Sharp corner to corner @f2.8 from near-far distance. The wider view is more flexible. Nice bokeh.

Resolution start from good@f2.8, excellant only @f8 for far distance.

I'd recently purchased both 50/1.8 AIS(N) and the 45/2.8P. Upon detial testing, I find that from mid-far distance,in term of sharpness and resolution from f2.8-8, the 50mm is definately sharper. The 45mm is also very sharp even at f2.8, corner to corner, but its resoltution still lag behind 50mm until f8.For close distance, the 45mm seems to perform better than 50mm in term of sharpness.especially in the corners.even at f2.8.So in conclusion, each lens has its own nich. The 50mm AIS is top for mid-far subject from f4-16.The 45P is great for close-mid distance works, for far distance the 45p need to step down from f8-16.The 45p also have nicer bokeh. great for close range portrait. For me I favour the 50/1.8AIS-N. The 45P as mentioned by Nikon, is for advance photographer who knows when to apply its nich.

Customer Service

very good in Singapore

Similar Products Used:

Nikon 35/1.4, 50/1.8, 105/2DC, 105/2.8Micro((AIS), 105/2.5 etc. Contax 35/1.4, 50/1.4, 100/2, 100/3.5 etc

Exceptionally good colour saturation. Very good contrast. Very good build and feel (outwardly at least, all the marking are engraved rather than merely painted on).

Expensive for the optical quality. Not as sharp as one would expect. A touch of pincushion distortion. Not a particularly fast standard lens, with an 2.8 maximum aperture, and it does make the viewfinder look darker. The focus ring is very narrow; I kept grabbing half the focus ring and half the aperture ring. Limited markings for depth of field. Lines only for f/8, 16 and 22).

This is a beautiful feeling and looking lens - and I can't emphasize this enough. However, I have to say I was somewhat disappointed at the actual results. Hard to tell on the standard minilab-size prints, but I compared pictures of the exact same scene (and numerous similar scenes) with this lens and all the following Nikkors: a 28-80G, a 70-300G, a 28-105D zoom, a 50mm 1.8D, and the zoom lens that is built into the Canon G3. For the comparison, except for the G3 photo, I scanned all negatives at 2400dpi on a Canoscan 8000F. My wallet can't believe it (it's a pricey lens, after all), and to be honest, I was startled when I did this, but I have no choice: the 45mm is dead last in terms of sharpness. It is however a very contrasty lens, and above all, colour saturation is the best of any lens I have ever used. This is probably characteristic of a Tessar-type design. Unfortunately, neither of these 2 qualities makes up for the apparent softness. My conclusion is that this lens is great if you want to reproduce the look of 1930's 35mm photos, but it won't replace any of Nikon's 50mm lenses, or even its zooms, as far as I can tell. Now, to reinforce my comparison, the shots from the 45mm and the 28-105D zoom I compared even came from the same roll of film, and I redid the scans, just to be sure. Now I know why the Nikon website classifies this lens as being for advanced amateurs. I don't think very many professionals would be satisfied with the 45mm 2.8P as a working lens. Unless you really want that Tessar look, better stick with the cheaper but much sharper Nikkor 50mm 1.8D For me, this lens wasn't sharp enough to be a keeper.

Customer Service

Not used.

Similar Products Used:

50mm 2.0 Takumar (Pentax) 50mm 2.0 SMC-A Pentax 50mm 1.8D Nikkor 35mm 1.8 Hexanon (Konica)

Very sharp, versatile, and compact design is nice for travel. Slightly wider angle over the 50 is also nice.

A bit slow for a normal lens, which makes the viewfinder a little darker, but I don't seem to have any difficulty focusing. Pricy compared with the 1.8

Great little lens. Very sharp at all apertures. Got it because I didn't think my 50 1.8 was up to par with my 105 2.5 and my 24 2.8. Although I use Cannon digital cameras for work at the newspaper, I use a fm2 for my personal use when shooting people and scenics. I wasn't sure if it would be worth it so I tested it side by side against my 1.8 using 100 ISO Supra and kodachrome 64. The 45 is a bit sharper than the 50 but it's color saturation and contraast are noticably better. And the 45 mm is at least as sharp as my other lenses. So kept it and it and my 24 mm are my most used lenses. It is a great all around lens; great for both scenics and portraits.

