Nikkor 58mm f/1.4

EiTaro

TaoTeared said:

I'm not one to judge anything based on administrative choices (loading low res images) but I'm disappointed they didn't load any made with the D800 and full raw or fine jpeg files.

They are actually made with D800 / D800E and the high resolution jpegs are on Nikon Asia website
http://www.nikon-asia.com/en_Asia/product/nikkor-lenses/fx-format/single-focal-length/normal/af-s-nikkor-58mm-f-1-4g#gallery

shawnino

Not to be a nattering nabob of negativism, but I'm holding off. I will be eagerly waiting for first-hand reviews, preferably from the NRF posse. @EiTaro has it right--one shouldn't judge on administrative choices of sample shots, and the link provided is useful (thank you!) but I'm slightly troubled that most of the shots are at f/2.

I really don't care about f/2. As I already wrote, my 1.4 D is fine for my purposes past f/2. If this lens is a rockstar at f/1.4, I'm in. I just want confirmation of that from people who actually plunk down the $1700.

Vipmediastar_JZ

I need new eyeglass prespcription in january. Having said that
At 1.4 it looks sharp but the sigma 35mm 1.4 A looks sharper in comparison.
The link that @eitaro posted the two shots of the model with the red blouse are not convincing me.
At f2 the shots look nicer.

Symphotic

I'm still budgeting for this, but I'll wait to see some full res examples taken with the D800 first. No rush: I can still use my 1.8 G.

I took a peek at the full resolution night time city scape and saw about as much, maybe a little less, sagittal coma as I am used to on my Noct-Nikkor. Overall, the images seem to be better than what the Noct could do, but I'll wait for more images.

Symphotic

....Zeiss, don't these come in silver boxes?

Platinum, I think

psdrage

Want it

Already started looking around the house to see what I can sell on eBay to help fund it.

Symphotic

That city scape picture is, I believe, a shot of Yokohama from up around Yamate park. The Cornes building is in the center and you can use the point light sources around the center to compare with the lights at edges, which show the characteristic "birdie" shape of saggital coma.

This is a D800 or D800E photo because of the size.
http://www.nikon-asia.com/tmp/asia/4016499630/3857477713/365508689/3015334490/1887721864/1781229958/3222838534/365508689/4044060355/2954026035.jpg

(Cornes used to be my distributor for optical corner cubes in Japan, and if I have my geography right, the church were my wife and I were married 30 years ago this week is near spot from which this shot was taken)

NSXTypeR

That city scape picture is, I believe, a shot of Yokohama from up around Yamate park. The Cornes building is in the center and you can use the point light sources around the center to compare with the lights at edges, which show the characteristic "birdie" shape of saggital coma.

This is a D800 or D800E photo because of the size.
http://www.nikon-asia.com/tmp/asia/4016499630/3857477713/365508689/3015334490/1887721864/1781229958/3222838534/365508689/4044060355/2954026035.jpg

(Cornes used to be my distributor for optical corner cubes in Japan, and if I have my geography right, the church were my wife and I were married 30 years ago this week is near spot from which this shot was taken)

You may very well be right, but isn't that Rainbow Bridge in Tokyo? Granted, the only experience I am coming from was that I was in Tokyo for a week...

Photobug

I am calling my local camera store to see when he will have one in stock. I want to take some pictures on my camera body and then come home and look at the images.

The price sure surprised me, higher than I expected but then again, not surprised.

Ade

@NSXTypeR

Yes that is Rainbow Bridge in Tokyo. You can also see the giant ferris wheel at Odaiba park.

My guess is the picture was taken from (or near) the Mori Tower, in Roppongi Hills, Minato.

Symphotic

You may very well be right, but isn't that Rainbow Bridge in Tokyo? Granted, the only experience I am coming from was that I was in Tokyo for a week...

You are right. It is as view facing south from the Tokyo Tower area. Cornes Tokyo is right there also. Besides selling optical corner cubes for me, Cornes is also the Ferrari automobile distributor for Japan!

Still doesn't change the sagittal coma...

heartyfisher

This is what I DON'T want. This was shot at 2.8 with the 85/1.4... 2 full stops down!!! Just look at all that ugly magenta along the thumb and glass and the green in her hair (and no program could magically make it disappear).

