INTRODUCTION

In July 2006 I was loaned a Zeiss-branded 50mm f/1.4 lens. I started testing it, and realized it would be illuminating to compare it against a Nikon 50mm lens. Great idea, except I had dumped all of my 50mm lenses a decade ago. I asked, and was loaned several 50mm Nikkors for this comparison.

Caution: Most of these lenses have no autofocus performance because they are manual-focus lenses!

Manual-focus-only lenses went obsolete back in 1986 for 35mm cameras. Manual lenses won't autofocus at all with any camera, or meter on a D80, D50 or D70! Manual lenses have no electronic contacts to communicate with most Nikons made in the past 20 years. I didn't bother comparing AF performance among the three modern lenses which do have AF ability. The AF performance of the two 50mm AF lenses is identical.