Customer Service

never used

Similar Products Used:

Nikon AIS 24 2.5, 50 1.8 105 2.5, 24-85 3.5-5.6 D, 70-300 4.0-5.6 ED, Cannon 20-35 USM, 28-105 USM 75-300 USM.

Strikingly attractive images that really stand out, although I can't fully identify the factors involved. Compact--the camera will fit in a pouch-style soft case. Very solid build quality. Supplied with a protective filter and a proprietary lens hood.

Narrow aperture and focusing rings take some getting used to. Price point, focal length and relatively slow speed should combine to make this more of a "second normal lens"; as such it may be hard to justify adding this to a basic lens kit although it will not disappoint.

I am very pleased with the look of photographs taken with this lens, which have a pop and appearance of great sharpness that may have less to do with absolute sharpness than with high contrast and creamy rendition of out-of-focus areas. Perhaps some of this comes from treating an old, simple Tessar design to the latest glass and coating advancements, even though there are few air/glass interfaces in the design. I like having a slightly wider angle of view versus a 50mm. I have a 100% viewfinder but haven't noticed the "problem" of "dramatic light fall off" that the previous reviewer sees but admits doesn't even show up on slides. Given that fact, it's more of a curiosity than a problem. The f/2.8 maximum aperture is a characteristic, not a weakness, but it would be unwise to buy this lens if you require something faster.

Customer Service

Not used.

Similar Products Used:

50mm f/1.4 AIS, 35mm f/1.4 AIS, Contax T3 (some similar image qualities)

It's small, comes with a NC filter, nice lens shade, and pretty good resistance to flare.

Not sharp and expensive for not being sharp. It's also slow at f2.8. It took me in for a fool thinking that a slow expensive lens would be my dream sharp lense.

I'm writing this review because I don't want any other people to make the same mistake I did. This lens isn't all that great. I have Nikon 4 ED scanner and I enlarge to 100% to see the detail of an image. The lense isn't all that sharp even when stopped down to f5.6. The lense has a strange smooth quality almost as if it isn't ever or even can achieve focus. The lense also exhibits dramatic light fall off that gets worst as you move away from the center. I have a 100% finder on my F4 and F2 and can see this problem readily. If you want to check this for yourself, point the camera at a table lamp lamp shade when the bulb is turned on. Then look at the middle and follow and monitor the brightness of the light to the sides of the viewfinder. Now this isn't really a problem when taking pictures (even slides) because the film latitude compensates and makes the lighting pretty smooth so it isn't noticeable but it shows the light fall off problem. The person down there who said this lens is sharper than their nikon 50 f1.4 isn't correct. The 50 F1.4 is sharper by a long shot. Just stop it down to about f4. The sharpest lense I have come accross in the nikon line up is so far the 105 F2.5 AIS lense. I can see individual hairs at the fullest resolution of my scanner making it possible to enlarge to the 20x30 size. The 105 makes pictures that ressemble medium format. I believe that 105 is a perfect lense. It's super sharp at f4 and smaller.

Customer Service

Nikon has really nice customer service online and their factory even goes the extra mile if they mess up.

Similar Products Used:

AIS 105 F2.5, Non AI 50 f1.4, AF 50 F1.8, Quantaray 28-90mm f3.5 -f5.6, Quantaray 70-300mm f4.5-5.6

Excellent optics in a small package Has a CPU to better facilitate use on my F100. Beautiful construction Solidly built Great match to the FM/FE series cameras 4 element design means less ghosting when shooting into the sun!

I guess price can be the weakness, but seriously...you get what you pay for. Don't let the size fool you....this is an excellent piece of optic. The 4 element Tessar design is a really good design. Combined with Nikon's coatings, this lens will give you eye popping pictures that is virtually impervious to ghosting and flare. With this lens, you can now include the sun in your composition.

Wow, this is a unique lens. So small and light which makes my FM3A/45mm combo extremely portable. I bought this lens slightly used, so the price I paid for it is not such a big problem, although the regular price is a bit high. Optics wise, this lens is excellent. I think the sharpness of this lens exceeds my 50mm f1.4D at F2.8! This lens also gives a little bit of punch to your pictures. Beautiful little lens! The silver version of the lens tends to catch a lot of attention....as if people have never seen a silver lens before!

