Given the age of the design, it's not surprising to find an honest-to-goodness aperture ring, complete with a lock switch to keep it in its ƒ/16 position. The lens mount is metal and the filter threads are plastic. At this size and weight there isn't much of an excuse not to drop the lens into a spare corner of the camera bag. The lens shows off a smooth black finish, built with dense plastic, making for a very small and light package (just 255g, or 9 ounces). The minimum close-focusing distance is 45cm (18 inches). The lens is not rated for remarkable macro, with a magnification rating of just 0.15x. Attached filters will not rotate during focusing. As well, the focus ring will move during autofocus. As focus is conducted mechanically there is a fair amount of noise during autofocus operations. On other bodies it focuses very quickly, slewing through focus in less than a second. The 50mm ƒ/1.4 AF-D uses the body-mounted screw to drive autofocus, meaning it will not autofocus on screw-less Nikon bodies such as the D40, D60 and D5000. On the D700 however, distortion is slightly more significant: +0.38% in the corners, and +0.2% on average. It isn't until ƒ/4 that the corners are just over a quarter-stop darker than the center at smaller apertures, light falloff is negligible.ĭistortion isn't overly significant on the D200 the lens produces +0.25% barrel distortion in the corners. At ƒ/2, this falloff reduces to 1.25 stops at ƒ/2.8, it's 3/4 of a stop. Wide open at ƒ/1.4, corners are up to 1.5 stops darker than the center. On the full-frame D700 however, the lens shows much more light falloff at larger apertures. At ƒ/2, this light falloff reduces to just over a quarter-stop difference, and at apertures smaller than that, light falloff is negligible. That said, we do note some blue fringing on areas of high contrast when using the lens at large apertures: review our sample images for more detail in this regard.Ĭorner shading isn't over significant with the lens mounted on the sub-frame D200: at ƒ/1.4, the corners of the image are just 2/3 EV darker than the center. On either the D200 or the D700, maximum results for CA don't exceed the threshold of 3/100ths of a percent of frame height. The 50mm ƒ/1.4 AF-D offers exceptional resistance to chromatic aberration. For tack-sharp results, you'll want ƒ/5.6, if not ƒ/8. In summary, the lens offers fair performance wide open, but it's not until ƒ/4 that you get consistently excellent results. Similar to the D200, the lens maintains this sharpness all the way to ƒ/16. Quality improves further at ƒ/4, the corners now only showing 1.5-2 blur units at ƒ/5.6, the lens produces images which are essentially tack-sharp across the frame.
Stopping down to ƒ/2.8 improves the central sharpness, with the majority of the frame showing 1-1.5 blur units, and the corners get slightly sharper, at 3-5 blur units. However, at this aperture setting we note much greater corner softness - upwards of 6-7 blur units in the top left and right corners. This uneven quality is tamed by stopping down to ƒ/2, where (similar to the D200) a sweet spot of sharpness forms in the center of the frame.
Mounted on the full-frame D700, wide open at ƒ/1.4, the lens shows results in the 3-4 blur unit range, but image sharpness is slightly uneven across the frame. The lens stays sharp all the way to ƒ/16. From ƒ/4 onwards, it's about as sharp as it gets, with maximum sharpness obtained at ƒ/8 - it's tack-sharp across the frame. Stopping down to ƒ/2.8 shows the first dramatic improvement, with tack-sharp (1 blur unit) results in the generous central sweet spot and only marginally soft corners (1.5-2.5 blur units). Sharpness improves as the lens is stopped down, with a sweet spot of sharpness developing in the center of the frame (~1.5 blur units) pushing out to slightly soft corners (~3 blur units). Mounted on the D200 and shot wide open at ƒ/1.4, we note an average of 2.5-3 blur units across the frame, with the top right corner showing upwards of 5 blur units.
Our sample of the 50mm ƒ/1.4 shows signs of slight de-centering. By ƒ/2.8 it improves dramatically, and becomes tack sharp at smaller apertures. The 50mm ƒ/1.4 AF-D is slightly soft when used wide open, or even stopped down to ƒ/2. The lens is currently available for approximately $325. The lens takes 52mm filters, and an optional HR-2 screw-in lens hood is available.