Nikkor Ai-S 58/1.2 Noct
One of the dreams of every Nikonians. This glass, no longer produced by Nikon, have an aspherical hand-made front lens and is very fast too: diaphram 1.2! If on one hand this makes very hard the focusing, on the other hand makes the oniric shots! I've tried this lens on many cameras and the results are always been fantastic. Also on high resolution digital cameras, like D800 or D800E, the Noct 58 is very satisfying. The first two prototypes were made in 1976: one with N and one with Ai bayonet. It came in official production in Febrary 1976 and it was produced until 1981. Today the Noct 58 is very wanted and the price for an excellent piece varies from $3000 to $6000 (as new). With my Noct, I was able to hand-free shooting moving subjects but this isn't the best operating range of the lens. This lens is made for a slow photography, for thinking shots, for to research a new perspectives. I had many satisfations with my Noct in close-up shots although its minimum focus range is 0,5 mt for a reproduction ratio of 1:6.7. Recently I've tried my Noct on Sony A7 with Novoflex adapter for nikon. This coupling has a good ergonomy despite the weight of the lens (645 gr. in Ai-S version) and the adapter. The photographic result on A7 camera is the same that on recent Nikon cameras (D3-D800-D800E) tested by me.
My opinion ( 1 Poor - 5 Excellent )
Quality on field:
(Tested: Nikon D200, D3, D800, D800E, Sony A7)
Mechanical:
(Very high quality construction)
Price/Performance:
(Only used, uncommon and very expensive)
Nikkor 58/1.2 Noct: close-up shot on D800 @ f/1.2
Small selection of less common mushrooms
