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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Nikon "G" 1.4 primes, a mini review...

Yes. I shoot with the 50 mm 1.2. It is a tremendous lens. Soft wide open but sharpens or course up as you stop down. A great thing to do is to shoot wide open with it in bright sunlight, particularly portraiture. You can find it second hand from some japanese stores in very good condition for significantly cheaper than the new price.
 
The cool thing about the 50 1.2 (other than indulging my "the model's eyes are in focus and her eyelashes aren't" fetish) is that it gets sharp (not optimally sharp, but "not just for emergencies anymore" sharp) at f/2, whereas the 50 1.4 & 1.8 designs need at least f/2.8

The new 50 1.4G is maybe an exception, it's very good at f/2, but comparing "feel," (of the lens, not the image it produces), the 50 1.2 massively wins. I'd rather have it in 99% of situations. AF is for suckers anyway :P
 
richard peterson said:
NIKKOR 50mm f/1.2

anyone every shoot with this puppy ?

http://www.nikonusa.com/Nikon-Products/Product/Camera-Lenses/1435/NIKKOR-50mm-f%2F1.2.html
Click to expand...

I own one of these fast 50s, and I love it almost as much as my Nikon 85mm f/1.4 AIS.

The only place that I was able to find a new one was Japan, so I suffered the shipping costs.

Lee is spot on with his assessment. Shooting this lens at f/2 is awesome. It's amazing image shocked a longtime DP that I work with.

Lee Saxon said:
The cool thing about the 50 1.2 (other than indulging my "the model's eyes are in focus and her eyelashes aren't" fetish) is that it gets sharp (not optimally sharp, but "not just for emergencies anymore" sharp) at f/2, whereas the 50 1.4 & 1.8 designs need at least f/2.8

The new 50 1.4G is maybe an exception, it's very good at f/2, but comparing "feel," (of the lens, not the image it produces), the 50 1.2 massively wins. I'd rather have it in 99% of situations. AF is for suckers anyway :P
Click to expand...
 
Evin Grant said:
The mount I have is "dumb", IE no electronics. AFAIK the Canon's can't use autofocus confirmation for video anyway. For obvious reasons I wouldn't use theses lenses for stills on a Canon.

BTW here are some breathing tests on @f1.4 on a 5D...

http://www.evingrant.com/pics/NikonGtest/24mmBreathing.MOV
http://www.evingrant.com/pics/NikonGtest/35mmBreathing.MOV
http://www.evingrant.com/pics/NikonGtest/50mmBreathing.MOV
http://www.evingrant.com/pics/NikonGtest/85mmBreathing.MOV

Overall I think the breathing is pretty good for still lenses. Checkout the min. focus at the end of the 24mm clip!
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Wonderful! Very much appreciate the lens tests, so thank you! Have you had the chance to shoot any footage with these on R1-MX yet, or no?
 
Hmmmm....

This is bizarre...

The 50mm has a much warmer and deeper colors ( a la Canon ) compared to all others.

Were all these images processed the same ?

Antoine
 
Evin, have you had a chance to shoot with these lenses on Epic since this thread was opened? Maybe you have some footage you can share?

I'm very interested in this set (plus 14-24 for wide angle), but I can't decide to get them or not as I haven't seen how they perform with RED.
 
Evin, I assume these will be top of the list to test at new SALT tests. I'm curious how you have been making out with them. I know there's no smart mount for the Epic yet, but I assume you've been putting them to use in other ways. I'm most interested in how they handle in the field mechanically. I have not been able to get a hold of any yet.
 
ive been shooting on my nikon glass since 87 when i was shooting stills for Elle, Glamour, Mademoiselle, Marie Claire and a host of others. And Im still shooting on them.. all manual aperture... I tend to migrate the most to my 58 1.2, 85 1.4 and 200 2.0 ( which back in the day was 10g). AND I still love them! The Optitek mount is great, and although I love my Illumina and Zeiss glass, there are times I just want my Nikon glass.. And I find the "reverse focus" is actually more intuitive than the "standard". I think of my ff knob like this - roll it back (clockwise as subject gets closer and roll it out vice versa. My ac actually swithches the gearing on my arri ff for all my other lenses to match the nikon!)
 
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  • #92
I am going to be testing the Nikon Gs but it'll be the first time I've had a chance to try them on Epic too. As for build quality they are really tough, although they do have more plastic than previous "Pro" Nikkors that doesn't seem to affect their quality feel.

I haven't had too much chance to punish them since I mainly shoot with my Optimos on the Epic, but so far they have made it though Yosemite and White Sands natl. monuments on the D3 with no issues.

Here is a photo of upper Yosemite falls taken on the 35mm 1.4G, 1/2 hour exposure with the moon rising and creating the rainbow in the falls...
UpperLunarBow.jpg
 
Nice photo Evin! How is the focus mechanisms on them? I'm a manual focus guy (until RED or someone else perfects auto focus for professional motion pictures) so that's what I'm most interested in with these lenses. I figured the optical quality was amazing and the build itself was probably pretty good. But the focus (degree of rotation, smoothness, and hard stops) is what I'm most interested in. Although the old primes are not perfect for video/cinema they are decent, enough to let me get by on some projects. Very short focus throws can be a deal breaker, too much room for error.
 
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  • #94
Steve, don't expect any stock AF lens, Nikon, Canon or otherwise to give you the same focus throw as a manual Nikkor, Leica R or ZF.
The G primes are no better than an other short throw AF lens, I figure they're for nature/landscape/static objects until the Redmote Pro and Nikon electronic mount is available.
 
Evin Grant said:
Steve, don't expect any stock AF lens, Nikon, Canon or otherwise to give you the same focus throw as a manual Nikkor, Leica R or ZF.
The G primes are no better than an other short throw AF lens, I figure they're for nature/landscape/static objects until the Redmote Pro and Nikon electronic mount is available.
Click to expand...
Cool, that's what I figured due to the AF priority. Much better for the lens to have shorter distance to travel when it's autofocusing. I will keep shooting my old Nikons on the small projects, and cine lenses on the big projects. :-)
 
Question if they make a nikon mount for the scarlet will it be able to take nikon F & G lenses?
 
I'm thinking the 1.8 range of G's is starting to look real interesting. You can pick up now a 28, 50, and 85 set at 1.8 for less than one of most of the 1.4's. Slightly slower but optically pretty much as good. Nikon also has patents filed for 18, 20 and 135's at 1.8 which could make it even more interesting.

Quite a lot of bang for the buck with the Red Aluminium mount @ $700, 28 1.8 $699, 50 1.8 $220, 85 1.8 $499 for $2120
 
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