Initial Shoots With The Nikkor f/1.4G
Monday, December 29th, 2008The highly anticipated Nikkor f/1.4G lens turned out to be rather overpriced (for reasons I’ll get to soon) in Singapore; I’m hearing stories of people getting it between $700-900. I had started saving up for it when I heard about it this year. This is because I have the 50mm f/1.4D and it’s just about the best food photography lens I have and since this is Nikon’s update to the venerable 50mm design, well, I just had to see if it’s as good as it’s cracked up to be.
So I joined a few Flickr photographers for a shoot at the Botanic Gardens.
In bight sunlight, the SWM performs marginally faster than the D lens but I am so used to the noisy D lens that very often I kept waiting for the AF screws to turn without realizing that the SWM had already done it’s job and was waiting for me to release the shutter. 
The shots here don’t look as sharp as the D lens, but there are 3 factors to consider: 1) it was windy that day; 2) it was all hand-held except for the waterfall and 3) each lens has its own peculiarities and I’m not used to this new lens yet.
But I kinda like the Bokeh that it produces. At f/1.4, portrait shots are excellent. Most of the shots here are f/2.8 as it seems like the best to use. For the D lens, the sharpest aperture was f/5.6, so I’ll have to try that when I get the hang of this lens.
Anyway, I’m pleased with the new lens as a new toy, but will it replace my f/1.4D? Not sure yet. It does come with decent lens cap instead of a plastic cover, the hood is more or less useless. The SWM is silent but the speed is marginally faster.
Most people will get sticker shock especially when they handle the plasticky construction and the very loose focus ring which does not stay locked during AF. Some people see it as an advantage, but I don’t as I trust my Nikon’s AF capabilities. Of course, everyone should have been tipped off with the “G” designation which means “Gelded” which means, in layman terms, Nikkor stripped down some of the (mostly out-dated) features to save cost, which begs the question of how much higher the price would be.
In short, I think people should hold off getting the 50mm f/1.4G especially when the f/1.4D is readily available and is much cheaper for an equivalent performance.