If it's right, can't it be wrong?: Using the nikkor H.C 50mm f2.0

Thursday, July 19, 2018

Using the nikkor H.C 50mm f2.0

Made in Japan

I just received this lens for about 3 days already. Normally I would have lots of pictures taken. But literally I could not. I hurt both my shoulders and I find it even difficult to bring the viewfinder to my eyes. But I tried, using many things as support.

Nikon Nikkor

First impressions: Very nice.

Besides being very affordable, its also very compact. Minimum focussing distance is less than 0.6m. The focussing ring stand out because, its of a bigger diameter than the rest of the lens, while everything else is where it should. Mine is from the older generations where I think its not even Ai-S. But that does not matter me as I used it on my xe2.

Handling, its ok. Normal for a normal 50mm lens. Sometimes I fiddle with the aperture ring because the butterfly catch may be a bit intrusive. 

Contrast.

Using a manual lens for manual focus, you need to rely on contrast to help you to nail that focus. The nikkor level of contrast is better than average. Thus providing images with better than adequate contrast, but not too much that will give a jarring difference between the highlights and the shadows. Thus, the images, from my eyes and my opinion as well, are very pleasant allowing lots of details to be seen even in normal jpegs.

Picture quality.

As for the famed sharpness of this lens, I really can’t tell and conclude that its the sharpest 50mm nikon ever created.I simply do not have the resources to compare it to all the 50mm Nikon has ever built. But is it sharp? Of course. Its a 50mm lens. Does it glow? No. Does it have character? All lenses have character of their own, even different lenses from the same make and brand and focal length. It produces very clean images. The out of focus areas are not distracting and it makes the subject stand out very well, even at f2.8. However, I don’t think the image can be said to be as organic as the ones from the Contax 50mm. Clinical and dependable would be those words I would use to describe the final images.

Did I regret getting this lens, of course not! For less than $100, I was excited. But I regret not knowing about it sooner. To summarise, if you love the type of images produced by a Nikon, get this cheap nifty fifty. On the xe2, it will give a 75mm-ish fov. My kind of focal length.

Pictures of the lens and camera are taken using the Em5 and the olympus 45mm 1.8

Some pictures.

Here are some pictures. Mostly SOOC after imported and exported from LR. Except the ones with the yellow stripes, I had to decrease the exposure and increase the blackness as mainly black road, came out grey. LOL.