Nikon Nikkor AF-S 50 mm f/1.4G review - Vignetting

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Nikon Nikkor AF-S 50 mm f/1.4G

15 May 2009

Arkadiusz Olech

8. Vignetting

Let’s begin with the D200 performance as there’s nothing to criticise. Vignetting is quite significant at wide apertures, where it reaches 29% (-1.00 EV) but by f/2.0 it stops bothering us because its level drops to 12%. By f/2.8 it becomes totally insignificant (3%). Nikkor performs here as well as its competitors, which have vignetting from 22 to 34% wide open.

Nikon Nikkor AF-S 50 mm f/1.4G - Vignetting

Full frame is ruled by its own laws and the scale of vignetting must be revised here. With small DX or 4/3 matrixes we turned up our noses quite significantly at the idea of 1.5 EV vignetting level. On full frame with fast lenses we are often confronted with the 2-3 EV vignetting and all we can do is love it or leave it and buy a smaller matrix camera. It should be no surprise to us that the tested Nikkor on full frame and at maximum aperture loses 56% of light in the corners (-2.37EV). Although the value is really high, other f/1.4 lenses can have vignetting even above 3 EV, as you’ll see in future.

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After stopping down to f/2.0, Nikkor’s vignetting drops to 41% - it’s still very visible. A moderate level of this aberration (24%) can be obtained only by f/2.8 and only by further stopping down to f/4.0 and f/5.6 we can get rid of it, obtaining 13 and 8% respectively.