Today we will be reviewing one of my favorite lenses of all time, the nikon 50mm f1.2 AIS.
Features
The lens has 7 elements in 6 groups which hasnt changed since the 1980s, 9 aperture blades creating 9 sided bokeh when stopped down, a minimum focus distance of 0.5 meters and a weight of 380 grams
Build quality
The AIS Era nikkor lenses are masterpieces when it comes to build, they’re all metal constructed with click stopped aperture rings and engraved markings, they also have smooth brass helicoids that help with precise focusing since these lenses are all manual focus.
The 50mm f1.2 is Nikons fastest prime lens and a faster lens hasn’t been made until the recently released Noct 58mm f0.95.
Image quality
This lens gives a beautiful glow unique to fast lenses, pictures taken wide open with this lens give off an almost painterly quality but getting focus takes practice, when stopped down things get sharper immediately and vignetting reduces drastically and almost completely vanishes at f2. If we had to use 3 words to describe this lens it would be creamy, tactile and sharp. The only downsides would be that the color balance tends to skew towards cooler tones with this lens and the lens has very slight distortion but all of those issues are easily resolved through lightroom.
Final thoughts
This lens is pretty amazing in our opinion, the lens looks great whether using it with film or digital and looks even better when using it for video work. It feels great in the hand and is more dreamy than it has any business being, the only downside I can think of is the minimum focusing distance being so far away at 1.7 feet. If you’re on the lookout for a lens that has both character and sharpness then this is the best lens for you.