take the 50mm/f1.8 AF-S about half a second to AF from close up to infinity. I would say its AF speed is fine, but it is certainly not super fast for action photography.
The 50mm/f1.8 AF-S is a “true” AF-S lens on which you can manually override auto focus without switching auto focus off, as you need to do on some low-end AF-S lenses.
Optical Performance
Sharpness
When I tried the 50mm/f1.4 AF-S, I was not very impressed by its sharpness wide open at f1.4; of course, the fact that depth of field is extremely shallow does not help. Likewise, wide open, the f1.8 version is mainly sharp in the center. Sharpness improves quite a bit at f2.8, and there is also a big improvement from f2.8 to f4 in the corners. By f4, I would say you can see corner-to-corner sharpness from the 50mm/f1.8 AF-S on a 12MP FX-format body such as the D700 and D3S. However, on high-pixel-density DX body such as the 16MP D7000, you need to further close down to f5.6 to get a sharp image across the frame.
Distortion
The 50mm/f1.8 AF-S has some slight barrel distortion.
This lens has a small amount of barrel distortion. If there are any straight lines near the edges of the frame such as a horizon, you can see some bowing outward.
Vignetting
Vignetting is quite serious at f1.8 and f2 as you can see general darkening away from the center of the frame. At f2.8, only the extreme corners on the full FX frame are dark and by f4, all vignetting is pretty much gone.
Chromatic Aberration
Chromatic aberration is very well controlled. Judging from my usual subjects with very bright-to-dark transitions, there is essentially no color fringing to be concerned about.
Flare and Ghosting
In recent years, Nikon has done an excellent job in this area. Even though the 50mm/f1.8 AF-S has no nano coating, with the sun inside the frame, there is still not much ghosting.
50mm/f1.8 AF-S @ f4
50mm AF-S, f1.4 or f1.8 and Other Alternatives
Now that Nikon has two 50mm AF-S lenses, the natural question is whether to get the less-expensive f1.8 or the f1.4 at about twice the cost. I have used both lenses but unfortunately at different times so that I have no side-by-side comparisons; currently I have the f1.8 version myself. Again, the two lenses are almost the same size but the f1.4 is considerably heavier. When you stop down to f4 or smaller apertures, both versions are fine. If you use the f1.4 wide open, I find it difficult to get really sharp images, partly because the depth of field is very shallow. I would say unless you really need to shoot at f1.4 often, I would just get the f1.8 version and save some money.
A few years ago when the Zeiss 50mm/f1.4 ZF lens first came on the scene, I had an opportunity to use it for a short while. All ZF lenses are manual focus and the newer ZF II version has built-in CPUs; therefore, ZF II lenses are the equivalent of Nikon AI-P lenses. Construction-wise, the all-metal ZF is excellent. While I am sure it is fine optically, I find it difficult to focus it manually on modern DSLRs without the traditional split-focus aid on the focusing screen.
DX-format users also have the option to get the 35mm/f1.8 DX AF-S, which is the standard lens for the DX format while the 50mm is a short telephoto. The 35mm DX is also a fine lens and covers a wider angle of view at a very affordable price. However, it has rather serious chromatic aberration which can be an issue for some photographers.
For something a bit longer, Nikon also has a 60mm/f2.8 AF-S macro lens that can focus to 1:1 by itself. It is more expensive than the 50mm/f1.4 AF-S and obviously only opens up to f2.8, but optically it is excellent. Distortion and chromatic aberration are essentially non-existent and it is sharp from corner to corner. One drawback of the 60mm/f2.8 AF-S micro is that it has rather serious vignetting in its three widest apertures such that you need to stop way down to f8 to completely eliminate it optically (or you can correct that in post processing). For those who captures some macro, it is a good alternative.
Shun Cheung
Conclusion
For years, the popular and affordable 50mm/f1.8 was only available as an AF-D lens that cannot auto focus on today’s consumer DSLRs such as the earlier D40 to the current D3100 and D5100. This new AF-S version is a very welcome addition. The new 50mm/f1.8 AF-S is optically quite good at an affordable price.
Its center performance is good wide open at f1.8 and improves quite a bit by f2.8. Corner performance improves drastically from 2.8 to f4. Therefore, by f4/f5.6, it is an excellent lens all around. On FX bodies, it is a decent general-purpose lens although many people may prefer zooms for mid-range lenses. On DX bodies, it is a very good short tele for upper body type portraits. However, on modern dense-pixel DX cameras such as the 16MP D7000, you need to stop down further to f5.6 to get excellent results from corner to corner.
Nikon Terminologies:
DX Format: Nikon camera sensor size of approximately 16×24mm, similar to APS-C
FX Format: Nikon camera sensor size of 24×36mm, same as traditional 35mm (135) film
DX Lenses: Lenses designed for DX format cameras. They have a smaller image circle that can cover the DX frame but not the entire FX area.
AF, AF-D Lenses: Nikon auto focus lenses that have no AF motor inside the lens. Auto focus is controlled by a motor inside the camera body via a screwdriver-like mechanical connection between camera body and lens. Most of these are older auto focus lenses from the late 1980’s to early 2000’s. AF-D lenses can also relay focusing distance information back to the camera body.
AF-S Lenses: Nikon auto focus lenses that have a built-into-the-lens silent wave motor to drive the auto focus mechanism. Electricity is still supplied from the camera body, but there is no mechanical AF connection between camera body and lens. AF-S lenses were first introduced in 1996 and are common today. Between 1992 and 1996, Nikon had a few AF-I lenses that also have internal AF motor. Functionally they are the same as AF-S lenses. AF-I lenses are uncommon now since they were mainly expensive big telephoto lenses and they were only in production for a few years. Today, when we mention AF-S lenses, it typically includes AF-I lenses. All AF-S lenses can relay focusing distance back to the camera body, so effectively they are all D lenses.
G lenses: Nikon lenses that have no traditional aperture ring. The aperture is controlled from the sub-command dial on the body via a mechanical connection. All G lenses can also relay distance information to the body.
"However, on modern dense-pixel DX cameras such as the 16MP D7000, you need to stop down further to f5.6 to get excellent results from corner to corner."
Since this FX lens is only using the central part of the image on a DX chip to start with, having to further stop down for a crisp picture is not awe inspiring...
Is it the dense pixel chip that haa some angle of view aberration unless the lens is stopped down, or is it just a case of a consumer grade lens at a pumped up price?
This is an excellent lens for both DX and FX regardless. It works great on DX as a nice affordable portrait lens. It works great on FX as a standard nifty fifty walk around lens.
The optics is what is so impressive. And compared to the 50mm f/1.4G, it is clearly the better choice when considering the price tag. From color, flare, bokeh, and other aberrations, this lens outperforms. One area that is not so improved is distortion. The older 50mm f/1.8 AF-D had hardly any distortion. This new 50mm f/1.8G AF-S has some mild barrel distortion.
