New Nikon 58mm f1.4 Announced tonight?

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carguy

Senior Member
LensWork said:
What makes this lens unique is that most lenses perform their best about two stops down from wide open. Typically fast lenses are not very good when shot wide-open. They tend to have terrible falloff (vignetting), an overall lack of sharpness and increased abberations. This lens, like its predecessor the 58mm f/1.2 Noct-Nikkor, is supposed to perform equally well wide-open as it does stopped-down.

At $1,700, this lens is a bargain compared to the $3k-$3.5k that used 58mm f/1.2 Noct-Nikkors are selling for.

On a DX body the equivalent focal length of 87mm should make this lens an outstanding choice for portraits.
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Can't f1.4 too shallow for portraits?
 
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crycocyon

Senior Member
I was surprised as well it wasn't a 1.4. Seriously.

But Nikon's strategy may simply be resolution and performance of the lens. I think their 50 mm 1.4 is a very good lens but clearly they want this 58 mm to be their pro standard lens.

It has 9 elements in 6 groups with two aspherical with both Nano and super integrated coating. Very interesting. I am sure it will be an impressive lens performance-wise...out-performing Canon's 50 1.2, and the Noct 1.2. Otherwise if it doesn't then there is no point.

The big question for me is how well will it stand up to the upcoming and incredible Zeiss 55 1.4 distagon? If it is like 90 or 95% of the performance of that $4k lens, then it is definitely worth it and much more affordable (relatively speaking) and I'm going to keep my eye on it. Very curious to see how that pans out and how DxOMark ranks this lens.
 
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carguy

Senior Member
crycocyon said:
Good description here of why the lens is 1.4 instead of 1.2....

Nikon 58mm f/1.4G Announcement
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Interesting info:

The problem with developing such a fast lens primarily lies in the limitations of the Nikon F mount. Compared to the Canon EF mount, which has a large diameter of 54mm, the Nikon F mount is only 44mm. That’s a big difference in size! If you look at the rear of the Canon 85mm f/1.2L lens, you will see that even the 54mm diameter was not large enough to accommodate such a large aperture – Canon literally had to place the lens contacts right inside the lens mount. Since CPU contacts take additional space, it would be extremely difficult for Nikon to accommodate them, given how large the rear element would have to be. In addition, designing such a large aperture lens with precise autofocus is quite challenging – even slight variances in phase detection sensors would cause focus errors.
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Rick M

Senior Member
Also touches on the trouble with very wide apertures and auto focus. A 1.4 lens is challenging for auto focus systems and the lens is often blamed.
 
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LenspirationalPhotography

Senior Member
I think it's quite a weird lens.. especially with it being so expensive.. I don't know much about the 58mm but with the 60mm being so much cheaper and only 2mm's away from the new 58mm, I don't really see the point?? There might be a use for it, I just don't see it..
 
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gqtuazon

Gear Head
LenspirationalPhotography said:
I think it's quite a weird lens.. especially with it being so expensive.. I don't know much about the 58mm but with the 60mm being so much cheaper and only 2mm's away from the new 58mm, I don't really see the point?? There might be a use for it, I just don't see it..
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It's a specialized lens that is close to perfection that most photographers normally don't pay attention other than the things that you've pointed out. It basically means that the lens is not marketed for you.


Sent from my iPhone.
 
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crycocyon

Senior Member
From Haruo Sato of Nikon:

".....the lens' sharpness is overwhelmingly superior to that of the Noct Nikkor"

"We developed the AF-S NIKKOR 58mm f/1.4G inheriting the basic design concept of the Noct Nikkor, but our aim was not to produce a "modern version of Noct Nikkor"."

[h=3]"Why was the maximum aperture of f/1.4 selected?[/h] The main reason is to retain brightness with minimized peripheral light falloff. While featuring a 58 mm focal length as a homage to the Noct Nikkor 58mm f/1.2 lens, we selected the f/1.4 maximum aperture for this reason.
Generally, large-aperture lenses are likely to suffer from peripheral light falloff. However, the AF-S NIKKOR 58mm f/1.4G retains brightness with minimized light falloff even with the focus distance set to infinity at the maximum aperture. Less peripheral light decreases the advantage of faithful reproduction capability of point light sources across the entire frame at the maximum aperture. Considering this point, we determined the f/1.4 maximum aperture to be optimum."
 
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crycocyon

Senior Member
LenspirationalPhotography said:
I think it's quite a weird lens.. especially with it being so expensive.. I don't know much about the 58mm but with the 60mm being so much cheaper and only 2mm's away from the new 58mm, I don't really see the point?? There might be a use for it, I just don't see it..
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Actually, you would see the point if you bought the lens, namely you would see points of light rendered as perfect points rather than smears, hehe. ;)
 
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Cowleystjames

Senior Member
Well, just gave my dealer a wad of cash for this,
nikon 58mm .jpg

Thankfully, first images are outstanding. I'll post some up later.
 
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crycocyon

Senior Member
Fantastic, can't wait to see! I'm definitely in for this lens. I thought about the 55 1.4 Zeiss Distagon but I just think my portrait work requires autofocus and getting in closer than 55, so not worth the investment for me. So I can't wait to see how this lens performs. That being said, with the Zeiss 85 mm coming out next year, I'll probably save up for that.
 
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rocketman122

Senior Member
from the various reports and tests. nothing special at 1.4/2. an easy choice to make. 50 1.4 for $400. but some people dont care about getting worth for their money. they have money and want the newest toys. most dont even know how to extract the potential of A lens. if youre shooting hanheld, its already a fail.
 
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