Nikon AF-S Nikkor 28mm f/1.4E ED Review - Review 2022

Nikon's line of f/one.4 prime lenses has a new add-on, the Nikon AF-Southward Nikkor 28mm f/one.4E ED ($ane,999.95). The premium wide-bending lens has a very vivid discontinuity, top-end construction, and snappy autofocus. Only you pay a lot for it, especially when compared with the $700 AF-S Nikkor 28mm f/one.8G, a compact lens that'due south only a half-stop dimmer. If you're prepare on an f/i.iv lens, besides consider the Sigma 24mm F1.4 DG HSM Art, which is a petty flake wider, but deadly sharp in its own right and less than half the price of the 28mm f/1.4E ED.

Design

The 28mm ($i,796.95 at Amazon) is large for a prime number lens, measuring three.ix by 3.iii inches (Hard disk). It tips the scales at one.4 pounds and supports 77mm front filters. It'southward much larger than the 28mm f/1.8G, which is iii.2 by 2.nine inches, 11.6 ounces, and supports 67mm front filters. A reversible lens hood, front and rear caps, and a soft carrying case are included.

The lens carries a premium price, but is backed by Nikon'south top-tier build quality. That ways information technology'due south protected from dust and wet, is housed in a tough polycarbonate barrel, boasts nanocrystal and fluorine lens coatings, and includes a manual focus band with a long throw to move from minimum focus altitude to infinity, about 180 degrees, without sacrificing speedy autofocus.

The fluorine coat is a squeamish improver, and something nosotros've been seeing on more and more recent lenses. It makes it more difficult for water and grease to adhere to the exposed glass, so you lot'll have an easier time keeping it make clean when out in the real world.

Aside from the focus band, the simply control on the lens itself is a toggle switch to change focus modes. You lot can ready it to M for full-time transmission focus, or M/A for autofocus, with manual focus adjustments at whatsoever time. There's no optical stabilization; you don't typically see that feature in a broad-angle prime lens. Information technology's pretty like shooting fish in a barrel to get a crisp handheld shot with a 28mm, particularly one that gathers this much light, but videographers should accept note and consider a stabilized zoom to cover this angle of view for handheld filmmaking.

The minimum focus distance is 11 inches, which gives the lens a maximum ane:5.9 magnification factor. That'southward a little flake limiting, equally at that place are definitely times when you'd like to get but a bit closer to subjects when shooting wide. The Nikkor 28mm f/1.8G focuses closer, to nine.8 inches, which makes it a niggling more versatile if yous like to shoot close with a wide angle.

Image Quality

I tested the 28mm f/1.4E with the 45.7MP D850 and Imatest software, which evaluates resolution using a examination chart that is broken downwards into centre, mid parts, and edges, and averaged together using a center-weighted metric.

Meet How We Exam Digital Cameras

At f/1.4, the center-weighted score isn't anything to write domicile about, ii,806 lines, which is but better than the ii,750 lines we desire to run into at a minimum on the D850. A closer await at the numbers shows that the center expanse of the frame is very crisp, 4,256 lines, only resolution drops as you move toward the edges. The mid part average is 2,209 lines, soft by our standards, and edges are very blurry at 809 lines.

That didn't quite jive with what I was seeing in the field—sure, edges were soft in my real-world f/one.4 shots, merely not that soft. I ran a second exam at f/ane.4 with the focus point at the edge of the frame rather than dead center. It shows 2,600 lines, soft, but non awful. What we're seeing is field curvature—the aeroplane of focus isn't quite flat, and information technology'south exacerbated by the close altitude at which we need to put a broad lens to tightly frame our test chart.

If you're trying to shoot a flat subject area at a close distance at a wide aperture, the 28mm f/1.4E isn't a proficient choice. But for most real-world applications, depth of field is going to hide its broad-aperture flaws when working close, and y'all'll have to contend with edges that are on the soft side at distance when working wide open.

Numbers become better as y'all cease down. You get 3,122 lines on average at f/ii and three,755 lines at f/2.viii. The edges are nonetheless a bit soft at f/ii, but they're amend at f/two.viii. At f/4 the lens is crisp from edge to edge, even at the close distance at which we tested it—the average score is four,216 lines and the periphery is a crisp 3,210 lines.

You'll get the all-time functioning at f/five.6 (4,447 lines) and f/8 (4,590 lines). When shot with the D850 at that place's a drop in fidelity at f/11 (4,240 lines) and a more meaning dip at f/16 (3,587 lines). We don't recommend using lenses at their minimum aperture settings on digital cameras as a dominion, as diffraction usually cuts into paradigm quality when the iris is prepare to its smallest position.

Imatest as well evaluates photos for distortion. The Nikkor shows virtually 1.2 percentage barrel baloney, which is not a bad result at all for an f/i.4 wide-angle prime. Straight lines are drawn with a slight outward curve, but not a drastic ane. Nikon cameras include baloney aligning for JPG shooters, then you can remove it automatically if yous want, and Adobe lens profiles remove it for Raw shooters who opt for a Lightroom workflow.

Dim corners are a business organisation. Imatest'due south Uniformity test shows that corners lag behind the middle by -3.7EV at f/1.4. That's a difference you'll notice, as information technology draws photos with a stiff vignette. Stopping down to f/ii drops the arrears to -2.4EV, notwithstanding noticeable, and it'due south a more reasonable -ane.3EV at f/2.8. At f/4 and narrower settings the image is evenly illuminated from edge to edge. Nikon SLRs offer iii levels of automatic peripheral illumination correction for JPG shooters, so this is likely a non-outcome, although noise tin can exist a business organization if trying to burnish edges when shooting at a loftier ISO. Raw shooters tin can utilise an Adobe profile to brighten the edges.

Conclusions

The Nikon AF-S Nikkor 28mm f/ane.4E ED is a solid performer, aimed at 28mm fans who need f/1.4 glass. It's expensive, and doesn't deliver the perfect border-to-border performance that you go with some other modernistic glass. But it's supremely sharp in the sugariness spot of the frame wide open, and doesn't introduce a lot of distortion to images. Information technology'south not a perfect performer, though, so it doesn't earn tiptop marks. I wish it focused a scrap closer, for one.

If you don't want to spend this much on a lens, at that place are some compelling alternatives. The Nikkor 28mm f/1.8G ($799.00 at Amazon) is smaller, lighter, and much more affordable, all at the cost of nearly a one-half-stop of illumination. There aren't any major third-party 28mm f/1.iv options available at this time. The closest alternative is from Sigma, the 24mm F1.4 DG HSM Art ($847.thirty at Amazon) , which may exist a chip besides wide for 28mm devotees. We tested information technology on a Canon 6D, so we can't directly compare performance, but information technology did a fine chore on a 20MP SLR. Both the Nikkor 28mm f/1.8G and Sigma earned Editors' Choice marks when nosotros reviewed them.

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Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/cameras/17617/nikon-af-s-nikkor-28mm-f14e-ed-review

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