As anyone who knows me knows, I don’t particularly care for sports. That being said, I’ll root for the home team, and am glad they won. It’s been a slow week so far for me so in honor of their achievement, I’m putting up some Yankees photos from August. All photos were taken with my Nikon 300mm f/4.5 ED-IF AIS @f/4.5 on my D200
I put this photo up in a post the day after I went to this game, but all the others are new. A pic of a home run from the MVP Hideki Matsui is probably worth a second post. All the others are new to the blog.
I’ve added the following comparison section to my Nikkor-S 50mm f/1.4 Pre-AI review.
Compared to...
My bunny Thor poses for the 50mm s·c non-ai, and the Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 AF-D
on a full frame D700.
AF-D @f/1.4
Non-AI @f/1.4
As you can see from the thumbnails here, the AF version has some, but less vignetting while the non-ai version has slightly warmer color rendition.
100% crops
Not too much difference, the AF-D (bottom) has slightly better contrast at f/1.4, but the difference disappears by f/2. If I have time, I’ll put up some samples. Also, Thor didn’t seem to want to keep his eyes all the way open for the non-ai lens.
Which is which? Give up? The top is the AF version, bottom is the non-ai. A couple generations didn’t really do much to image quality. The AF version does focus a bit closer, is lighter, and autofocuses, but it feels cheaper, especially the focus ring.
See the full review here.
This review is a work in progress and will be updated
Overall: 4.5 out of 5
Optics: 4.5
Price on Used Market: ~$600–700 USD
Value at $650 USD: 4
Before the dawn of the AF-S version of the fast 85mm, I go back a generation in the opposite direction to look at the final MF version.
Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 AI-S
Assorted Information
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Max Aperture
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f/1.4
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Min Aperture
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f/16
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Aperture Blades
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9
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Close Focus
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0.85m/2.8ft
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Filter Thread
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72mm
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Hard Infinity Stop?
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Yes
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Built in Hood?
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No
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D200 @f/2.8
Image Quality
The 85mm is soft wide open, improves significantly by f/2, superb at f/2.8 great through f/5.6 and surprisingly decent through f/16. Some people take issue with the boke, but I don’t have complaints about it. Flare can be an issue, and I don’t have the HN-20 hood that matches this lens, so I can’t comment as to how much that helps.
D700 @f/2
Operation
Beautifully constructed, the MF ring is smooth and the lens simply feels solid and professional. There’s a big rubbery grip, travelling 1/3 of the way around the lens barrel, merely getting out of your way and behaving as you want it to (unless you want it to autofocus).
D700 @f/2
Final Word
This is a beautiful lens, especially the massive front element. The weakness is really performance wide-open, and even then the soft images are actually excellent for portraits. The AF version has superior sharpness at f/1.4, will set you back twice as much, and is worth every penny, but if you want something in this focal range for a manual focus camera, you can’t go wrong with this lens.
More Photos with this Lens
D200 @f/1.4 (the EXIF lies, I had just taken off the 300mm f/4.5 and forgotten to change the lens data)
D200
D700
D200
D700
D200
D200
D700
More Photos of this Lens
What better place could there be to both show off my new D700’s low light capabilities and gather photo fodder for reviews than the circus?
D700, Nikkor-Q·C 135mm f/2.8 Non-ai @f/2.8 ISO2500
Actually, I hadn’t been to the circus since I was a child. I don’t really recall the day very well, but I do remember that an elephant broke free and went on some sort of (hopefully not murderous) rampage. Because of that I didn’t really know what to expect at the Big Apple Circus. I was a bit concerned that the performance would involve animals who have been treated less than humanely, but the only animal acts involved horses and dogs, and the dogs were all rescued animals. I just hope the horses are treated well.
D700, Nikon 24mm f/2 ais @f/2.8 ISO 1250
The tent was smaller than I expected, but the stunts were spectacular.
D700, Nikkor-Q·C 135mm f/2.8 Non-ai @f/2.8 ISO1250
I’m showing photos from the 4 lenses I used last night. 2 of them have been reviewed and I’ll add one or two pictures from each to their respective reviews along with some comments about their performance on the D700. The other two lenses, the 85mm f/1.4 ais, and 135mm f/2.8 non-ai are in my queue. I do have to say I was a bit surprised by how well I focused with each of them on the D700 last night despite the small .72x magnification on the viewfinder. I did utilize the focus indicators more often than I normally do, though.
D700, Nikon 85mm f/1.4 ai-s @f2 ISO1000
Yes, this man is really juggling 5 ping pong balls using only his mouth.
D700, Nikkor-S·C 50mm f/1.4 @f/2 ISO1250
I’ve had my D700 for a few days now and thought I’d write up some thoughts, though I haven’t used it as much as I would have liked due to the cold, rainy weather.
Grand Central Clock Nikkor-S·C 50mm Non-AI f/1.4 @f/1.4
As everyone knows by now, high ISO performance is spectacular. I probably don’t need to write that, but I will anyway because I like it so much. It can get usable images throughout its range of 200–6400, and that’s just not something I’ve ever been able to do before. ISO6400 on the D700 looks better than ISO1600 on my D200.
Automated Tellers — Nikkor-S·C 50mm Non-AI f/1.4 @f/1.4
Beyond that, there are a lot of UI and performance tweaks from older and lower model Nikons. You can save settings for 9 manual lenses, though as I use more than 9 I’ve had to set 8 for the ones I use most and then change the 9th for when I use anything else.
Shooting is impeccable with manual lenses, but I am starting to see some vignetting and corner definition weaknesses that were masked by the DX crop, or not necessarily obvious on film (extreme corners of slides do tend to get obscured by the mount). I tend not to care so much about these things, but I’ll be updating all my reviews to reflect this as well as adding full frame digital sample images to each one.
Milkweed — D700, Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/4 AI
The 51 autofocus points are also a big step up from other systems I’ve used. Autofocus has been fast and accurate when I’ve used it, though I do wish the 51 points covered a larger area of the frame like it does on the D300.
Cat — D700, Nikon 35mm f/2 AI
If I have one complaint, it’s something true on every DSLR I’ve used — the viewfinder is not great. Why can’t we get a massive bright viewfinder like were everywhere in the film days? My FE’s finder is infinitely better.
D700, Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/4 AI
All content © Tai Shimizu unless otherwise indicated.
