First Impressions -- Nikkor 50mm 1.4 AIS

My latest lens arrived via USPS today -- a new-to-me 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor AIS manual-focus lens. I keep going back to the decision I made when purchasing my first dSLR, and being so thankful that I bought the one I did. While I really like the D70, and it's a major improvement over my D1H in so many ways, the one thing I'm able to do with my camera that I wouldn't be able to do with the D70 is meter with AI and AIS manual-focus lenses. Sure, I lose out on Matrix Metering, which can certainly make things tricky sometimes (although the spotmeter does work, and helps to overcome this deficiency). That I can both mount and meter with 20-30 year old lenses that were top-notch quality, within my tight budget, though, is worth the sacrifice in the other areas where the D70 kicks my D1h's ass.

I was a little nervous, since there wasn't much of a description on the eBay auction, and only a couple of pictures. But when I opened the box and, in a kid-on-Christmas-morning fashion, pulled out the lens, it was beautiful! It came with a Nikon lens hood, and while I'm generally a fan of rubber lens hoods, this metal one was a nice bonus. I couldn't believe I got this lens at the price I paid. Other than missing a front lens cap, it looked brand new! And this lens is 20 years old!

Unfortunately it was dark and rainy when I got home, so I had to find a few things indoors to test out the bokeh. I played around with a few shots and found an interesting corner of the hallway in my house. I liked the lighting and the texture, and (exploring a bit with my latest Group F/1 philosophy) found some interesting lines that could be created by playing with the focus. After all, the reason why I wanted a f/1.4 lens was to play with that extra thinness of focus that it gives you over a f/1.8. I'm sure there's not a ton of significance, but I've already noticed an improvement in the bokeh.



Without having much to shoot, I found the plastic fern that looks so real we almost water it to this day. It made a perfect test subject for my first bokeh review. Now, granted, I'm not doing a full bokeh review like Ken Rockwell did. Yet. I just wanted to play around with the lens a bit to get my first impression. With the crummy weather and darkness tonight, there wasn't much else to shoot. I realize the "in focus" area is indeed out of focus (I was standing too close to the plant -- not quite in the close-focus range), but I don't really care a whole lot about that for this test. I was more concerned with how well the bokeh areas would turn out.



So far, I like the qualities of this lens a lot. I can't wait to test it further.