Please, humor me... Nikon 50mm f1.4 on D700

[Uhooru]

<p>Steve, not to hijack this, but the skin tones on your color photos seem spot on to me. How did you get that? Mine are so often to the orange or red zone and I can't seem to get them perfect in P.S. either.</p>

[paul_aylett1]

<p>50mm 1.4D, D300</p><div></div>

[Uhooru]

<p><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/77/221771890_99e33bc78b.jpg" alt="" /> 50 1.4 @ 2.8</p>

[fpessolano]

<p>Mine follows my son everywhere ...<br>

<img src="http://thefoodtraveller.smugmug.com/Private/Matteo/Blog-photos/DSC7305/739498484_rWYcu-XL.jpg" alt="" width="512" height="768" /></p>

[bob_bill]

<p>Portraits when my 70-200 isnt wide enough for full length in the space available. I love the bokeh of the Sigma version. As above, use it to blur backgrounds and emphasize the subject. Low light, raise iso to 800 on the d700 and grab this lens and hand hold. Makes the viewfinder brighter, easier to compose and focus manually or, for camera to auto focus. Shooting a christmas party with 35 guests last friday. Low light group shot. Lots of uses. Learn its capabilities and the shot will tell you when to use it.</p>

[michael_spencer3]

<p>I bought both the Nikon F and the Nikormat back in 1965 and both came with the 50mm 1.4 lens. I also had a 35mm and a 135mm lens for additional variety, but the 50mm lenses were commonly on both cameras all the time. I was in the service in those days so I traveled widely. All over the Pacific and into Vietnam, the Phillipines, Okinawa and Japan. For 1967 to 1969 I was in the Navy's Antarctic support squadron and this picture is of the South Pole in 1967. The actual South Pole is a little ways off because the ice cap moved over time since this little marker was first set up. I used Kodachrome extensively in those days. This shot was scanned using the Nikon LS4000.</p><div></div>

[sjmurray]

<p>Barry, I use CS4, and the latest version of ACR for raw conversion. I just "eyeball" the colors when working with an image. I try to use the same lighting (room, time of day, etc) when color balancing on the computer so the results are consistent. I also know from trial and error the prints I get from my printing service will be very close to what I see on my monitor. I don't yet use color management software, since I am not commercial. Hope that helps.</p>

[Uhooru]

<p>Thx Steve, do you basically do the color balancing with the "color balance" adjustment? or curves? Anyways, I just think you do a real good job with that.</p>

[vincenzo_corbo]

<p>This 50mm/1.4 is really my favourite lens to make portraits of my babygirl: you need a fast lens to get "clear" baby that is not really a still subject, furthermore to not hurt their sensible eyes you're forced to use the natural light (which by the way make the best portrait) and using such lens make happens thing otherwise "impossible".</p>

<p>Ciao,<br>

Vince</p>

[scott_murphy_photography]

<p>I have an older non-AI (later model with the rubber focusing grip) 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor that I converted to AI. Although I do not shoot 50mm all that often, this lens is very sharp from f/4 on down with outstanding contrast and color saturation and flare protectioncontrol. But there <em>are</em> times when 50mm is the right lens for the job so I don't hesitate to use it. It works equally well on my venerable F2's as it does on my newer D700 (in the manual mode, which I use about 99% of the time).</p>

<p>I think you will be happy with it.</p>

[vcakic]

<p>I actually have a 1.8 AFD, but was playing with 1.4 AF few times, and I like it more than my 1.8. I was thinking to get Sigma 1.4, it looks even better, but much more expensive. But I really needed something a bit wider, so I've got a 35 1.4 AIS, that lens is just .. mmmmm.<br>

Anyway, this is one of the reasons I liked 50 1.4:</p><div></div>

[sjmurray]

<p>To Barry: I try to get most of the color balancing done in the raw conversion using the basic ACR temp and tint adjusters, and I rarely, if ever, use the special individual color adjustments that are available (hue, saturation, luminance tab). </p>

[User_502260]

<p>All of my 50/1.4 Nikkors are used with film cameras. I now have seven different ones: 50/1.4 S pointy prong, 50/1.4 S round prong, 50/1.4 SC, 50/1.4 'K' 1st version, 50/1.4 'K' 2nd version, 50/1.4 AI and 50/1.4 AIS. I mostly use the oldest one and sometimes one of the K lenses or the AIS. They are all good. It just depends on the mood I'm in and whether I am using a camera which will only work with AI/AIS lenses. I just got an FE2 so I tried it with the AIS lens. The lens are camera are working fine. This lens had oil on the blades and was serviced earlier this year. It's funny to think not only about how old the oldest one is but how old the newest one is already. When I got my first SLR, a Konica, the 57/1.4 was my only lens for about the first 11 months. The only other thing I had to go with it was a Soligor 2X teleconverter. At f/8 the combination wasn't half bad. For a long time I used a 35/2 as my standard lens. Now I enjoy using a 50 a little more. When I'm outside in good light I will use a 50 or 55 macro lens as my standard. </p>