Price of this lens is very high, partly due to precision ground (i.e. hand made or finished) aspherical element employed. Costly technology is always interesting in itself. With this page I hope to provide you some help deciding if this lens is worth its price. For me the price was way too high, I only bought this lens because I got incredible offer I couldn't resist (no, it wasn't stolen or anything like that).

Photos 1 and 2. The lens itself. For a prime wide angle lens this lens is large (length 88 mm) and heavy (565 g). Construction feels very solid. Closest focusing distance is 0.35 metres which is not as close as some older 28 mm Nikkors. Nonrotating manual focus ring offers good grip when AF is used.

Figures 1 and 2. Structural comparison between Nikkor and Canon lenses. Both have 11 elements, but other than that I cannot see any similarities. Aspherical elements coloured light blue, Canon's UD glass element coloured purple.

2. Depth of field

How shallow is the depth of field when shot wide open? Photos 3 and 4 try to give some answer. I haven't been using "normal" 28mm f/2.8 lens, so I cannot really compare. Judging from viewfinder image depth of field is quite long even wide open when focused more than one meter distance. Still I was surprised how out of focus nearby treetops were when shooting northern lights at f/1.4 and infinity focus.

Photos 3 and 4. Comparison of photos taken with f/1.4 (above) and f/16 (below). f/1.4 shows quite heavy light fall off towards sides, difference in colour is probably due changing cloudiness. Focus distance was around 0.7 metres. Fuji MS 100/1000 at 100 ISO.

3. Image quality at large apertures

For expert opinions about image quality I suggest you consult links below. So far I've been happy with it. Aspherical element is said to reduce coma, but when photographing aurora at f/1.4 stars at sides of the image are seen as in photo 7. Without any comparison it's impossible to say how good or bad this behaviour is.

Photo 5. Test photo shot at f/2 handheld. No light fall off or flaring/ghosting visible. Fuji MS 100/1000 at 100 ISO.

Photo 6. Detail from the test photo above (2000 PPI scan). Out of focus light bulbs at the lower left corner show shape of 9 bladed aperture diaphragm.

Photo 7. One star (2000 PPI scan, 400% magnification) somewhat right from the centre and near upper edge of portrait photo shot at f/1.4.

4. What is this kind of lens needed  for?

I haven't owned this lens long enough to exploit its full potential, but so far it's been very useful when shooting inside in available light and almost indispensable when shooting northern lights (aurora borealis).

Photo 8. The prince and some girls after Cinderella ballet. (Nikkor AF 28mm f/1.4 D wide open, Fuji RDP-III pushed 1 stop) 

Photo 9. Beautiful northern lights captured around 21 UT March 19th, 2001, near Oulu, Finland. (15 second exposure, Nikkor AF 28mm f/1.4 D wide open, Fuji RDP-III pushed 1 stop)

5. What about tests in magazines?

This lens was tested in German fotoMAGAZIN issue 2/99 together with Canon EF 24mm f/1.4 L USM and Minolta AF 35mm f/1.4 G. Nikkor was optically best among those three lenses, scoring 9.4 for optical quality and 9.6 for mechanical quality. More about this lens can be found at the following links:

Nikon 28mm f/1.4 AF-D Nikkor Review (c) KenRockwell.com
Review by Michael Weber
Review of Nikkor 28mm f1.4 AF by David Ruether
PhotographyREVIEW: Nikon: AF28mm f/1.4D Nikkor
Nikkor Wideangles lenses 24mm, 28mm & 35mm