[beholder3]

For 9x the price of a DFA* 50 and 2x the weight here some review results :

Nikon Z 58mm 0.95 S Noct

Image Quality

One serious weakness is green / magenta fringing in front and behind of the point of focus, which - depending on subject choice shooting conditions - can get seriously distracting.

You can also see the focus shift it suffers from.

https://www.cameralabs.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/loca_NikonZ58f0-95Noct_95-14-20_66080.jpg

Corners are seriously soft, so we have to ask if this lens is a modern design.

See the corners stopped down more than a full stop to F1.4: as the rightmost image here (needs log in): DSLR-Forum

Here you see the 9,000 EUR, 2 kg wide open softness (needs log in): DSLR-Forum

Key takeaway:

• Longitudinal chromatic aberration (LoCA) is fairly severe and can be distracting

What’s not so easy to deal with, however, is longitudinal CA, which is where this lens is weakest. Many images captured at the widest apertures display fringing around defined edges, although this can also be seen in images where the is a more gradual transition between focused and defocused areas. Unlike lateral CA, longitudinal CA is virtually impossible to correct.

What we don't like

• Noticeable LoCA at wide/medium apertures
• Heavy and bulky, even by modern 58mm F1.4 lens standards
• Costly

Conclusion

Two points make it less than perfect. First, there's the weight and cost. The Nikon Z 58mm 0.95 S Noct is one of a generation of heavy, expensive standard prime lenses that arguably started with the Sigma 50mm F1.4 Art.

Second, there's the pesky issue of longitudinal chromatic aberration, which - where you see it - is pretty hard to ignore. It's not unusual to see some LoCA from fast primes wide-open, but it's disappointing to still see it from an F1.4 lens at F4, especially when it's all but absent from cheaper (albeit useless to a dedicated Nikonian) competitors like the Pentax DFA* 50mm F1.4. Green halos around a portrait subject's hair, or the branches of an out of focus tree are annoying, at best. Likewise magenta highlights around the buttons on a shirt just in front of the focus plane of a portrait, or around the railings on a slightly defocused metal fence.

It clearly suffers from some field curvature as well, so you can not achieve optimal focus in the image center and at the edges at the same time.

The lens is not so great for videography as it suffers from quite a bit of focus breathing, 16% magnification change between close and far focus.

Final comment: The 9,000 EUR manual only lens suffered from quality control issues, being slightly decentered.

[CapitanXeon]

Holy shit, i did get better performance regarding that aspect on every single lens i've bought on eBay, broken or not, usually for lower double digit prices....

[aaacb]

I don't need the dfa*50/1.4 I don't need the dfa*50/1.4, I don't need... (keeps repeating to self)

Thanks for sharing

[The Squirrel Mafia]

It's one expensive lens, that's for sure.

[reh321]

For 9x the price of a DFA* 50 and 2x the weight here some review results :

Nikon Z 58mm 0.95 S Noct

Image Quality

One serious weakness is green / magenta fringing in front and behind of the point of focus, which - depending on subject choice shooting conditions - can get seriously distracting.

You can also see the focus shift it suffers from.

https://www.cameralabs.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/loca_NikonZ58f0-95Noct_95-14-20_66080.jpg

Corners are seriously soft, so we have to ask if this lens is a modern design.

See the corners stopped down more than a full stop to F1.4: as the rightmost image here (needs log in): DSLR-Forum

Here you see the 9,000 EUR, 2 kg wide open softness (needs log in): DSLR-Forum

Key takeaway:

• Longitudinal chromatic aberration (LoCA) is fairly severe and can be distracting

What’s not so easy to deal with, however, is longitudinal CA, which is where this lens is weakest. Many images captured at the widest apertures display fringing around defined edges, although this can also be seen in images where the is a more gradual transition between focused and defocused areas. Unlike lateral CA, longitudinal CA is virtually impossible to correct.

What we don't like

• Noticeable LoCA at wide/medium apertures
• Heavy and bulky, even by modern 58mm F1.4 lens standards
• Costly

Conclusion

Two points make it less than perfect. First, there's the weight and cost. The Nikon Z 58mm 0.95 S Noct is one of a generation of heavy, expensive standard prime lenses that arguably started with the Sigma 50mm F1.4 Art.

