I had a fabulous day last weekend with the Nikon D200 and Nikon 28mm f/1.4 lens. Although I paid a hefty price for this lens, I am really liking it more and more. Of course I’ll be justifying my purchase for some time to come, but I do find this lens better than I ever expected for several reasons.
1. I have found the 28mm Focal Length ( 42mm on the Nikon D200 ), to be perfect for my natural eye. Whenever I take a shot, I find myself almost completely forgetting about the fact that this is a prime lens. I rarely feel I need to zoom or take any steps to adjust the Focal length. Thus I find the 28mm f/1.4 naturally pleasing as is when taking a photograph. This was totally unexpected because I thought I would have to move around more, but surprisingly I can compose very quickly with this lens.
2. I find the colors to be excellent. I really like trying to capture as much color as possible in camera. My copy of the 28mm f/1.4 does very well at achieving the colors I require. I’m very very happy with the color capabilities of this lens.
3. The Bokeh I also find to be outstanding. I have not made any tests nor do I plan to. I just like how the bokeh stands out with this lens. Whether I am trying to achieve a certain visual depth or simply to isolate my subject, I find the 28mm f/1.4 excellent for my taste.
The size, weight, handling, and most other ergonomic aspects of the lens have been either good or excellent. I haven’t had any problems either packing or using this lens out in the field. In fact, I absolutely love the Nikon 28mm f/1.4 as a street lens. It’s just plain awesome and much better than either my 35mm f/2 or 50mm f/1.4 lenses.
I’m looking forward to taking some low light and night shots in the coming months since this is where the 28mm f/1.4 is suppose to shine.
The 28mm f/1.4 is slightly soft at f/1.4 as many people report, but I do not find this to be any problem at all with my copy. Although a tad bit soft, I can sharpen it up very lightly in Photoshop and photos will print just great. So to me, softness has become a rather non issue for me. In fact, I feel I can do more with my shooting technique to improve overall sharpness, so in my opinion it’s probably more me than the lens as to whether I get any softness issues. My keeper rate last weekend was outstanding, so no complaints here!
The photograph below was taken with the 28mm f/1.4 and was post processed using my usual workflow and techniques in Photoshop CS3.
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