Customer Service

Not used.

Similar Products Used:

50 f1.4 24 f2.8 28-70 f2.8 80-200 f2.8

Very compact and fits nicely on a Nikon FM2n. Small size wasn't a problem for me. Very sharp and contrasty. Even though it's a f2.8 max apperature, viewfinder brightness wasn't an issue on a Nikon FM2n

Very expensive and it's performance (at least in my case) was not head and shoulders above a standard issue 50mm f1.8 AIS. If you already have a 50mm, you may want to pass on this one.

I bought this lens as a replacement for my 20 year old Nikon 50mm f1.8 AIS lens. Although I've always been satisifed with the 50mm, I though the 45mm lens might be a lot better and I was willing to pay for the difference for that. When I did a side by side comparision between the two, the 45mm had a SLIGHT edge over the 50mm but not engough to make me keep it since it would have cost me $350 to do so. I returned the lens and kept the 50mm.

Customer Service

N/A

Similar Products Used:

Nikon 50mm f1.8

The images pop. Details--the weave in fabric, etc--are sharp corner to corner. Wide open its not bad. Very contrasty; I used a Zeiss 50 f/1.4 for a while, and this looks as good. On top of that, the out of focus areas are beautiful, not sharp. At f2.8 the image is printable to 8x10; at f/4, I won't hesitate to go 11x14 or 16x20. The design is well thought-out, with easy to grab focus ring and neat lens hood (which really keeps snow and rain off, if you like shooting in bad weather!). Looks fabulous, too.

Pricey for a normal.

Well worth the money. This is a superior lens.

Similar Products Used:

Nikon 50 f1.8 and f2.0 (manual focus), Zeiss 50 f/1.4 (manual focus), Pentax 50 f1.4

* Sharp wise open, and maintained well to f/16. * Build perfectly, with metal construction, engraved numbers and excellent glass. * Lightweight at about 160g. * Easy to handle with smooth focusing, despite the small size. * Aperture/ Shutter priority ability as well as Matrix (without 3D) on AF cameras. * Price, considering the above factors. * Comes with filter and unique and fine-performing lens hood, with a cap that clips on over the hood; thus no need to take off hood.

* Compared to other fixed lenses, the f/2.8 aperture, though considering design factors, thi isn''t the case. Plus you CAN shoot wide open and enjjoy the superb optical quality from the improved Tessar design.

Shoot this lens WIDE OPEN!!! The sharpest fixed lens at f/2.8 compared to other standard lenses, with improved contrast, bokeh, and detail. I was initially hesitant on this lens, though when I mounted it on my new FM3A, I could not resist. I never really liked other Nikkor 50mm lenses, because of issues like bokeh, build quality and sharpness at f/2.8. It''s only a little smaller than a Leica M6 or Contax G1/2. It is actually as good as the G Zeiss 45mm f/2. I love the focal length as it feels more like a 35mm lens, but good enough for portaits, without too much depth of field. In comparisoon to my ex-AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8, it is sharper. In use, it is relatively easy to handle, light, solid and instills confidence. A perfect match to any camera, especially manual focus cameras such as the new Nikon FM3A. Finally, I have a lens that matches my AF 85mm f/.4D lens in performance. My results are now more consistent. If performance is the main factor for a standard lens (no faster than f/2.8), then this is your lens. "I''m excited"

Customer Service

NA

Similar Products Used:

* Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 (5/5) Superb * Nikkor AF 50mm f/1.8 (3.75/5) Excellent value, bad bokeh * Nikkor AF 50mm f/1.4D (4/5) Made in China, but ok * Ziess G 45mm f/2 (5/5) Superb

Great build and handsome looks.

Poor resolution on the corners.

I was excited to try this lens when I first heard about it and had read one favorable review. My experience was that the lens was very well made and looked good on my FM3a, however the lens performance in sharpness on the corners was VERY disappointing unless well stopped down. Even stopped well down it was average. I returned the lens.

Customer Service

B&H is excellent on customer service

Similar Products Used:

35mm f1.4 AIS, 50mm f1.8 AIS, 35mm f2.0 AIS