Superb sharpness and contrast when stopped down to f 5.6 and more. Image in viewfinder is very very bright. Small and compact. Manual focusing is comfortable but a little underdamped.

A little hint of distortion, visible on buildings, walls or similar. Softness and lack of contrast at wider apertures.

A convenient and capable lens. Results are stunning both in colour and B&W photography from f 5.6 to smaller apertures. Excellent out-of-focus rendition of highlights. Better than f 1.8 for handling and construction.

Customer Service

Never needed.

Similar Products Used:

Nikon 50 1.8 AF.

Fassst! Can be used even in darky museums w/o flash. AF is also fast.

It would be nice to have smaller aparture. This may be a problem if you are using a fast film, in a bright day light.

Nice, everyday normal lense.

Customer Service

Never used.

Similar Products Used:

-o-

Incredibly sharp, Great contrast at all apertures,Great lens for existing light buffs.

Darned if I could find any

Major bang for the buck. A great investment.

Customer Service

My past experiences have been very good,Quality service and quick return, Be sure to take the time to fill out the warranty and mail. Time well invested.

Similar Products Used:

none

Fast, light, sharp, even wide open, quick autofocus (w/N70), excellent colors, durable construction.

On my last vacation I dropped the lens from a height of 5 feet. Now the aperature ring doesn't click solidly at any index, yet everything else works perfect, no image quality problems whatsoever. Tough lens.

It's a great lens, very fast, lightweight, sharp and has that tough Nikon metal construction. I love using it at parties or any venue where I'm shooting people as the 50mm gives an intimate feel, especially with couples. Furthermore, the f/1.4 with 3200 speed film pushed to 6400 let's me do all sorts of grainy, night time shots of anything from night clubs to street scenes. If I had only one lens to leave home with, knowing how I typically shoot, I'd take this lens.

Similar Products Used:

None.

Fast, fast, fast... Very sharp...

Min F/stop (16)

If you do any type of sport, or just need a fast lens that will shoot in just about any type of light and stop action. This lens will do it !

Customer Service

Not Needed

Similar Products Used:

Nikon 85mm 1.8

Wonderful optics. Beatiful sharpness even wide open. Great contrast and color rendition. Fast aperture enables low light shooting. Decent build.

f/22 could be nice. One small thing I noticed recently - the barrel that holds front lens element slightly moves when pushed (e.g. during putting on the cover or tightening the filter) - doesn't affect neither operation nor optical quality. Have anyone experienced such a thing ?

A must have for anyone who is serious about photography.

Customer Service

Not needed yet.

Similar Products Used:

Various 50mm lenses for manual SLRs

Speed on this lens is not a "strength," it's an intrinsic feature. However, it performs very well at full speed. Illumination is even and center sharpness is good; both get even better from about f/2 to f/5.6.

Gets pretty wooly around f/11. If you're going to shoot at f/8 or smaller, the 50/1.8 is a sharper, better, cheaper choice.

If you shoot something flat, you'll notice that the corners aren't really sharp until about f/5.6 or so.

Pretty poor on tubes, only OK with diopters.

My non-AI version is so old, the focusing ring is marked in feet only. None stop down to more than f/16, in practical use no limitation. I've haven't noticed any significant performance difference between the different versions except that the first one flares easier. The AI version had hyperfocal marks for f/4, 5.6, 11, and 16, compared to just f/11 and 16 for the AF-D version. The AF-D lens is slightly lighter than the AI, which is considerably lighter than the non-AI. The AF-D and AI versions have very even illumination, with a bit of light fall-off wide open. The fast 50mm is part of my ultralight two-lens travel outfit (paired with a 24/2). I like 50mm, possibly because it's neither wide nor telephoto, yet can accomplish bits of both.

Customer Service

Never needed.

Similar Products Used:

50/1.4 non-AI
50/1.4 AI
50/1.8 AF
55/3.5 Micro-Nikkor
55/2.8 Micro-Nikkor

Fast, solidly built, relatively cheap, quite sharp and contrasty

It just could be a little more sharp wide open. No f/22

Overall, it's good, maybe not the greatest investment.
Being a serious amateur with a habit of shooting in extreme lighting conditions with filters, I make very good use of its fastness. The lense's wide-open sharpness, IMHO, leaves something more to be desired for the price asked. I often get envious comparing my friends' AF NI f/1.8 pics, enlarged, with mine. Though, frankly, I must admit the difference is far from critical, (if you don't look at the dropped corners of some pics;)). Using framing a lot, I'd like to get a little more DOF from it, but on the other hand, shallower DOF with full-length portraits is also nice..
For a verdict I'd put it like that: professionals should better go for the 60mm Micro-Nikkor, and amateurs should think well if they really need that trade-off of sharpness against an extra 1/2 stop!

Customer Service

None yet

Similar Products Used:

AF NI 50mm 1.8
HELIOS 58mm 2
INDUSTAR 48mm 1.4

Good colour rendition. Extremely SHARP. Fast AF. Light fall-off at the corners while max wide open is barely noticeable.

Smallest aperture limited to f16.
Focusing ring moves very slightly back & forth during focusing, doesn't affect pic.

If you require the faster aperture as well as taking flash pics with D-chip technology, this lens is for you. Extremely versatile in low-light situations, flash or no flash. Small, light, compact for travelling. Normal focal length will bring out the PHOTOGRAPHER in you.

Customer Service

None

Similar Products Used:

Sigma EX 50mm f2.8D macro; Sigma EX 28-70mm f2.8D; Sigma 28-300mm f3.5-6.3D.

1. Good colours
2. 1.4f stop is useful
3. Compact -> handy and 4. Lightweight - yet sturdy
5. Very sharp
6. Amazingly cheap, if you consider what you get
7. Feels great even focusing manually

None! Some ppl. mention they missing the 22f stop: how often does one use that? Was never a problem to me...

I love this focal lenght. The 1.4f stop is great, really let`s you leave your flash in the bag; with a fast film you can even shoot at 2-2.8f stop and improve the optics - and it`s still fast! Some complain about the quality at 1.4f stop, please don`t forget that it still let`s you shoot under hard lighting conditions. One does not see light fall off on pics taken in almost dark. If you shoot at day, then shoot at 2f stop or slower. Then you get awesom contrasty and sharp pics.
The new ones are made in China, at least mine is, but as it`s ISO-certificated I don`t mind about that. That´s the reason why they sell it so cheap, I figure. A friend of mine has the japanese version, bought it years ago, still works perfect by the way. I compared mine to the other version and you don`t see/feel ANY difference.
I´d really recommend this to everyone who`s into the standard focal length. So AF-1.8/50mm or AF-1.4/50mm? I`d take the 1.4/50mm: You don`t pay that much more (ofcourse that depends on your income, but if you have this kind of money), it`s faster and sturdier, the front element don`t rotate, so if you do alot with polarization filters it`s much more comfortable to work with.

I have had much fun of this little sucker :-)

Customer Service

Once called it in Germany for a question, they were very nice and helpful, otherwise never used it.

Similar Products Used:

Nikon AF-2.8/24 D
Nikon AF-2.8/80-200 D ED