You just can't praise it enough

I had previously passed over the thought of writing a review about this lens. Mostly, it seemed that everyone else had already said everything that needed to be said. Over the weekend I pulled out this little gem and for the 100th time this year I put it away after it served it's purpose and probably would never have given it a thought. I realized that sometimes you have something that works so well that you take it for granted, and that perhaps it might be a good thing to add my A to the long list of others who have put their stamp of approval on this lens. Hopefully the reader will take it to heart and realize just how great this little lens is...and perhaps find a place for it in their stable.

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Technical specs.... from the Nikon website

Focal Length: 50mm
Maximum Aperture: f/1.8
Lens Construction: 6 Elements in 5 groups
Minimum Focus Distance: Approx. 1.5 feet
Maximum Reproduction Ratio: 0.15
Number of Diaphragm Blades: 7 blades
Picture Angle: 46 degrees (35mm format), 31 degrees 30 minutes (Nikon DX format)
Aperture: f/1.8-22
Filter Attachment Size: 52mm
Hood: HR-2 Rubber hood
Included Accessories: 52mm Lens cap, Rear cap
Dimensions: 2.5 x 1.5 in.
Weight: Approx. 5.5 ounces

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Now this is the "spec" that should interest everyone... MSRP $99!!

Yes, for under $100 you can own a real Nikon lens ...a darn good one. A lens with an F/1.8 max aperture and a field of view that is useful for digital and film Nikon backs...one that is fully functional on every current Nikon camera and just about every past Nikon camera made in the last 30 years.

Construction Quality... its plastic, no sense glossing over the fact. BUT, the lens is small and compact and to be honest, the lens can take a lot of abuse. If you were to drop a large lens, like a 80-200mm on the concrete and it was made of plastic, the thing would shatter. If you were to drop this very small and light lens onto the same surface it would just bounce. It still wouldn’t be GOOD for the lens but it would likely survive just fine.

For a lens this small and compact I don’t see the plastic construction as being too detrimental to its overall quality. Normally I am a huge stickler for metal construction on lenses, but I think I can safely recommend the construction quality on this lens as more than acceptable, perhaps bordering on excellent. As with most current Nikon lenses, the focus ring is unnecessarily small and the aperture ring is also overly small and made of plastic. LUCKILY, most users are mostly interested in using this lens on AF bodies with electronic aperture control and it will not effect them in any way. The only people who should NOT consider this lens are users with manual focus bodies. Its not that the lens won't work on the body, but I think that most MF users would prefer the more solid feel of one of the many 50mm manual focus lenses with better focus rings and more solid aperture rings.

Performance-- This lens delivers optical performance that can only be rated as A . It is in the same league as any Nikon lens costing thousands of dollars. In addition it improves upon the performance of those expensive zooms by allowing for an excellent F/1.8 aperture. That’s a more than a full stop faster than ANY Nikon zoom....and its more than 2 stops faster than most "ordinary" kit lenses or economy zooms. I feel strongly that this is the number one reason to add this lens to your kit. Zooms are great, but even the fastest ones are slow in low light, especially indoors doing shots in ambient light. Often in these situations just 1 extra stop is all you need to be able to get good crisp pictures with slower film or slower ISO settings on you digital back. Used indoors I often find that the ONLY way to shoot in ambient light is to either bump up the ISO on the camera to outrageous levels when using a zoom...or attach a lens like this one and keep the ISO at acceptable noise levels. In fact, I think this lens makes an amazing compliment to those users with F/4 zooms. Use the zoom for convenience, and pop on the 50mm when light gets a little low and still be able to get nice images without sacrificing image quality due to faster film speeds or higher ISO on digital backs.

Distortion is minimal and color performance is perfect. The lens is highly resistant to flaring, but the optional hood is always a good precaution. The hood is a rubber one that attaches to the filter ring. One of the great things about fixed focal length lenses is that they can take circular rubber hoods. These hoods are collapsible and allow you to leave the hood attached and still have easy access to the lens cap. I never take the hood off the lens.

Conclusion--- It's cheap enough that it could be considered a casual purchase, but its performance is in the same category as lenses costing several thousands of dollars. Its large aperture allows for shooting in extreme low light situations where even the fastest zooms have trouble. It's a focal length that makes sense for digital and film backs. It's compatible with practically every Nikon back you will ever come across...film or digital, manual or auto focus. You can shoot right into the sun with minimal flaring. Its construction quality is excellent especially considering the price. It's small enough to be considered compact on just about any camera. It weighs practically nothing. Its only drawback? you have to zoom with your feet.


On another note, with the advent of digital backs and the 1.5x "crop factor" this lens gains a new lease on life as a pretty fair "digital equivelent" of legendary 85mm F/1.8. Of course the field of view is closer to a 75mm lens, but I find that the 50mm F/1.8 is a fair substitute for those situations where I would normally pull out an 85mm for a film camera. Considering the cost of a fast 85mm I think you will agree that sometimes digital crop factor can work to your advantage :-) The lens ROCKS for natural light photos where you need to keep a little distance from the subject or you want to keep out of the action for editorial work.