Nikon AF-S Nikkor 28mm f/1.8G Lens Review

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 28mm f/1.8G Performance

At f/1.8 sharpness in the centre is already very good, and the clarity towards the edges of the frame is good. Stopping down results in increased clarity across the frame with peak sharpness being achieved between f/4 and f/5.6. Excellent sharpness is maintained right down to the minimum aperture of f/16.

MTF

How to read our charts The blue column represents readings from the centre of the picture frame at the various apertures and the green is from the edges. Averaging them out gives the red weighted column. The scale on the left side is an indication of actual image resolution. The taller the column, the better the lens performance. Simple. For this review, the lens was tested on a Nikon D700 using Imatest.

Levels of chromatic aberrations are low at every aperture, only just exceeding 0.25 pixel widths. This low level of fringing should be difficult to spot, even in very large prints, and harsh crops from the edges of the frame.

CA

How to read our charts Chromatic aberration is the lens' inability to focus on the sensor or film all colours of visible light at the same point. Severe chromatic aberration gives a noticeable fringing or a halo effect around sharp edges within the picture. It can be cured in software. Apochromatic lenses have special lens elements (aspheric, extra-low dispersion etc) to minimize the problem, hence they usually cost more. For this review, the lens was tested on a Nikon D700 using Imatest.

Falloff of illumination towards the corners is quite severe. At maximum aperture the corners are 2.2 stops darker than the image centre and visually uniform illumination isn't achieved until stopped down to f/5.6 or beyond.

Imatest only managed to detect 0.79% barrel distortion, which is a very mild amount of distortion and should cause any issues day-to-day. If you require absolutely no distortion, you'll be glad to hear that the distortion pattern is uniform across the frame, which should make corrections in image editing software afterwards relatively straightforward to apply.

Thanks to Nikon's Nano-crystal coating, incidences of flare and ghosting are very rare indeed. Contrast holds up incredibly well, even when shooting into the light at maximum aperture. A compact petal-shaped hood comes supplied with the lens, which does a decent job of shading the lens from extraneous light that may cause issues.

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