Nikkor S 50mm f1.4 - vintage lens review

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As we have already established in the review of the 28mm, Nikkor lenses can be quite confusing, so it took me a while to figure out what exactly this 50mm is.

Apparently it was build somewhere between 1968 and 71 and later on has received a factory conversion, meaning that is was upgraded by Nikon to work with the AI system introduced in 1977.

The letter S indicates the seven elements construction and the front and rear glass have a single amber colored coating.

The lens is made out of metal, it weights 300g, it is 48 to 53mm long and it has an external diameter of 67mm, with a 52mm front thread.

The aperture is clicked and it goes from f1.4 to f16 and the iris has either six or seven blades depending on the year it was produced.

The focusing ring has dimples for better grip, it turns 170 degrees and minimum focusing distance is not great at 60cm.

Flange distance for the Nikon F mount is 46,5mm.

The focusing ring is smooth but the dimples are shallow so the fingers might slip. The lens itself is balanced but not the lightest so it can make your system just a bit front heavy.

Sharpness is not good wide open, losing detail even in the center.

From 2.8 it gets much better and by f8 it gets sharp all over the frame.

Chromatic aberration and blooming are present wide open and while the latter is mostly gone by f2.8, CA can appear up to f8 in high contrast areas.

Even with the amber coating, colors are just a touch warm. Wide open it loses contrast and saturation, but it recovers already from 2.8.

Specular highlights have hard edges but not onion rings or texture. Stopping down the geometrical shape is very noticeable, but they get less distorted towards the edges.

Flares and ghosting are present but manageable.

While this lens can render beautiful, painterly images, it is also quite unpredictable. At the end of the day, this is the kind of lens you either love or hate. It as a strong character wide open, but it is not the most reliable. Stopping down it gets very sharp and useable, but it loses character.

As always, check the video for all the samples!



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