Saturday, May 14, 2011

Nikkor 50mm F/1.8 vs. Petri 50mm F/1.8

Hello photo geeks! This is just for you. Well, it's mostly for me, but I'm sharing ;D

I've been meaning to get around to this. I am comparing 2 lenses. The first is my BABY, a 50mm F/1.8 Nikkor prime lens from 1986. The second is a Petri 50mm F/1.8 from 1977. Both lenses:

  • Are made in Japan.
  • Were focused manually.
  • Have an exposure time of 1/250".
  • Have an F stop of 1.8.
  • Have a focal length of 50mm (duh).
  • Used the same custom white balance.
  • Had the same exact levels tweak in Photoshop CS2 (saved and reloaded).
  • Had the shutter fired wirelessly using a Nikon ML-L3 remote control.
  • Were mounted to a Nikon D70s.

However, these lenses differ slightly. The Nikkor is a Nikon mount while the Petri was an M42 bayonet mount adapted to Nikon F mount. While this bayonet adapter is in use, the Petri can no longer focus to infinity.


Left to right: Nikkor 50mm F/1.8, Petri 50mm F/1.8. Note the difference in aperture blades, which will change the shape of the bokeh.


Left to right: Nikkor 50mm F/1.8, Petri 50mm F/1.8

First, the Petri:


Taken in a lightbox with a CF light that gives off light at 4100 Kelvin.


Photoshop histogram before level correct took place.

Now, the Nikkor:


Taken in a lightbox with a CF light that gives off light at 4100 Kelvin.


Photoshop histogram before level correct took place.

I find this terribly interesting, because at first glance at full sized photos (1504 x 1000), both lenses appeared to take almost identical photos.

On the camera LCD and through the viewfinder, they also appeared virtually identical.

Despite both having an F-stop of 1.8, the Nikkor has a much narrower focus while the Petri tends to take a much more open approach. I'd like to stop both these lenses down (F/22) and see the difference in a completely different environment.

What cannot be seen here is that the Petri has an incredibly round bokeh while the Nikkor tends to give a heptagonal (7-sided) shape.

The chief differences that became clear to me even before I saw the histograms for each image was how much differently the 2 lenses handled highlights and shadows.

Both take amazing shots loaded with pleasing bokeh in their own way. The Nikkor has the Petri on sharpness. The Petri has the Nikkor if you like a deeply saturated image.


additional photos taken with a Nikkor 18-55 f/3.5 - 5.6G lens

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