The nikon 50mm f/1.8 is an update to the legendary 50mm f/1.8D. This lens has optical improvements expected from Nikon, as well as the negatives associated with modern Lens design.

Build
My reactions here are mixed. The lens is mostly made of plastic, though thankfully has a metal mount. It has weather sealing which is always a wonderful features. A major strike against the lens for me is the lack of a manual aperture ring, only relying on the electronic coupling, as well as having the focus motor in the lens (All motors break eventually, having the AF in the lens instead of the body always makes me nervous). Overall it’s a solid design, and one that most photographers will love. But I will always prefer the metal construction of pre-2000’s photo, Zeiss, and cine lenses.

Handling
So light that almost feels like the lens is not there on my D7000 with battery grip. Because of this it is incredibly easy to use on any body. And though is relatively small, the focus ring is far enough away from the body to be comfortably adjusted on the fly for those who love MF. AF is incredibly fast, quiet, and accurate. It’s a match made in heaven with a smaller body such as the D5100 or D3100. I had a blast shooting a wedding with this lens on a D5000 as a second body.

Optics
Simply incredible. It’s very usable at f/1.8. It’s sharp at f/2. From f/2.8 on it seems unreal. Bokeh is smooth and clean, distortion is not noticeable, and falloff is natural and gone by f/2.8. The lens renders colors and tones beautifully. Skin tones seem accurate and transitions are smooth. A near flawless lens optically.

f/1.8 Notice the lack of Color fringing and the sharpness of the figure.

f/4

Video
This is not a good lens for video use. On nikon bodies with these modern lenses you have to exit live view to alter the aperture view, and for any on the fly shooting this is a nightmare. The focus ring, while fine for photo work, is not smooth enough for clean focus transitions. There are no focus distance marks on the lens and the displayed focus distance is not accurate enough to rely on for focus pulling. Due to the lack of an aperture ring, the lens cannot be used on any other camera system. A big advantage of manual aperture Nikon glass in video is that they can easily be adapted to canon bodies when they are needed.

If your looking for a great lens for video work, try the Nikon 1.8D (if you need autofocus) or Nikon f/2 or f/1.4 AIs lenses.

Video Sample: Nikon D7000 f/4 1/50sec ISO250

Summary
Every Nikon shooter should have this in their bag. It’s incredibly sharp, relatively cheap, covers full frame, and is weather sealed. It’s the perfect prime lens at a bargain price. If you want slightly better build without weather sealing and are willing to sacrifice a tiny bit of optical performance (and I mean tiny), grab the Nikon 50mm f/1.8D for $100 brand new.

The following pictures where taken at the Lazy Accident, a short film involving a rather interesting plot. I don’t want to give it away, I’ll simply leave you with the behind the scenes photo’s.

The low light for the shoot proved very interesting, but as often as possible I tried to keep the iso low. The shoot also showcased the need for a very wide lens for coverage on getting everything in the shot. The Pre Ai lenses offered lower light ability hence lower ISO’s, however the lack of image stabilization hurt in combination with the low shutter speeds. It was a very fun balancing act of having the right lens on at the right moment.

I have nothing but compliments for the cast and crew, who worked efficiently threw out the entire shoot, burning threw difficult shots effectively as if they had been doing it professionally for years. Thank you everyone involved and Gayatri Normatovov for the opportunity.

[Nikon D5000 with 300mm Pre-AI @ 1/400th f/8 ISO200]

Success! The rescheduled launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavor went off this morning without a hitch. Conditions could not have been more perfect. The wind and cloud cover which had been present the night before disappeared creating a gorgeous shooting environment for all in attendance. The photo above was one of 2 that had been taken before the shuttle left the frame and I manned the video camera.

Video taken of the Event was beyond my expectations, unfortunately I have lost the exact settings that I shot Video at for the launch but as I recall it was around 1/600th @ f/8. Expect a full video of the event in the coming month.

Threw a friend named Lynne I was able to acquire a position at the VIP section at the last night launch of the Space Shuttle. We where covering the event with the Canon XH G1, Canon 7D, Nikon D90, and Nikon D5000. I was manning the XH G1 and the D5000 with 300mm Pre-AI Fixed Lens. The G1 was a joy to set up, was able to get good framing and was prepped to shoot far before planned launchtime and took some very good B-Roll. The camera image stabilizes like a champ.

Some complications arose during prep with the D5000. My Opteka remote shutter was not firing consistently (last time I buy off brand), resulting in the need to manually press the shutter button. Fortunately I was able to use the delayed shutter release mode to somewhat mitigate the shake caused by my hand. Unfortunately another complication arose in the wind hitting the glass and causing it to shake. The tripod I was using, a Sunpak 800I UT, just didn’t cut it with the wind at that focal length.

As the shuttle never launched, hopefully I will be able to sort out the remote shutter issue and aquire/modify a more stable tripod. I will be at the same position tonight for hopefully a successful launch.

Imagine, if you will, a completely open source multitrack video editor with plugin capability.

The VideoLAN team is working on just such a project right now

VLC is my go to media player, it has a simple interface and supports every piece of video that I have thrown at it. And from the video above, VLCM seems to hold to that same level of quality.

Now I know there are some detractors to these open source editors, and for good reason. Most independent free editors fail due to the following reasons:

1. Lack of Support, both from the community and creators.
2. Missing Features/File Support
3. An overly complicated Interface.

VLMC already, if the video’s are accurate, has a very clean and simple interface, and the VLC backend +plugin support implies no lack of features. Additionally the support for this program, should it be widely released, will be much larger than the other due to the popularity of the VLC brand already and the community support of VideoLAN.

Unfortunately, while they have the git repository for the program on the site, I’m not a code monkey, and have been trying desperately for a compiled version. If anyone has a link to step-by-step instructions please let me know.

Official Site : http://vlmc.org/