On 18 Apr 1998 20:31:49 GMT, Garry Lee wrote:

>I once tested 28 and 50mm E lenses against AIS equivalents.
>There was no discernible difference.
>I'm told the coating is better in the AIS non-E lenses and that they are a
>lot more durable. I'm just quoting what I found.

Whew! That must have been one unusually poor AIS 28mm Nikkor (more likely the rather poor AI version...), or one unusually good 28mm E!
Try infinity-focus comparison, f2.8 and f5.6, checking the edges
and corners... (in the center, the 28 E is excellent, but....;-).
With the 50's, you may have been checking different barrel-versions
that were optically identical - though even the larger metal-barreled
AIS 50mm is only slightly better...).
David Ruether
http://www.fcinet.com/ruether