Have you tried nikon's own software ViewNX to remove those ugly CA, I find that it does much better than any third party RAW processor for this kind of corrections. Even though its a pain to use, for one-off rescue operations i think its an acceptable workaround.

heartyfisher

Those samples ! That 58 would make an awesome awesome awesome DX portrait lense ! wedding photos would be !!!! I may have to become a wedding photographer just to get this lense ;-)

Paperman

I am no expert in MTF graphs but what I see is the centre sharpness of the 50mm f1.8G ( at f1.8 ) is 10% more ( at 10% contrast ) than centre sharpness of the 58mm at f1.4. The difference is more at the 30% contrast graph.

Is this what we should be seeing from a $1700 lens ( leaving its center to edge consistency aside ) ? It sure is easier to obtain center to edge consistency if you are starting from a lower threshold.

TaoTeJared

They are actually made with D800 / D800E and the high resolution jpegs are on Nikon Asia website
http://www.nikon-asia.com/en_Asia/product/nikkor-lenses/fx-format/single-focal-length/normal/af-s-nikkor-58mm-f-1-4g#gallery

You Rock Dude! Thanks!!!!

...This is what I DON'T want. This was shot at 2.8 with the 85/1.4... 2 full stops down!!! Just look at all that ugly magenta along the thumb and glass and the green in her hair (and no program could magically make it disappear).


Auto detect on LR4 - at the size most work is printed most won't notice if you do nothing, and I have found with the fixes, you can't even tell. ViewNX does work even better.


Depending on what I'm shooting, most of my "actual work" is at f4-11 due to all the varying factors (groups, movement, environment, etc,) and what the expected deliverables are. I know some photogs who never shoot below f5.6 and 90% of their work is at f/8-11. To each their own. I prefer to shoot wide open when I can.

F5 on left - F1.4 on right

I prefer the subject isolation on the right as it removes distracting backgrounds. I pulled these up about 2 stops - really dark and Nanna was bouncing him so the shutter had to stay up. (Hey Golf there is some examples we were discussing on another thread!)

@PitchBlack - Use the photos from the link that EiTaro - they are a bit better than your links. I can't see any post process at all and they look like straight conversions out from raw to jpg. I have never seen razor sharp raw files, but add just a hint of contrast and sharpening, and then it pops. I dumped them in LR and with just my normal tweaks they cut my screen apart. I haven't found the "focus spot" yet but at 1.4, and probably about 15ft away, that is only 1.5ft of DOF. I suspect the ISOs are up a bit as well. Fair statement on them though.

TaoTeJared

I am no expert in MTF graphs but what I see is the centre sharpness of the 50mm f1.8G ( at f1.8 ) is 10% more ( at 10% contrast ) than centre sharpness of the 58mm at f1.4. The difference is more at the 30% contrast graph.

Is this what we should be seeing from a $1700 lens ( leaving its center to edge consistency aside ) ? It sure is easier to obtain center to edge consistency if you are starting from a lower threshold.

It's not 10% more, more like 3-5%, but the 1.8 does start a bit higher. The big difference is not the the absolute center 1% being sharp, but how far out the lens retains it and controls the CAs (dashed lines) throughout. I look at the fall off of the 30% contrast more. The steeper the fall offs, the more of a conical display of sharpness from the center. Basically I see the 58mm has having more consistent sharpness across the whole frame where the 1.8 is very sharp in the center but falls continuously.
That didn't describe it well...
Think of taking a photo of a face (filling the frame-landscape). If the face is centered the fall off is continual and follows the form of the face so an equal sharpness hits each eye. Now think of lining up a face on the left hand side of the frame with the left eye (as you see the face) is on the 1/3 frame mark. With the 1.8 and the 1.4 the eye closer to the center will be noticeably sharper than the eye on the left. I see this a lot especially wide open. That's where this lens appears to lessen this occurrence as the sharpness is more fluid. It is actually closer to the newer macro MTFs which are "flat plane" focused but somehow they controlled it to "step" down and hold, that is not something you see at all with the CAs controlled that well.
60mm AFS

105VR

Paperman

I see what you are saying TTJ but having a close look at the graphs one sees :

Blue (30%) graph of the 50mm 1.8G starts around 0.74.
Blue (30%) graph of the 58mm starts around 0.58. ( More than 20% difference )
The 50mm's sharpness does not fall below the 58mm's till 12-13mm from center. ( That is 25mm out of a total 36-40mm ).

