Nikon 35/1.4 AI/AI-S; anybody have one?

Hey all -

I'm looking to (physically) downsize my kit, and a fast 35 is what I'm after at the moment. The 35L, 35 ZE, Canon 35/2 are all out for various reasons, and the Samyang is just way too big to make any sense as an option.

All the reviews say it's a good lens with nasty coma (which is an acceptable problem for me), but there's a decided lack of hi-res FF samples out there. So if anyone can offer up any experience with this lens I'd be a happy man!

Very soft, "Leica Glow" if you would.

I think that I deleted some from my flickr account, but here are the few that remain. No idea what they were shot at, most were probably at f/2. I didn't feel that mine was usable at f/1.4. That, coupled with the fact that I personally had a hard time focusing with it made me decide to release it back in to the wilds. I'll see what I can dig up in LR, but it's kinda tough without the metadata (I'm not always a good boy with tagging as I import).

I looked through my LR catalog and it seems as if I obliterated all f/1.4 examples. They were bad. I've temporarily uploaded a handful of full res images (original 5D), but I'm going to take 'em back down in a few days. Hope this helps a little.

Judging by your images. The Nikon seems to produce very harsh bokeh. The bokeh of the 35L may not be as pleasant and smooth as the 85L or 135L it still looks much better than the Nikon.

How many wide angle lenses have bokeh remotely like that of a big aperture tele? None. I mean, yeah, it's a little different rendering than other wides, some like it, some don't, but don't bring oranges in to the convo about apples.

In case you have not seen this person's review of the Nikkor 35 1.4.

http://www.naturfotogr​af.com/lens_wide.html

Wow WhyFi, that's pretty much more than I could have asked for! Thanks a bunch! From what I see, it's got excellent center resolution but the corners kind of fall apart, unsurprisingly. Bokeh looks pretty much par for the course for that type of lens.

stover98074 - thanks for that, I hadn't read that particular review. It more or less jives with the others out there, but every little bit helps.

My verdict based on what I've got? If these things were floating around for $200 I'd probably pick one up, but their $450+ average eBay price is far too high.

No problem, glad to help.