Quick Test of four Fast Nikkors.

[Brian]

I've done some quick test of the 55/1.2 Nikkor against three generations of 50/1.4 Nikkors. I used my venerable Nikon D1 for the test, auto-white balance, fine Jpeg mode.

First up: the Nikkor-SC 50/1.4, factory AI converted. This lens was rebuilt by Mora camera about 20 years ago. It is in Top condition, and is one of the best made of the Nikkor 50's that you will find.

Focus is on the doll's left eye (right hand side of the image).

[Brian]

Second up is a 55/1.2 AI series Nikkor, at F1.4.

[Brian]

Third up is a 50/1.4 AIS series lens. This is an early AIS lens, and has had problems with oil on the aperture blades. It went to Nikon about 10 years ago for a CLA.

[Brian]

And fourth, is an original series AF-Nikkor 50mm F1.4.

On the manual focus lenses, I used the focus confirm for each. On the AF-Nikkor, I let the camera perform autofocus.



Of all the lenses, it is the newest, the poorest performing, and the only one made out of PLASTIC.

What idiot decided to use Plastic in lenses, ANYWAY?

[Brian]

One more- the 55/1.2 Nikkor wide-open:



Just to show how much better it is than the AF-Nikkor.

[Brian]

I lied.

Let's call this the "ground-truth" test.

60mm F2.8 AF-Micro-Nikkor, wide-open. Autofocus mode used.



and at F4

[spiralcity]

Can you do this in RAW and give some crops of the eye?

The micro is sweet, but its intended for close focus. Nice lens.

[sichko]

The last one really screams at you and says "Look at me !"

[trifox]

[Brian]

I'll do some better test with film. Or the DCS200, as it does not have an AA or Bayer filter on it. Good for center-sharpness tests.

On the D1, Raw mode gets 12-bits per pixel and more dynamic range. It does not really improve the spatial resolution over fine-mode. Basically, the latter is close to Jpeg lossless compression.

Now, on the 1992 vintage DCS-200, I wrote my own Raw converter that batch processes the image into BMP. I go from there to lossless compression on JPEG. I preferred to write my own FORTRAN code to do this than use Nikon's raw-processing software.

I mostly use my DSLR's for taking pictures OF cameras.



Above is with a 1998 Nikon E3 with the 60/2.8 Micro-Nikkor and SB-29 macro-speedlight. That's the 55/1.2 on the F2AS and a Nikon SP with a 5cm F1.4 next to it.

[spiralcity]

[Brian]

Nice EL! I have the Pop Photo write-ups on it. I see a Nikon Camera glamor thread coming up!

That must be one of the last of the Chrome-Nosed Nikkor 50/1.4's!

[LucisPictor]

This gear is so beautiful!