Gallery: Nikkor Ai-s 35 mm f/1.4

Pekka Buttler – July 2025

Cover image specs (f/8, 1/80 s, ISO100)

You can access the lens’ data sheet here.

A brief comment is in order. The JAPB comparison of 9 fast 35 mm lenses featured the older, Ai version of this same lens. While that older version (data sheet of the Ai version here) performed at times brilliantly in that comparison, it also very clearly struggled when shot wide open (especially in terms of astigmatism, spherical aberration and longitudinal chromatic aberration).

I’ve since been contacted by readers who have suspected sample variation to have played a role in those results. Now I had a chance to shoot another sample of the same fundamental design and I have to say that while I cannot with 100% certainty ascertain that this sample shows all the same failings to an identical extent, I can with absolute certainty state that spherical aberration and longitudinal chromatic aberrations at f/1.4 seem to be a feature of this lens (I won’t venture an opinion on astigmatism as that is impossible to ascertain with certainty without starscapes).

Take 1

Time and place: Tallinn (Estonia), 5.7.2025. The day started as overcast, but quickly deteriorated into several severities of rain.
Sony ⍺7R2, K&F Pro Nikon F–>Sony FE adapter, Nikkor Ai-s 35 mm f/1.4 lens. All shots in RAW, handheld with IBIS on.
Edit in post: ACR default conversion only¹, straighten, resize to 2k, save as JPEG quality 60.
Unless stated differently: all images at ISO100.

I was on a trip to Tallinn (Estonia) with a few fellow camera enthusiasts. As a result of the nature of the trip, you will see these gentlemen in some of the pictures. If you find these portraits not to be to your liking, I’d rather want you to ascribe those failings to my lacking skills in portrait photography, rather than being the result of any essential qualities of the subjects of said photos.

Or to put it in another way:

If these portraits seem lacking in charm or grace,
Don’t fault the faces, fault the one who framed the face.
My hands held the lens, but not the skill—
The fault, dear viewer, lies in my will.

If you want to pixel peep the original RAW files, please get in touch or leave a comment.