Which is the sharpest Nikkor lens?
This question might be one of the most interesting questions for every photographer right now.
WHY?
Because when using a tripod and one of the new generation CCD or CMOS Sensor DSLR Cameras its real difficult to get perfect sharp images. Even when using a sturdy tripod like my Gitzo Carbon G1549 MKII Mountainer and the selftimer most of the recorded photos are not real sharp. Okay, maybe I should say that I set the sharpness to 0FF on my cam. That is not fair, but necessary if you want to avoid different sharpening by the internal computer from the camera.
Is the quality from the lens today more importend the years ago?
YES!
Because most of the actual produced sensors are able to record much more details then all our lens are able to deliver. That is real amazing but if you do some lens testing you will find it out by yourself. Because not everyone can afford a Nikon D2x I used the not so sharp Fuji Finepix S3 Pro UVIR "Limited Edition" for this lens test today.
I am sure all of you know the reviews from Bjorn Rorslet, right?
He is one of the pioneer in lens testing and most of his conclusions are worth a view. Some times he is not 100% right with the perfect aperture, but over all you can trust his reviews. That is in short words what I found out after many test I did on my own. So,... when you want to know which one of the best lens it's really worth to take a closer look to the ratings at his page.
But lets come back to our lens review. First of all we should choose some of the top rated lens and start shooting some test pics with them under controled conitions.
This is difficult because most of the real good lens and not affordable for everyone.
So my decision goes to the following high rated Nikon Nikkor lens (Bjorn Rorslet's rating):
1.) Nikkor MF AiS 35mm f/1.4 (5/5)
2.) Nikkor AF 85mm f/1.4 (5/5)
3.) Nikkor MF 45mm f/2.8 P (5/5)
4.) Nikkor AF 50mm f/1.8 (4.5-5/5)
5.) EL-Nikkor MF 63mm f/3.5 (5/5 at UV on the Fuji Finepix S3 Pro UVIR)
All thoose lens are incredible sharp and able to deliver finest details if you use them in the perfect way (tripod, selftimer, mirror lockup, perfect aperture, and so on..). But are all of them real sharp compared with my over all reference, the EL-Nikkor 63mm f/3.5?
This question was also the reason why I made this test.
Because I don't want to make you confuse with to many picture I will post only 1 picture from every lens, made at the best aperture for sure.
Test Conditions (same for all lens):
Camera: Fuji Finepix S3 Pro UVIR "Limited Edition" (Iso 100, Auto WB, Sharp-OFF, Selftimer- 5sec, RAW Format, High)
Tripod: Gitzo Mountaneer Carbon G1549 MKII
Head: Gitzo G1576M
So, lets start with a picture from the
Nikkor MF AiS 35mm f/1.4 (5/5)
This picture was made with aperture f/5.6 and 1/250sec exposure time.
Now the same cut-out from the original file from the
Nikkor AF 85mm f/1.4 (5/5)
Aperture f/5.6 with 1/250sec again!
The next lens is the
Nikkor MF 45mm f/2.8 P (5/5)
Made at aperture f/11.0 and 1/30sec
Now it's time for the cheapest 5 point lens in this review, the
Nikkor AF 50mm f/1.8 (4.5-5/5)
Made with aperture f/4.0 and 1/250sec.
My next lens is also my all time favorite since I shot with it, the amazing
EL-Nikkor MF 63mm f/3.5 (5/5 at UV on the Fuji Finepix S3 Pro UVIR)
Made at aperture f/11.0 with 1/30sec
Except the 85mm lens all pictures were cropped to nearly the same capture and resized to 1850x1238 pixel. That was necessary because the 35mm did show another cutout then the 85mm for sure. After that, I saved them in JPG format with 70% quality. But that was all postprocessing in photoshop. No sharpening, and no other proscessing was made with this test pictures!!!
If you take a closer look to all these images you will see easyly why the EL-Nikkor 63mm f/3.5 is my all time favorite from all those choosen Nikkor lens. It is by far the sharpest ever tested lens I have seen until now and for sure it must be rated with 6 points to point out at its extrem high resolution. I am not 100% sure if that's true, but I read somewhere that this lens was made for microfilm photography. Regarding to the gainable details in the recorded picture I can certainly agree with this estimation.
I know that some of you will know answer... and, how to get this marvellous EL-Nikkor 63mm f/3.5?
Difficult, very difficult.
The only way is to wait until someone will sell it again on Ebay and try to get it, doesn't matter how much it costs. The last one was sold for the crazy price of 405 USD!!! Just 1 month befor I still got my one for just 50 USD!
Is this small old enlarging lens worth 405 USD?
If you ask me the only possible answer is YES it is. No other lens will peform like this oldtimer on your new Nikon DSLR Camera.