Sharpness

For these tests, the Nikon AF-S Nikkor 50mm f1.8 lens was attached to a Nikon D700 body, which in turn was mounted on a sturdy tripod. The self-timer and Exposure Delay Mode were activated. Slight tonal changes are due to slight changes in natural light during the session. The 100% crops represent about 1/300th of the total frame area.

The full frame

The lens is impressively sharp wide open, especially in the centre. Border sharpness is not bad, either, but there is a bit of fuzziness to fine details, and contrast is a bit on the low side too. Vignetting causes the edges and corners to be noticeably darker than the centre. The sweet spot is around f/5.6-f/8, where both centre and border sharpness is stunning (and most of the vignetting is gone too). Even the smallest aperture settings are only moderately affected by diffraction, and are eminently usable. Overall, an excellent performance – I would not hesitate to use this lens at any f-stop as dictated by the depth-of-field requirements of the subject.

Aperture	Centre Crop	Edge Crop
f/1.8
f/2
f/2.8
f/4
f/5.6
f/8
f/11
f/16