Pekka Buttler, 09/2022
Specifications
The table below summarizes the lens’ key specifications (measurements based on pictured sample):
| Brand: | AF Nikkor | Lens name | 50mm 1:1.8 D |
| Focal length(s)1 | 50 mm | Angle-of-view2 | 46° |
| Maximum Aperture | f/1.8 | In Production | 2002– |
| Lens mount | Nikon F | Subfamily (if applicable) | AF-D |
| Length3 | 39,5 mm | Diameter4 | 64,4 mm |
| Filter ring diameter | 52 mm | Weight | 158 grams |
| Lens element count | 6 | Lens group count | 5 |
| Aperture blades (S/R/C)5 | 7 S | Focus throw | 130 ° |
| Minimum focusing distance | 45 cms | Maximum magnification | 1:6,6 |
| Has manual aperture ring | YES | Has Manual focus ring | YES |
Further notes:
• The AF-D Nikkor 50 mm f/1.8 was the last AF lens to be updated to D-specifications (and that by a margin of several years).
• Cosmetically this lens is rather different from other AF/AF-D era primes and one (at least: I) cannot avoid the conclusion that Nikon wanted the lens to not only be cheap, but also look cheap.
• Optically, the main difference between this lens and the series E Nikkor 50 mm f/1.8 introduced in 1979 is in the more advanced coatings of newer lenses.
• This lens was always the most affordable prime in Nikon’s AF lineup. Some 2,2 million copies of this AF-D variant were manufactured (The previous AF variants reached only 3/4 million copies).
• Nikon’s dedicated lens hood for this lens is the HR-2, a rubber lens hood, but many steel hoods of various generation fifties work just as well. If you’d like a metal hood, you can (tested) use the HS-11 and HN-3 hoods.
A brief genealogy of Nikon SLR lens types
Nikon is undoubtedly one of the great names in 35 mm SLR photography. The Nikon F mount has been in continuous production since 1959. During that time, the mount has developed/changed in some detail, however without ever fully sacrificing compatibility.
In short (a longer version is here), the development of Nikon’s SLR lenses can be traced as follows:
• 1959–1977: Pre-Ai. Manual focus lenses that use ‘rabbit ears’ to communicate selected aperture with the camera body.
• 1977–1986: Ai and Ai-s. Manual focus lenses that may have ‘rabbit ears’ for backward compatibility, but are designed to communicate selected aperture with the camera body through indentations in base of aperture control ring.
• 1986–today: AF and AF-D. Autofocus lenses that do not have a focusing motor within the lens, but rely on the focus motor within the camera. All AF and AF-D lenses are simultaneously Ai-s lenses (they are Ai-s lenses extended with AF) 6
• 1996–today AF-S and AF-P. Autofocus lenses that have an internal focusing motor and do not rely on the body having a focusing motor.
What camera manufacturer would not have a nifty fifty in their line-up? Interestingly, from the launch of the Nikon F system (1959) ever until the launch of the Ai 50 mm f/1.8 (1978), Nikon’s take on a nifty fifty was a 50 mm f/2 lens (for a run-down of that genealogy, see this data sheet). But with the introduction of this lens in 1978, Nikon upped its nifty fifty to f/1.8, thus gaining parity with most of the industry.
During the following decades a great many variants have been produced. To add some potential for confusion to the mix, some models were made for export markets, other for Japanese domestic markets. There was also a variants that clearly aimed for the ‘pancake’ mould. For a chronological summary of Nikon’s 50 mm f/1.8’s see below:
| years | Series | optical construction | aperture blades | MFD | notes, links |
| 1978–1982 | Ai | 6 elements in 5 groups | 7, straight | 0,45 m | [data sheet] |
| 1979–1981 | series E | 6 elements in 5 groups | 7, straight | 0,6 m | pancake, all-black design |
| 1980–1982 | Ai-s | 6 elements in 5 groups | 7, straight | 0,45 m | pancake, for Japanese market |
| 1981–1985 | series E | 6 elements in 5 groups | 7, straight | 0,6 m | pancake, silver-ring design [data sheet] |
| 1981–1985 | Ai-s | 6 elements in 5 groups | 7, straight | 0,45 | for export market |
| 1985–2005 | Ai-s New | 6 elements in 5 groups | 7, straight | 0,6 | pancake, plastic focus ring [data sheet] |
| 1986–1990 | AF | 6 elements in 5 groups | 7, straight | 0,45 | plastic focus ring [data sheet] |
| 1990–2001 | AF new | 6 elements in 5 groups | 7, straight | 0,45 | rubber focus ring |
| 2002–today | AF-D | 6 elements in 5 groups | 7, straight | 0,45 | new barrel design [this lens] |
| 2011–today | AF-S; G | 7 elements in 6 groups | 7, rounded | 0,45 | no aperture ring |
| 2018–today | Z | 12 elements in 9 groups | 9, rounded | 0,4 |
Adapting
Besides adapting, this lens can be used natively on all current high-end Nikon dSLRs and several earlier medium-to-high-end older Nikon dSLRs. Moreover, if the camera body contains a slot-drive focusing motor, this lens will even auto-focus7. Likewise, if the lens has been retrofitted with ‘rabbit ears’, it can be natively used on all Nikon F-mount film cameras ever produced (without the rabbit ears, it is limited to post 1977 bodies).
Thanks to being a fully manual lens (manual aperture, manual focus), the lens can be adapted to all mirrorless cameras using a suitable dumb adapter (and such adapters are easy to find). Moreover, a large range of special adapters (helicoid adapters, tilt/shift adapters, speed boosters) for using Nikon F lenses on most mirrorless systems are available. Currently no adapters for mirrorless exist that would allow autofocus through the slot-drive screw.
Using Nikon F lenses on non-Nikon SLRs and dSLRs is likewise a distinct possibility. Thanks to the relatively generous flange focal distance of the Nikon F mount (46,5 mm), adapter rings for all dSLR mounts are available as well as for a goodly portion of film-era SLR mounts. Such rings will not allow autofocus, and are unlikely to support auto aperture, but even then the lenses can be used in stop-down metering mode.
Footnotes
1 Focal length is (unless stated otherwise) given in absolute terms, and not in Full-frame equivalent. For an understanding of whether the lens is wide/tele, see ‘Angle-of-view’.
2 Picture angle is given in degrees and concerns the diagonal picture angle. Rule of thumb:
> 90 ° ==> Ultra-wide-angle
70–90 ° ==> Wide-angle
50–70 ° ==> Moderate wide-angle
40–50 ° ==> ‘Standard’ or ‘normal’ lens
20–40 ° ==> Short tele lens
10-20 ° ==> Tele lens
5-10 ° ==> Long tele lens
< 5 ° ==> Ultra-tele lens
3 Length is given from the mount flange to the front of lens at infinity.
4 Diameter excludes protrusions such as rabbit ears or stop-down levers.
5 S=straight; R=rounded; C=(almost)circular at all apertures.
6 There is a further sub-class of AF-D lenses called AF-I lenses that are otherwise AF-D lenses (meaning, fully Ai-s compatible), but have an internal focus motor. Only long tele lenses were made in AF-I variants.
7 As of this writing, the following Nikon dSLRs fully support autofocus, aperture priority and manual metered modes on Nikkor AF/AF-D lenses: D2, D3, D4, D5, D6, Df, D200, D300, D300s, D500, D600, D610, D700, D750, D780, D800, D800E, D810, D850, D7000, D7100, D7200