Last Updated on 08/03/2017 by Chris Gampat
We’ve been playing with the new Nikon 28mm f1.4 E lens for a little while now and are honestly completely blown away by the image quality. The Nikon 28mm f1.4 E lens is incredibly sharp wide open, but is also has great bokeh and an overall very nice look I genuinely feel will make a whole lot of sense for portrait photographers, documentary photographers, photojournalists and street photographers. Street photographers: yes. The look is really stunning.
My only concern with the Nikon 28mm f1.4 E lens is that in low light, the autofocus really tends to suffer. We tested this lens with the Nikon D810 as the Nikon D850 is not available during this time. In good lighting, the autofocus is fast, snappy and accurate. You’ll surely be able to rely on it. But in low light, the Nikon D810 and the Nikon 28mm f1.4 E will hunt a bit. Amazingly, and I never thought I’d say this, the Fujifilm X Pro2 and the closest Sony offerings are pretty much on par or better at this point.
As far as color goes with the Nikon 28mm f1.4 E lens, I tend to manually white balance when I shoot. During the daytime, I’ll used 5500k daylight while at night I’ll often opt instead for 3200k Tungsten. Nikon calls Tungsten to be Incandescent; but they’re not totally the same despite what lots of folks say. It’s very evident in things like skin tones.
I’m still working on my review, but thus far I’m really enjoying this lens. A concern I have is the price point; at a bit under $2,000 you’re getting Zeiss prices with autofocus and while it gives off great image quality, you’re not getting a 3D effect like you would with Zeiss. You also give up the ability to put this lens on a film camera and have it control the aperture setting. Here’s a giant sample gallery.