Nikkor AF 50mm f/1.8N

I came across this lens as a "50%-off" sale at a Lechmere store, and paid a mere $60 for it (normal price is $90 for the gray market version). What a deal! Being Chinese, I was also very delighted to see such a superb lens is "Made in China".

This lens has gone through several revisions. The N designation is the latest version and is made in China. (Earlier versions are made in Japan.) Specifications include: Still, this lens has not been changed to a D version yet. One unusual thing about this lens is that the rear lens cap is an OPTIONAL accessory! The rear lens cap that comes with the lens is a translucent plastic one. The nice salesman gave me a real rear lens cap anyway.

I used to think that I my favorite lenses are on the extreme ends, wide angle or telephoto. After shooting this lens for my “Boston In a Single Lens" series (a self-assigned photo exercise during which I took only one fixed-focal length lens and shoot around the town without a tripod), I find that now I am often tempted to pick up this lens when I can choose only one lens.

This lens is very light-weighed and compact, AF extremely fast, and manual focusing is well frictioned. In focusing, the filter ring does not rotate. Field use showed that this lens is extremely sharp at all apertures, from center to corner. (To be fair, I must say that I've only shot this lens in the range from f/1.8 to f/16; I have not shot it at f/22 yet.) Even at wide open, there is no noticeable deterioration of image quality, both the contrast and image sharpness, both at the center and at the corners. No color infringement; no linear distortion; no noticeable light fall-off even at f/1.8. This is a normal lens, and is also in my opinion a standard lens in terms of optical quality.

Flare is very well controlled, probably due to the recess of the front element. Flare is worst when the Sun is on the edge of the image. Directly shooting into the Sun generates less flare. Probably I should suspect the filter caused most of the flare.

The only weak point of this lens is probably in its mechanical side. In the front of the lens, there is a large area between the filter ring and the front element. (Filter ring is 52mm diameter, and the lens front element is only about 25mm.) This area is recessed, and covered by what appears to be a thin aluminum shell, not a piece of solid metal as in the Micro-Nikkor 55mm f/2.8 AIS.

Besides being used as a normal lens, there are many other uses of this lens. One of the uses is as a (approximately 4x) loupe. To use it as a loupe, the front of the lens is facing the slide and one views through the rear element. Full frame of the slide is visible, but only a center portion of the image is clear and without distortion. But, as someone put it: this lens is even cheaper than a loupe! What to complain?!

Another use is to be reversely mounted for close-ups. I'll take some close- up shots this way in the near future: my lens reversal ring BR-2A is still back-ordered at B&H.

My conclusion: A jewel at nominal cost. If you don't have a normal lens in your camera bag, get this one. If you have a 50mm f/1.4, ask yourself: do you really need the extra 2/3 stop?

In fact, I like this lens so much that I also bought the AF-Nikkor 85/1.8D, which is a proven favorite to many. I took this brand new AF 85/1.8D wandering in NYC during Thanksgiving. I soon wished that I were carrying the 50/1.8 with me: it is a little difficult to adjust into 85/1.8's perspective.

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Last updated: December 1, 1997.