The Nikon AF-S Nikkor 58mm f/1.4G ($1,699.95) is a modern update on the classic Noct-Nikkor 58mm f/1.2 manual focus lens. Like the older lens, it's designed with a specialized purpose in mind: to minimize sagittal coma (illustrated below).

Design minimizes sagittal coma; Even illumination across the frame; Capable of a very shallow depth of field

Not that sharp at wider apertures; Some barrel distortion; No optical stabilization; Expensive

Gary Wolstenholme reviews this unique 58mm f/1.4G lens from Nikon designed for low light shooting.

Very good sharpness in the centre at f/1.4; Excellent sharpness when stopped down; Beautifully rendered out of focus backgrounds; Good control of coma flare; Very good contrast; Silent focusing

Large for a standard lens; Very expensive; Not the fastest focusing lens

The Nikon AF-S Nikkor 58mm f/1.4G is an eye-wateringly expensive standard prime lens that delivers very appealing image quality. The sharpness when shooting wide-open, even in the centre, isn't as good as we'd expected though, requiring you to stop-down to f/2.8 to obtain satisfactorily sharp...

I have for long stayed away from 50mm-ish lenses, considered them useful, relatively low cost, high speed (I also have a 1.4/50 Ai manual, and had a 1.8/50mm AF copy) workhorses Bread an butter lenses, but really not very useful for more 'artistic' pictures (I a.o.

Maybe no the sharpest wide open; but 'sharpness' isn't the only thing that counts/should count when looking at a picture (if so it would be much easier to take a great picture) Beautiful image rendering; equally; if not more stunning 'bokeh

Expensive; and rumored to become even more so ! Feels very light; especially considering the size; but fortunately the built quality really is no issue when shooting with it out in the field (or on the beach

The AF-S Nikkor 58mm f/1.4G is an intriguing lens. Look at its performance in MTF tests and it appears to be nothing special; indeed it doesn't obviously do any better than its much cheaper 50mm stablemate.

Produces lovely-looking images almost all the time; Very low chromatic aberration; Lower-than-usual vignetting; Minimal coma; Lovely bokeh; Generally resistant to flare; Relatively fast; near-silent autofocus; Decent construction but lightweight

Decidedly soft wide open; especially on DX format cameras; Relatively bulky (compared to Nikkor 50mm F1.4s; Inconsistent autofocus; Very expensive

The AF-S Nikkor 58mm f/1.4G is an unusual lens, both in terms of its slightly eccentric focal length and its optical design philosophy. It's not especially sharp for a lens that's designed to be used at large apertures, but this is offset by the excellence of its images in almost every other respect. Its audience will naturally be limited by its sky-high price, but we suspect many owners will fall in love with the images it can create.

Low light photography, and selective focus shooting;

FX photographers looking for a general purpose 'normal' prime - the 50mm f/1.4G is likely a better choice;

I purchased this only after spending about 3 weeks reading and reviewing posts, forums, YouTube reviews, MTF and other charts; the better known websites with comprehensive lens testing reports, evaluations from users who had purchased the lens and put it to task, etc.

Sharpness is only average for an f/1.4 lens, but this lens is about so much more than sharpness. Bokeh is to die for, and even more importantly this lens just makes people glow in decent lighting that would still look flat on lesser lenses.

Consistent Output; Fast / accurate auto-focus; Lightweight; Nice Bokeh

I got rid of all my SIGMA lenses, YES I said it! Sigma your lenses are sharp and great until they are out of calibration and then its dooms day to calibrate them even with the Sigma hub! Nikon 58 F1.4G is one of the sharpest lens I have used.

I was super skeptical about this lens. I owned the 50 f/1.8 for a few hundred bucks, why pay $1,300 more for 8mm more and 1/3 stop more light It took 6-months to pull the trigger but the people who said there's just something about this lens beyond those two points (which weren't convincing), were...