Second, there's the pesky issue of longitudinal chromatic aberration, which - where you see it - is pretty hard to ignore. It's not unusual to see some LoCA from fast primes wide-open, but it's disappointing to still see it from an F1.4 lens at F4, especially when it's all but absent from cheaper (albeit useless to a dedicated Nikonian) competitors like the Pentax DFA* 50mm F1.4. Green halos around a portrait subject's hair, or the branches of an out of focus tree are annoying, at best. Likewise magenta highlights around the buttons on a shirt just in front of the focus plane of a portrait, or around the railings on a slightly defocused metal fence.

It clearly suffers from some field curvature as well, so you can not achieve optimal focus in the image center and at the edges at the same time.

The lens is not so great for videography as it suffers from quite a bit of focus breathing, 16% magnification change between close and far focus.

Final comment: The 9,000 EUR manual only lens suffered from quality control issues, being slightly decentered.

This sort of review is certainly not going to help Nikon.

[mlt]

It appears to be a statement lens more than a useful lens. Nikon saying “look what we can do with our Z mount”, see how well that holds up with their latest financials.

[repaap]

9000€!!! Holy !!! Thank god it weights 2 KG, atleast you can feel that you gotsomething proper for that money. But there will be some guys willing to go there.

[photoptimist]

Some (but not all) of the criticism seems a little harsh.

Given that f/0.95 is a 50% larger aperture than f/1.4, even a simple scaled up design based on the f/1.4 would need at least 3X as much glass. Big apertures always require lots of glass.

The amount of focus breathing is typical for a prime -- most primes that go to 0.19X magnification would have 19% change in magnification (DUH!).

However, the magenta-green on the front-back OOF is a crime for a lens that by design throws most of the image OOF!

[TwoUptons]

Suddenly I don’t feel so bad about the purple fringing on my Tamron 70-300 or my SMC 300mm f4... I’ve got the same CA as the newest $8,000 Nikon lens...

-Eric

[CapitanXeon]

Suddenly I don’t feel so bad about the purple fringing on my Tamron 70-300 or my SMC 300mm f4... I’ve got the same CA as the newest $8,000 Nikon lens...

-Eric

Not even my DA-L 18-55 would make that. It's stupid!

[reh321]

Some (but not all) of the criticism seems a little harsh.

Given that f/0.95 is a 50% larger aperture than f/1.4, even a simple scaled up design based on the f/1.4 would need at least 3X as much glass. Big apertures always require lots of glass.

The amount of focus breathing is typical for a prime -- most primes that go to 0.19X magnification would have 19% change in magnification (DUH!).

However, the magenta-green on the front-back OOF is a crime for a lens that by design throws most of the image OOF!

Personally I would never purchase a system like that; my issue is very simple: for a lens that large {and expensive}: I would expect 'near perfection', as is supplied by the DFA* 50mm f/1.4 lens.

[Rondec]

I don't think LoCA is the end of the world if the lens is pretty sharp otherwise. I know DP Review made a huge deal about it with the DFA *50 (which showed less than this), but this lens is a stop faster than that as well.

My guess is that this lens ends up being more of a cinema lens. I can't imagine many folks otherwise wanting an 8000 dollar manual focus only lens that weighs four and a half pounds. But give it to the next Stanley Kubrick and maybe amazing things happen. Right?

[Mistral75]

The problem with the Nikkor Z 58mm f/0.95 S Noct potentially being a cinema lens is that you can't use it with any other cameras than Nikon Z cameras, which aren't exactly cinema cameras.

[beholder3]

My guess is that this lens ends up being more of a cinema lens.

The tester in the forum describes the manual focus to not be very smooth and make audible noise when turning the focus ring. As he says, much worse than a Zeiss lens.

He states that this is the worst focus breathing of the existing Z lenses so far.

Then you have the downside of the electric mirroless lens as well for videographers: while there is a lens ring to adjust aperture, the electronics still control it in a "clicked" way, so it closes at defined 1/3 stop steps and not smooth "declicked" as you can have with a lens with physical aperture control and ring.

All three of the above are not exactly "cinema".

If you look at the intense and widespread "cat eyes" bokehhighlights which are visible sometimes even directly around the main subject then that is a problem as well. https://2.img-dpreview.com/files/p/TS1800x1200~sample_galleries/0388005837/4761176934.jpg