In article
>In <32910574.B00@earthlink.net> Badris Baharuddin
>>i'm using a Nikkor 50mm F1.8, and love the pictures. i've compared it to
>>a 50mm F1.4 and IMHO believe that the color & sharpness seem a bit
>>better than the F1.4. other magazine articles i've read also mention
>>that the 50mm F1.8 is the better one.
>As far as I have understood, the 50/1.4 is better than the 50/1.8
>up to and including f5.6, while the 50/1.8 outperforms its faster
>brother at f8 up to the smallest opening available.
Hmmm, having used a bunch of these (in their various incarnations
and optical designs... - we aren't talking about just two lenses
here, but several), I would say that they perform very similarly
(late versions) from f4-5.6 to smaller stops (assuming good samples
- sample variation can swamp other differences), with subtle
differences appearing at wider stops, differentiating them slightly.
(The f1.4 is infinitely better than the f1.8 at f1.4. ;-) At f2,
the 1.8 has slightly lower contrast over most of the frame than
the f1.4, but better edge/corner sharpness (a trade-off between
better performance over most of the frame vs. better center-to-corner
uniformity). At f2.8, performance is similar, but with the remains
of what is evident at f2 still separating the lens performances very
slightly. Again, sample variation can easily overcome the subtle
differences in performance between recent 50mm Nikkors in these
speeds. BTW, the "E", AF, plastic AIS, and rare compact metal-barrel
50mm f1.8 AIS share the same design, are subtly less sharp at the
widest apertures than the earlier 50mm f1.8, but have no linear
distortion, and (as with most 6-element, nearly symmetrical designs,
perform well over a wide distance range, making them good copy
lenses. The 50mm f1.2 shares the f1.4's quirks (though more
extremely, especially near infinity focus), though it is really
excellent at mid distances at wide apertures (probably better than
the f1.4 and f1.8 at f2-2.8 at 10' or so). The early 50mm and 58mm
f1.4 and the 55mm f1.2 should probably be avoided, unless stopped
down to f4-5.6. The early 50mm f2 is a very good lens, very slightly
inferior to the f1.8 that replaced it, and about equal to the current
50mm f1.8 (though the latest Nikkor primes do seem a bit more brilliant
than earlier versions, though I have trouble attributing this to
multicoating, since there are so few air/glass surfaces in most
medium FL primes...). In other words, if stops smaller than f4 are
generally used, don't worry about the differences in performance of
the Nikkor "normals". If best f2, or best close-focus performance
are a concern, there are subtle differences to be found. If maximum
speed is a concern, the differences are obvious....;-). If having no
linear distortion is a concern, choose a macro lens, or one of the
newer f1.8's. Then, take pictures...;-)
Hope This Helps