Nikon 20083 Black NIKKOR Z 50mm f/1.8 S

Nikon’s long awaited 85/1.8 prime for the Z-series is finally shipping and I’m happy to report it’s been worth the wait. Design and build are as expected based on the existing f/1.8 series primes, which is to say relatively light and compact in a decent, if unremarkable, composite casing. AF is fast and accurate and the lens balances very nicely on my Z7. Image quality, as hoped, excels. The lens is tack sharp wide open right across frame. On testing, I can detect a very slight bump in sharpness at f/2.8 in the extreme corners on a planar subject (brick wall). But this is only detectable by making painstaking comparisons at the pixel level. You would never notice it in real world shooting. Simply choose your aperture, focus on any part of the frame at any distance and prepare to be amazed. It’s all here. Biting (but not clinical) sharpness from wide open. Exquisite detail at the plane of focus. Beautiful creamy background blur. Smooth transitions. And exceptional colour purity, which is probably down to the remarkable lack of colour fringing, even on out-of-focus highlights. It all adds up to ‘that look’ which only the best short telephoto lenses have: that beguiling combination of sharp details and glowing highlights against a soft wash of colour, all balanced in perfect harmony. The lens is just as well behaved on stopping down. Depth of field simply increases, untroubled as far as I can tell by any significant focus shift or field curvature, just as you expect and just as you want. No unpleasant surprises. Complaints? If pushed, I would say it doesn’t focus quite as close I would like but, in fairness, that’s true of every 85mm prime I’ve ever used. It’s just how it is. Some will say it should have been f/1.4. Not me. Not when it’s half the size and weight of those ‘hero’ lenses. Not when the rendering is this good. I pair mine with the equally exceptional 14-30/4 zoom, which on my Z7 makes for a fantastic two lens kit for travel and backpacking. Highly recommended.

This is easily one of the best 50mm lenses Nikon has ever made and rivals the more expensive Zeiss OTUS 55mm lens. There is a special quality to the pictures this lens can create. The way your in focus subject pops out at the maximum apertures is quite beautiful which makes this lens a wonderful choice for available light portraits (although I normally prefer a longer focal length). The focus is nice and quick and probably quicker than the 50/1.8G AF-S (definitely much faster than the 501.4G AF-S). This lens is priced 2-3 times more than a typical lens of this type but I think it’s well worth the money given the superior results. If you find this a useful focal length and aperture it’s really a no brainer in my mind.

Yes, this is rather expensive for an 85/1.8, but:
a)it’s a genuine Nikon
b)it’s pretty compact and solid. Handles really nicely with the FC.
c)AF is blazingly fast
d)at least for my usage (portraiture) – this lens is borderline too sharp – even wide open. I don’t recall having to dial back on texture as much with any of my other lenses

Don’t get me wrong this is the best lens I have ever used (I have only used a Nikkor 17-55mm 2.8, nikkor 50mm 1.8, sigma 17-50mm2.8). There are some fringing though as you can see by the hair on the pictures. The photo was edited to remove some of it.

I will say up front, I don’t normally shoot primes. But I decided to invest in some for my Z6 as the kit lens at f4 limited some shots I wanted.

Right out of the box it looks and feels like all the other S lenses. Not too heavy, quality construction, everything you could hope for. But it’s the image quality that stunned me. For 15+ years I’ve carried a Nikon DSLR and a zoom lens, for many years a 24-70/2.8 lens. I’ve always bought primes but never used them much at all. These S lens are different, I’ve pretty much completely switched to using primes!

The sharpness, speed, and quietness are talked about a lot. Obviously all stellar but there is a very difficult to describe image feel to the S primes. Yup they’re ‘only’ f1.8 lenses, but having used 1.4 f mount lenses I’m not missing anything at all. You can shoot these S primes wide open at 1.8 all day and the quality is stunning.

I recently traded in my 24-70/4s kit lens for the f2.8s version. But I’m still finding I prefer to shoot with the prime lenses. The 35mm being one of the 3 I pretty much carry everywhere now. If you have a Z6/7 get yourself some of the primes, they’re definitely worth it.

This is the most sharpest 1.8 35mm you can buy it beats all other Nikon’s ,sigma art lens and canon it is well built and weather sealed.
I am a profession photographer and have tested it in all conditions. Pay no attention to utube click baits and people who say it costs too much, you will be paying for one of best built sharpest plus other optical qualities you can buy and I have had 40 years of testing lenses and am a canon shooter. Well done Nikon for taking us into the real digital photographic age.