Nikon NIKKOR 50mm f/1.2 Lens This is so beautiful

[donny1963]

A friend of mine let me borrow his 50mm 1.2 lens, i have the 1.4G which is real nice.

I never thought about getting the 1.2 because i didn't think it would be all that much of a difference.

But when i attached this lens to my camera the first thing i had to do was go into my camera and program the lens, because it would not understand what aperture i was in.

But once i stored that in, it worked beautiful,
In fact the 1.2 vs the 1.4 is a big difference, you notice it right away at 1.2

The first thing i did was test it of course, and i walked around the house looking for things to test this lens on, so my cat wast he first, she was sitting in her cat bed and they was a stream of light hitting her from the window about 50 feet away,

and i set the sutter to 160 with aperture 1.2.
NO FLASH, perfect exposure.

This lens is a must in every one's camera bag..
Although it's an older lens, it's real sharp, and amazing glass.
if you look at the front of the lens with the aperture ring at 1.2 the entire glass opening is so wide open it's like there is no aperture blades at all, all the way open to the walls of the side of the lens unreal..

I don't think there is a faster lens for Nikon..
the depth of field is so shallow tho, you take a shot of some ones face and focus on the nose and even as close as the ears the the image starts to drop off focus, that's how shallow this aperture is..

You have to be real careful how you focus or you could find your portraits have part of the face out of focus, Very extreme shallow dept of field at 1.2

 

[tirediron]

It's nice if you need it and can take advantage of the super-large aperture, but really, how often are you going to do that? I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of portraits I've shot at apertures larger than f4. Every now and then it's going to be only way to get >the< image, sure, but will most of us use it often enough to justify the cost over a 1.4 or even the very respectable 1.8?

 

[cgw]

As suggested above, it should be obvious(once you stop hyper-ventilating) how limiting that whisker-thin DOF is--or, put another way, how tired you'll get of it. I've shot them, too, and saw their chief advantage in keeping a viewfinder bright. For portraits, having the tip of the nose sharp, or the eyes only, but everything else fuzzy isn't all that appealing.

 

[Derrel]

You are right, it's a great idea to set the Non CPU Lens field in the custom setup menu to reflect the focal length and the maximum f/stop of the lens in use, and from then on, the EXIF data will reflect the right information, and metering will be very good, in my experience with many manual Ai and Ai-S Nikkors.

Yes, it does create an interesting look when shot wide-open. It's NOT the same look as say a 50mm at f/2 or f/2.8. I think the best use of this type of lens speed is from a little bit longer distances, in the 10-15-20 foot range, for what I call "pictorial isolation" type shots.

Sometimes the equipment itself can make a difference. Exotic lenses like this can put a visual impression, a visual stamp, on the photos they make.

 

[astroNikon]

Yeah, f/1.2 is cool !!

 

[donny1963]

You are right, it's a great idea to set the Non CPU Lens field in the custom setup menu to reflect the focal length and the maximum f/stop of the lens in use, and from then on, the EXIF data will reflect the right information, and metering will be very good, in my experience with many manual Ai and Ai-S Nikkors.

Yes, it does create an interesting look when shot wide-open. It's NOT the same look as say a 50mm at f/2 or f/2.8. I think the best use of this type of lens speed is from a little bit longer distances, in the 10-15-20 foot range, for what I call "pictorial isolation" type shots.

Sometimes the equipment itself can make a difference. Exotic lenses like this can put a visual impression, a visual stamp, on the photos they make.

I love it, it's awesome for these special portrait shots, but also, seems to work great if i'm dong video at night, very impressive..
this lens is a one of a kind, and it's not something i will use all the time, but you do run into these special situations where you wish you had it, and if it's in your bag, it's a life saver..

One situation i'm thinking is for when i'm doing a wedding and want to get a shot of the rings..
this would make a great lens to capture the natural light sparkling off the diamonds, not using any flash, and get the background of it blur very nicely..

 

[donny1963]

The other thing i noticed, is that this 1.2 prime lens, was back-focusing a bit, i had to go in my camera and make a slight back-focusing adjustment to get it 100% proper focus..

I'm not sure if any of you ever seen this happen to you, but this is the only lens that i had to make an adjustment..

 

[donny1963]

One lens i did see that is insane, and i can't even think of how any one could get a good focus on the entire frame of their shot, with this lens, and the price is crazy i would never spend that kind of money on it..


Leica Noctilux-M 50mm f/0.95 ASPH Lens

Leica Noctilux-M 50mm f/0.95 ASPH Lens (Black) 11-602 B&H Photo


I bet tho you can get a good exposure indoors without any flash or high ambient light on the subject, how ever i bet your chances of a full frame focus is not very good..

 

[Designer]

Although it's an older lens, it's real sharp, and amazing glass.

Any chance that you'll post some sample photos? I am curious about the imaging quality. Things like micro-contrast, color rendition, etc. Speed of aperture is only part of it.

 

[nerwin]

Can I borrow it too?

 

[Derrel]

Good review. Excellent lens at f/2. Nikon 50mm f/1.2

Coma is bad at f/1.2, but coma is pretty much gone by f/2.8, and the lens improves as it is stopped down, so that at f/4 the lens is very well-corrected foir coma. The AI-S version has 9 diaphragm blades (the only Nikkor 50mm with 9 blades), and so the lens makes beautiful, 18-pointed sunstars (AKA starbursts) on street lights at night, or the sun, etc..

READ THE PART ABOUT FOCUS SCREENS!

A second short article, showing photos made at night at various f/stops

Nikon 50mm f/1.2 Coma

A separate page, showing the sharpness performance of the 50mm f/1.2 Ai-S
Nikon 50mm f/1.2 Sharpness

 

[chuasam]

It's nice if you need it and can take advantage of the super-large aperture, but really, how often are you going to do that? I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of portraits I've shot at apertures larger than f4. Every now and then it's going to be only way to get >the< image, sure, but will most of us use it often enough to justify the cost over a 1.4 or even the very respectable 1.8?

I shoot most of my recent portraits at f/1.4