They are as challenging to use wide open as I had heard. My initial shots up close at an AF fine tuning target showed I was missing focus about half the time. It's surprising how much more critical the focus is with this lens wide open vs. the f/1.4 at near subjects. I did better after a little practice.
Using the green dot AF confirmation light in the D750 viewfinder allowed for a tiny bit of movement of the lens' focus ring with the light still lit. Just this very tiny bit is enough to miss critical focus! I found that I need to be at the far end of that tiny bit for the image to be in focus with my D750. I haven't tried it on my D200 yet. Again, these focusing comments relate to shooting the lens at f/1.2 at close subjects.
The lens is all it's said to be, having a distinctive look to some of the images at f/1.2. And, yes... it's a little bit soft at f/1.2 and f/1.4. At f/2, it's sharper and more contrasty near the edges and corners of the frame than my f/1.8G at f/2, but it's subtle. And it maintains a small but discernible edge on down through to the the small aperture settings. I haven't compared it to the Nikkor 50mm f/2, f/1.4 Ai or f/1.4G yet, but I think seeing how it did head-to-head with the f/1.8G satisfies my curiosity. It is very sharp and contrasty from f/2 on down.
Using Live View and zooming in really makes it easy to focus at f/1.2 when the camera's on a tripod. I haven't tried that technique hand held yet.
Hopefully, I'll get to try it out on some human subjects over the weekend! I think this lens is going to be fun.
Using the green dot AF confirmation light in the D750 viewfinder allowed for a tiny bit of movement of the lens' focus ring with the light still lit. Just this very tiny bit is enough to miss critical focus! I found that I need to be at the far end of that tiny bit for the image to be in focus with my D750. I haven't tried it on my D200 yet. Again, these focusing comments relate to shooting the lens at f/1.2 at close subjects.
The lens is all it's said to be, having a distinctive look to some of the images at f/1.2. And, yes... it's a little bit soft at f/1.2 and f/1.4. At f/2, it's sharper and more contrasty near the edges and corners of the frame than my f/1.8G at f/2, but it's subtle. And it maintains a small but discernible edge on down through to the the small aperture settings. I haven't compared it to the Nikkor 50mm f/2, f/1.4 Ai or f/1.4G yet, but I think seeing how it did head-to-head with the f/1.8G satisfies my curiosity. It is very sharp and contrasty from f/2 on down.
Using Live View and zooming in really makes it easy to focus at f/1.2 when the camera's on a tripod. I haven't tried that technique hand held yet.
Hopefully, I'll get to try it out on some human subjects over the weekend! I think this lens is going to be fun.