Nikkor 58mm f/1.4 AFS The New Noct-Nikkor

[oldfauser]

Andy,

very nice!  I love #2 & #6 the best...

thanks for sharing

Art

[Erik Lund]

Very nice light in the files!

[stenrasmussen]

IMO the neonoct works for landscaping as well. Here's a near 100% crop shot.

[John Geerts]

Great shot, Sten! Love the light and atmosphere.

[tommiejeep]

Df, 58 1.4G does Street at f1.8.  Well, a little more dof would have worked  . I only took the 58 1.4, DC105 f2D and 35 f2D on the trip... silly me 

[Airy]

Great shot, and the lens choice hardly sounds silly...
DOF is enough for my taste. No doubt the holy cow wants to be in focus

[Frank Fremerey]

The 58/1.4G is one of the lenses that always sits in my events/portraits bag. I never gained any enthusiasm for 45-50mm lenses as I felt them too wide for portraits, always showing barrel and perspective distortion once I moved in closer to the model's face. The Noct-Nikkor 58/1.2 is one of my alltime favorites and it is nearly welded to my Df.
The 58/1.4G is imho a must for wedding photographers, for situations where you are shooting either one person or a couple and you need sharpness combined with max blur. I really love how it works on portraits of couples, and yes it is tempting to play with the out-of-focus characteristics of this lens. Sharpness wide open is as good/much as you need, very good indeed.
Here's a recent one, very typical situation where I'd use the 58/1.4G
EXIF 58mm 1/200s ISO 2800 with a D4S

Very convincing. I am really tempted. Although it was not this thread, but the extensive experience with my Ai-S 35/f=1.4 that sold me to the neo-Noct.

[tommiejeep]

Great shot, and the lens choice hardly sounds silly...
DOF is enough for my taste. No doubt the holy cow wants to be in focus

Airy, the cow is fine as is  , it is the right side of the mother's face which is a bit soft  .   I did not use the 35 f2D at all.  Used the Batis 25 f2/VM 15 f4.5 on the a7II quite a bit.  The 105 f2 was the longest lens I took for either camera.  I had both the 70-200 f4vr and 75-150 3.5 E out to choose from but we weighed the hand carry  .  I had the Df/105 f2 in my vest.  No one even looked at our hand carry, much less weighing, Sod's law 

My son had his EM1 and the 40-150 2.8 and TC.  Good thing, on one of our side jaunts, we came across many Indian Antelope and he managed to get good images.
Many thanks for viewing and commenting , the Df remains my favourite camera.  this image is mostly the full frame and only some minor PP in CNX2.
Tom

[chambeshi]

Thanks for that link. It is a great read and another perspective on the beauty of capture provided by this lens. D800Dominic

These historical essays in One Thousand and One Nights theme make for illuminating reading. Their main scribe is Haruo Sato - one of the optical Maestros at Nikon. And Sato happens to be the principal designer of the 58 f1.4, and, not least, he also designed the De-Focus innovations intrinsic to the prowess of the 105 f2 DC and 135mm f2 DC Nikkors [see dedicated Thread on NikonGear]. Last month I also mentioned the enduring legacy of the Noct-Nikkor in the thread on Old School Nikon Primes, and latterly found some interesting insights into the 58 f1.4. This is in the book 'Eyes of Nikon. Art meets Technology makes History' Published 2014 ISBN 978 4 904959 12 1

This book devotes quite some copy [pp 34-39] to the goals, and not least artistic passion, that motivated the design of the specialist Nikkors to try and accommodate 3 dimensions into 2-d Flat-Land (coopting the term of graphic designer Edward Tufte). Which matters here can be summed up in Sato's words of "an entirely different method of appraisal" of the optical performance of a lens, and beyond just its sharpness at a singular point of focus. This philosophy underlies the quest to refine the prowess of a lens in its defocus envelopes, i.e. bokeh. The 58 f1.4 is not alone in this quest. This philosophy also underlies the 35 f1.4 and reaches its prowess in the Defocus Control Nikkors, which use a patented mechanism that allows one to manipulate spherical aberration. And it just so happens this is US Patent No 5 841 590 to Nikon Corp (filed 27 August 1997, awarded 1998) which spells out the inventor as one Haruo Sato!

It's ironic that the likes of Ken Rockwell rhapsodize about the 105 and 135 DC Nikkors, but dismisses the 58 f1.4 as nothing special and too costly compared to other primes of similar FL. Some of us know better...

So thank you for kindly sharing of images and tests and photographic passions in these fascinating threads on NikonGear about the special lenses. I have come to humbly appreciate that there's so much more to the optical prowess of a lens besides its MTF curves etc :-)

[David H. Hartman]

It's ironic that the likes of Ken Rockwell rhapsodize about the 105 and 135 DC Nikkors, but dismisses the 58 f1.4 as nothing special and too costly compared to other primes of similar FL. Some of us know better...

Ken Rockwell's site can be a good place to get ideas but keep a saltshaker handy and don't ever make a purchase based on his reviews alone.

Dave

[chambeshi]

Ken Rockwell's site can be a good place to get ideas but keep a saltshaker handy and don't ever make a purchase based on his reviews alone.

Dave

Yes, Thank You, wise advise, which novices like myself learn given time .....  Additional to  NikonGear (and also Nikon), here's a list of www sites I've found useful to compare Nikon glass and cameras:

http://www.photozone.de/all-tests

http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/photography.htm
2
http://www.graysofwestminster.co.uk [some hints and announcements etc]

http://www.naturfotograf.com/lens_surv.html#rating

http://www.photosynthesis.co.nz/nikon/lenses.html [very useful to trace year from serial#]

https://photographylife.com/lenses/brand/nikon

http://www.nikkor.com/story/

[chambeshi]

At my favourite shop in Brussels, one staff who also owned the 58/1.2 showed me test shots made at night with both Noct version. The new one beat the old hands down in terms of contrast, coma, flare. Day pics and conventional tests rarely do justice to night lenses. The old Noct was not a test champion either (except for CA wide open). I hope Erik can share his nightlife experience here.

As many know well, the original Noct Nikkor 58 f1.2 is a legend - cf http://www.nikkor.com/story/0016/

Here are reviews comparing the original and the 58 f1.4 "new Noct"

 https://photographylife.com/reviews/nikon-58mm-f1-4g

https://photographylife.com/reviews/nikon-noct-nikkor-58mm-f1-2

and for completion, a review of the 50 f1.2 https://photographylife.com/reviews/nikon-50mm-f1-2-ai-s

including what's stated to be the first tests of optical performance of the original Noct using Imatest

[RobOK]

Ok, unless someone talks me down from the ledge, I am pulling the trigger on this lens for the Df. It has been calling my name for months/years... Would love to see more images if anyone has some to share!

Rob.

[JJChan]

Do it! 

[stenrasmussen]

If I may be so bold, here's a comparison I did between the two 58s:
http://nikongear.net/revival/index.php/topic,3354.0.html