Nikon AF-S DX Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G Review

In the old days, 35mm film cameras would often be bundled with an inexpensive, but bright, 50mm prime lens.

Today your typical APS-C SLR comes with an 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 zoom instead, a lens that's absolutely adequate for outdoor photography, but struggles in dim light and doesn't give you the ability to blur the background behind your subject with as much aplomb as wide aperture lenses.

For DX Nikon owners, the AF-S DX Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G ($199.95) is the modern day equivalent of the fast 50mm prime.

Its angle of view basically matches a full-frame 50mm, and the bright f/1.8 maximum aperture makes your viewfinder brighter in dim light and blurs out the background behind your subject.

It's an affordable lens for owners of DX (APS-C) Nikon cameras, and a strong performer overall.

Design

The DX Nikkor 35mm ($246.96 at Amazon) is very small and light.

It measures 2.1 by 2.8 inches (HD), weighs 7.1 ounces, and supports 52mm front filters.

A reversible lens hood is included, as are rear and front caps and a soft drawstring pouch.

Despite its light weight, Nikon doesn't skimp on the overall construction.

The barrel is hard polycarbonate, and the lens mount is metal.

The manual focus ring is a bit of a letdown, though I expect most who use this lens will rely heavily on autofocus.

It's a mechanical focus control, so you can adjust focus even if your camera is powered down, but it feels rough when turning.

I like to see a focus ring with some resistance for finer control, but not like this.

I can practically feel gears turning inside the lens when adjusting the ring, and it creates some noise as it turns, making it less than ideal for manual focus video.

Autofocus is smooth, fast, and quiet when using the optical viewfinder.

It remains quiet when switching to Live View, but the contrast-based focus used by Nikon SLRs for rear LCD images and video requires the lens to hunt back and forth before locking focus.

It's not a slow process, but it's less than ideal for tracking moving subjects.

Stick to the viewfinder for action photography.

There's no image stabilization, nor does Nikon offer any cameras with in-body stabilization at this time.

It's not a huge deal for still photography, as you can get a sharp shot with the lens at speeds where subject movement is more of a concern than camera shake.

But if you're thinking about the lens for handheld video you'll end up with shaky footage.

It's best to use it with a tripod for moving images, and to reach for a lens with stabilization when handholding your camera.

Focus is available to 11.8 inches, measured from the image sensor.

It doesn't put the lens into macro territory, but with the ability to magnify subjects at 1:6 life-size at its closest focus distance, you can still capture small details—just not as small as you would with a 1:2 or 1:1 macro lens.

Image Quality

I tested the 35mm f/1.8 with the 20.9MP Nikon D500.

It's quite sharp, even when shot wide open.

At f/1.8 Imatest shows an average of 2,156 lines across the frame, with resolution that's just as good at the edge of the frame as it is in the center.

The result is in the very good range for sharpness for the D500, with just-acceptable results starting at 1,800 lines.

At f/2 the resolution improves, to 2,333 lines, and it plateaus starting at f/4 (2,455 lines) through f/5.6 (2,486 lines) and f/8 (2,459 lines).

That's not the sharpest we've seen on the D500—other lenses have come closer to 3,000 lines—but performance straddles the line between very good and excellent.

Diffraction cuts into clarity starting at f/11 (2,257 lines), but is really only an issue to worry about at f/16 (1,878 lines) and f/22 (1,405 lines).

I also noticed some purple color fringing in high-contrast scenes when shooting at wider apertures.

You won't see it in every shot, but if your image incorporates darkened subjects against a bright sky, narrow the aperture to f/2.8 or f/4 to minimize unwanted chromatic aberration.

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There is some barrel distortion, about 2.3 percent, which is on the high side for a standard-angle prime lens.

The distortion makes straight lines appear with a slight outward curve in images.

You can enable in-camera adjustment when shooting JPG, though keep in mind that your photo will have a (very) slightly different angle of view with distortion correction applied.

Raw photographers can remove the distortion using a Lightroom lens profile, or manual correction if you use a different Raw converter.

The lens also shows some dimness at the corners and edges of the frame at its brightest f-stops.

At f/1.8 there is a -1.8EV drop at the corners and -1.4EV at f/2.

At smaller settings the corners are less than -1EV dimmer than the center, which is not a concern for most images.

Again, JPG photographers can enable an in-camera correction to reduce the effect—using the D500's Normal setting it cuts the deficit to -1.4EV at f/1.8 and -1.1EV at f/2.

It's a mild vignette effect, but if you shoot Raw and want to remove it the Lightroom lens profile takes care of it, and most Raw development software supports manual correction.

Conclusions

The Nikon AF-S DX Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G is a lens that's been around for a while, but it's still a very strong performer, especially when you consider its $200 price point.

It's a fine choice for Nikon DX owners who want a bright, standard-angle lens for general purpose imaging, low-light photography, and shots with a very shallow depth of field.

There aren't a lot of strong alternatives, although macro lovers will want to consider the AF-S DX Micro-Nikkor 40mm f/2.8G instead—it's a little pricier and doesn't gather quite as much light, but it focuses extremely close.

Sigma also sells the 30mm F1.4 DC HSM Art, which is slightly wider in angle of view and a half-stop brighter, but also more than twice the cost.

If you prefer a wider lens you'll need to go with a full-fame prime.

Nikon has f/1.8 primes in the 20mm, 24mm, and 28mm.

They are small and light, for full-frame lenses, so they'll still pair well with a DX Nikon SLR, but they are more expensive, at $700 and up.