Nikon 35mm f/1.4 AI-s Nikkor test Review (c) KenRockwell.com

Introduction

This formerly popular lens was found in every photojournalist's bag throughout the seventies and eighties as their standard lens. Today, with faster films and good f/2.8 zooms, they have been largely abandoned, making them a bargain for you.

This lens was introduced, in the original F mount, in 1969. It was Nikon's first multicoated lens and has been used by NASA in space. Its optics have remained the same throughout both AI and AI-s versions, and is still manufactured today. All versions also share exemplary mechanical quality.

Optically this is your father's 35mm f/1.4. It's performance, outstanding for the 1970s, has been surpassed by the modern 35mm f/2.0D AF and the 28mm F/1.4D AF.

Basic Specifications

It has nine elements in seven groups.

It takes the HN-3 hood which I find unnecessary.

It is 2.7" (67.5mm) around by 2.9" (74mm) long and weighs 14 oz. (400g).

It has a wonderful nine-bladed diaphragm and stops down only to f/16.

It's actual focal length is 36.0mm.

Performance

It has next to no ghosts if you have your light source in the image.

It has the typical Nikon barrel distortion.

It has close-range-correction (CRC) and focusses very close, to about a foot. Although you can get down to about a 5" x 7" subject, there is a good deal of barrel distortion.

Handheld on an FA I get sharp results consistently at 1/15.

It has some lateral magenta/green secondary chromatic aberration.

Here's the performance breakdown by aperture:

f/1.4: lots of light falloff. Lots of coma in corners and spherical aberration in center give low contrast all over. Resolution is good.
f/2.0: falloff. Coma. Getting sharp
f/2.8: very sharp, no more falloff. Odd loss of definition in 9-11 O'clock sector 15mm out
f/4.0: very sharp. Odd loss of definition in 9-11 O'clock sector 15mm out
f/5.6: great.
f/8: great
f/11: great
f/16: swell, random underexposure with FA in aperture-priority (A) mode. Press the depth-of-field preview button and hold it while you make the exposure to cure this.

Recommendations:

Try not to use this lens at f/1.4 where the image quality is relatively poor. It has low contrast due to various kinds of spherical aberration and a lot of light falloff. It also has a lot of coma, so points of light at the sides will instead look like little batwings.

What a lot of light falloff at f/1.4 means is that even though it's f/1.4 in a center hotspot of the image, at the sides you really are only getting the light equivalent to f/2 or f/2.8.

Use this lens is if you typically shoot at about f/2.8, at which aperture it performs better than most other lenses.

If you shoot at smaller apertures you don't need this expensive f/1.4 lens.

If you really shoot at larger apertures (as I do) you'll prefer the very, very expensive 28mm f/1.4D AF.

Generally the much more recently designed and far less expensive 35mm f/2.0D AF lens gives better performance at every aperture, although the 35/2 AF gets softer when you are too close. The 35/2 AF also focusses much closer.

If you are fixated on the f/1.4 aperture, remember that due to the huge light falloff that you really are only getting f/1.4 in a hotspot in the center of the image, and that at f/2 both the 35/2 AF lens and the 35/1.4 are giving the same image quality.

I think that this fine lens' time has passed.