Nikon Ai-S Nikkor 50mm F1.4, Take I

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Olympus E-P5, Nikon Ai-S Nikkor 50mm F1.4

#VintageLensTest - Five frames with a Nikon Ai-S Nikkor 50mm F1.4, the superhero of lowlight photography.

The 50mm F1.4 is the superhero for lowlight photography, a must for indoor sports, an essential for street photography, a norm for travel and adventure, an extreme closeups lens with a reverse adapter, and a superb portrait lens on crop-sensor digital cameras.

The legacy Nikkor 50mm F1.4 Ai-S by Nikon is no different, affordable by comparison (to current standards), and is one of the few manual focus lenses left in Nikon's lens line-up. Performance is said to be almost at the top of the line. Though reportedly to be pretty weak at f/1.4, the lens improves considerably when stopped down to f/2.

On a DX-sized or a 1.5 crop-sensor DSLR, the lens becomes a 75mm equivalent, which is more of a portrait lens than a nifty-fifty prime. On the 2x crop-sensor Olympus E-P5, the lens is equivalent of to a 100mm short telephoto lens. The lens is built of all metal and glass the lens is the ultimate build quality.

Quite hefty in size when compared to Olympus's M4/3 lenses, the lens is about 70mm long when fitted with an adapter to the camera, it weighs in at 250 grams which do add to the weight of the setup. The lens, however, is a pleasure to use, the focus ring is buttery smooth and can be moved with one finger, and aperture stops are sharp and sure.

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