Red (10%) graph of the 50mm 1.8G starts around 0.95.
Red (10%) graph of the 58mm starts around 0.85.
The 50mm's sharpness does not fall below the 58mm's till 15-16mm from center. ( That is 30-32mm out of a total 36-40mm ). ( Stays even better for the dotted line graph )

OK - one is at f1.8, the other at f1.4 , but still ... $1,700 !!

Hope I am interpreting right ....

Golf007sd

@Paperman & TTJ. MTF chart look very impressive on this new Nikon creation. I'm so ready to put in a pre-order right now...

@EiTaro: Awesome link...thank you
@PitchBlack: great observation and feedback on analyzing the images. Please keep it up. The bokeh is just sick. This lens is going to be very handy for an all day shot.
@TTJ: My mouth is watering...if you know what I mean. I'm with you on right image...bokah and isolation is more appealing. Great shot by the way.

Additional images...all shot on D800:

Image 1 -- 58 1.4G 1/3200, @ f/1.4, ISO: 100
Image 2 -- 58 1.4G 1/320, @ f/2, ISO: 100
Image 3 -- 58 1.4G 1/30, @: f/2, ISO: 400

TaoTeJared

@paperman - generically you are reading it right, but the conclusion that you are making is not entirely correct. The way you are looking at it is kind of like having two different dinner entrees and you are comparing their color and then stopping there. You are only seeing the points on the line rather than the whole line. I really don't know how to describe it other than it is phenomenally better and worth every penny to my eye.

@golf007sd - get the images from EiTaro's links - Photolife is using those but the quality is degraded somewhere in the process. Been playing with the files for the last hour-s - nuts-o lens. That puts my list at a 24-70, 85 1.4, this lens, a x100s (or something), a new back up body, and maybe the 45mm PC-E. Egads this is going to be an expensive year. Back to editing photos - got to pay the bills.

zernicke

I pre-ordered my copy yesterday from B&H. There is something about the quality of the images on my 1.4 primes that even stopped down is just better than the 24-70 or 70-200 zooms. I find that for portraits, this is a great focal length.

donaldejose

It looks really good to me!

zernicke

Exactly! I welcome a new prime 1.4, and this is a great focal length. Some will even buy the Zeiss for a lot more.

Symphotic

My fax machine is right now receiving a PO for a project in November where I can use this lens. I think I will want to put my 50 mm 1.8G in a kit with a soon to be acquired second body.
I'll pre-order and see if it comes in time for the job.

Golf007sd

@zernicke: Yes this is a great prime lens...given the sample images and its design. But it is not really fair to compare any pro-level prime lens of these caliber (1.4's) to a telephoto lens. There are many factors where a prime is just not that convenient. The 24-70 & 70-200 2.8 have great optics, AF speed....they have served me well. Moreover, I will never leave on a trip without the either of these lenses.

I'm truly looking forward in reading and seeing more images and analysis on this 58mm 1.5 by Nikon. If it lives up to what Nikon has said about, come November/December I will be adding another Gold Box to the closet.

DenverShooter

@zernicke: The 24-70 & 70-200 2.8 have great optics, AF speed....they have served me well. Moreover, I will never leave on a trip without the either of these lenses.

I purchased the new Nikon 80mm to 400mm F/ 4.5 -5.6 in May just to check it out and its displaced my Nikon 70mm to 200mm F/2.8 in my primary camera bag.. If I am shooting outdoors I can afford to give up a couple of stops and at F8 it makes really great images.. And yes its got a lot of plastic and its big and heavy but its 80mm to 400mm and that covers a lot of shooting situations.

If you need the speed the Nikon 70mm to 200 F/2.8 and the Nikon 400mm F/2.8 are the weapons of choice to deliver every available photon to the imager. If you don't the 80mm to 400mm is a really nice lens..

Denver Shooter