AF-S nikkor 24/1.4

[Jakov Minić]

I don't use the 24/1.4 as much as I should, or as much as I predicted that I would use it.
The main reason for that was once I used it in low light on the Df and couldn't get a single image sharp.
Ever since I was reluctant to use it.
I have already spoken about this slight concern of mine (Chris when are we going to get together).

Yesterday was my son's 12th birthday so I decided to try out the 24/1.4 knowing that there would be low-light shooting.
In order to give the 24/1.4 its last opportunity to shine I mounted it on a D4.
No excuses any longer. If I ended up with blurry images (although I like those, but only when I induce them), I would definitely know that there is something wrong with the lens.
There were no surprises the combo D4 + 24/1.4 did the job with ease. It's a bit wide for portraits, but hey, there has to be a challenge somewhere

The first two were shot at f/2.5, didn't want to push the boat too much.
And the last one at f/1.4, just to be sure that the lens is a jewel, and it is!

I will be using it much more in the future, but not on a Df in low light, pity.

[Ilkka Nissilä]

Have you adjusted autofocus fine tuning for the lens on your Df? In my experience it is important to do for f/1.4 primes (also for f/2 lenses as well).

What is your shutter speed for those shots that are not sharp? A light weight camera body may lead to more shake at slow speeds when hand holding.

[Frank Fremerey]

I had all my lenses and cameras together at service. The 24 needed 2 times service until it produced sharp images.

With the D3 no trouble with the D600 and D7000 lots of. Not a single sharp image with the D7000 a dream with the D3.

From what I have seen in the ART Earlwine 24 thread I guess the ART will make it hart for the AFS

[Bjørn Rørslett]

I had no issues whatsoever with AFS 24/1.4 on my Df. I used three different samples and they all behaved similarly.

[Jakov Minić]

Have you adjusted autofocus fine tuning for the lens on your Df? In my experience it is important to do for f/1.4 primes (also for f/2 lenses as well).

What is your shutter speed for those shots that are not sharp? A light weight camera body may lead to more shake at slow speeds when hand holding.

Ikka, that is exactly what the Nikon technician told me when I visited Nikon Service Point. I don't trust the AF fine tune, it doesn't give me consistent results.
I love my Df nevertheless

[bobfriedman]

i have owned this lens since it was introduced and never use it.. no particular reason.

it has an awful IR hot spot by the way.

an example from 2010

Nikon D3 ,AF-S NIKKOR 24mm f/1.4G ED
f/5.6 at 24.0mm iso200

[Frank Fremerey]

Great lens with the D3 even wide open:





https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4018/4521282129_21655d3d92_o.jpg

[Ilkka Nissilä]

I understand what you mean by inconsistency ;-) But I don't think the fine tuning itself is inconsistent, using it should just cause a shift in focus (and is intended to correct for different optical paths to main imaging sensor and AF sensor effectively) relative to a zero setting. Back and front focus can depend on the colour of the light (in pre-2014 cameras) and distance as well, in my experience, with fast primes. What's more there is quite a bit of random focus variation, but still, often there is an overall tendency for front or backfocus and this can be alleviated using focus fine tune. For testing focusing and adjusting fine tune I normally use a tripod, a focus test target (with slanted ruler and some high contrast text as focus target) and if I do it the better way, I shoot a number of frames refocusing each time from front or back direction (in turn). By going through focus fine tune settings with 5 step intervals I can assess the sharpest position from the images (best way would be to use a computer algorighm which a friend of mine has successfully used but I am still relying on eye) and finally I get a scatter graph of points to which usually a line can be fitted (in the least squares sense, e.g. Excel can do it by fitting a trendline) and you can then find the fine tune setting which corresponds to zero crossing of the errors. However this setting may not be optimal for real world use so I finalize the adjustment by a tweak after testing it in my applications. It is not perfect because the AF is not perfectly consistent but in my experience this process does reduce the mean error experienced. Or you can have a service center do it for you.

I absolutely had to focus fine tune almost every lens on the D800 but with the D810 the focus errors are much smaller and vary less from lens to lens (by half) and distance and color dependency seem to be reduced as well. I still prefer to do focus fine tune even though it's a somewhat arduous process, but I use a simpler way which relies on the focus confirmation dot, live view CDAF as a reference (which is not always of sufficient accuracy especially with older lenses as well as in low light the result can be suboptimal) and requires the firing of no frames, but it is not as accurate a process. I find it gives a good enough starting point however to proceed to the real world testing.

For any kind of lens testing I would use a tripod but if you are hand holding I would use at least 1/500s before concluding the lens is not sharp. ;-) Yes, I know it's 20x focal length but ... in my experience sharpness tends to increase as shutter speed goes up. Normally when I use the 24/1.4 if the persons in the image (subjects) are relatively static I might settle for a 1/200s shutter speed, but not much slower than that as subtle movement starts to creep in.

Anyway, I find the 24/1.4 Nikkor to be an optically delightful lens with somewhat cranky AF behavior depending on camera.

[Jakov Minić]

Thanks Ilkka for your extensive reply.
I also believe that it has to do with color temperature because it focuses with ease in day time.
Of course the temperatures change when you are indoors, and when the light is not at its best, the Df struggles.
That is why the AF-fine tune will not work in this instance. I would need to turn it on in low light, and switch it off for outside.
Then again, how warm or how cold will the ambient temperature be, and should I then also fine tune the lens.
All these factors are the inconsistencies that I am talking about. So, I dropped it. I'll just use the D4 instead and I will enjoy the Df in so many other ways

[Erik Lund]

I'v never had any real issues with lens except a mild hot spot in IR when stopping down.

I have used it extensively since it was introduced for all kinds of subjects

Olny nit pick it that the focus is way too slow, nowhere like the 28-70 AFS or 24-70 AFS or even screwdriver lenses in speed so you need to take that into account for action shooting!!!

[Erik Lund]

Group shot...

[Eddie Draaisma]

Mine doesn't need finetuning on the D700 and D3s, but definitely does need it on the D800e in order not to be disappointed about its performance.

IMHO AFS lenses of this size (24/1.4, 35/1.4, 85/1.4) handle very well in combination with D3/D4 type of bodies.

I really like this lens, and use it a lot.

[Frank Fremerey]

125 people indoors 1,4/24G Portait x 4 with NPP-head:

http://fotokontext.de/trimborn_2012_guppenbild_final_srgb.jpg

Eddie: my experience is that the D3, F4, F100 needed no fine tuning, the just did what they were expected to do.

D7000 and D600 (and rented (D8xx) were the ones that caused headaches.

[Jan Anne]

Borrowed the 24/1.4G from Erik more than once and I really like it, the 35/1.4G was what I ended up with however.

I like the wide FOV in combination with a small DOF which is only possible with fast primes like the 24/1.4G

D3s with 24/1.4G