Knocked knocked who's there it's Chris Nichols here with our very last piece of Gear that we're gonna review for deep Your view TV and if you haven't guessed It already today we are looking at the Nikkor 58 millimeter F 0.95 knocked and We are doing it from a very familiar Location to you while we're here at Carbon park for the very last time until Of course the show moves over to pet a Pixel they're going to see this Park Like every other month so this is Absolutely a unique lens but it has a Very interesting backstory because when We first played with the pre-production Version of this a long time ago we were Very surprised that this was Nikon's First Choice to release a fast bright Prime we thought it'd be something far More mainstream but this is what they Chose to introduce now Come to today this has knocked the only Option on the market and we've played With the nikor 85 millimeter 1.2s we've Especially played with the 50 millimeter 1.2 s and we're going to compare that 50 Millimeter against this 58 because they Kind of compete in similar fields and Then you guys will decide which one Would be the better option for you one Of the main differences of course is That all the new modern lenses are auto Focus whereas this is a manual focus Only lens I mean the first thing you
Notice really is this classic old-school Metal helicoid manual focus it is of Course buttery smooth very precisely Made I like that it has a really long Focusing throw because it actually gives You that extra opportunity for precision And you're going to really need that We're going to talk about that in just a Bit but it definitely does also give the Lens a very solid feel I mean this thing Is built like Fort knocked and you are Gonna have to break into said depository Of gold in order to afford this thing Hahaha Now I'm not gonna lie as much as I love This smooth manual focus that is one of The downsides on this lens I mean if You're trying to shoot handheld Portraits and stuff shooting wide open Shallow depth of field it's just very Hard to get that Focus precise I'm using A z72 and yeah you do have good punch in Focus but again you're moving subjects Moving there's a lot of burst firing Rocking back and forth just to ensure That I got something in Focus uh Otherwise what about the other handling Features on this lens well you do have a Nice tripod collar although that does Add some weight we do have a Customizable function but I like that And the LCD display on top is super sexy I mean it basically in feet or meters Shows you your depth of field scale but
Again I barely touched it because this Lens typically is quite shallow in its Depth of field so I'm not gonna be doing Any hyper focal distancing or anything Like that but anyways we do have also a Customizable ring here on the back you Can use that for aperture it works Really nicely 82 millimeter filters sexy Hood on here and finally this lens is of Heavy to carry around how much does it Weigh you ask exactly one knock I waited like five years to make that Joke all right okay now we've played With our fair share of affordable Third-party lenses that give you bright Apertures like this you know some that Come to mind be like laowa for example And those lenses are also manually Focusing hey knocked it off Anyways sorry those lenses though don't Often give you any sort of electrical Feedback with the camera whereas with The nikor knocked I get all that I mean For example even simple things like Getting exif data you don't know how Many times we play with Laos and then The sample galleries I have to remember What apertures I shot all of those Photos I said knocked it off Okay but other things like having Aperture actually displayed on the Camera be able to control exposure Through the command dials getting lens Corrections automatically passed to the
Camera not having to reset the focal Length anytime I change lenses for the Stabilizer to work properly these are Really nice things we often take for Granted with modern lenses and yes this Is an expensive choice but at least we Get all that now I know what you're Thinking knocked again Chris please do Not give us a sample Gallery just from Cardboard Park well the fact is I'm not Going to take any photos out here really We've actually had this for a few weeks Been doing a lot of shooting with it I Took it up to Edmonton we've got a night Shoot you guys are going to see and we Also have a special guest doing some Portraiture so you don't want to miss That so stay tuned but what we can talk About right off the bat let's let's mix It up let's change the formula let's Talk about sharpness first because I Know that's what you guys are curious About all right so looking at our test Chart here focusing in the center at F 0.95 what's really special about the Noctis how good it is wide open I mean You're getting fantastic detail here Contrast is decent I mean it's a very Good result now when we stop the the Lens down to F 2.8 we do definitely Notice a bump in contrast you know a Little bit more sharpness but I would Happily shoot this lens wide open if I Had to if I do have an opportunity to
Stop down absolutely will improve image Quality a little bit but not a lot so That's a real kudos to the knock now When we look at the corners shot at F 0.95 still the same kind of story good Corner detail contrast is okay Everything does improve when we stop Down to F 2.8 better sharpness better Corners and contrast but we're not done Yet we wanted to go one step further and Compare this against the 50 millimeter 1.2 s so first off looking side by side Of the images both shot at F 1.2 you can See that the knocked is noticeably Sharper and contrast here than the 50 Millimeter shooting wide open when you Do stop down things do definitely equal Out and both lenses are excellent very Quickly but again a testament to the Knocked its capabilities for sharpness And detail when shooting at very bright Apertures is quite impressive So how does a nocturnal lens like this Handle shooting on a bright sunny day Towards bright light sources well Honestly not great I mean I guess that Makes sense I mean this lens is made for Low light shooting it has a very complex Optical formula and lots of big last Elements so I will say that as far as Flare goes we're not losing a lot of Contrast the Coatings are doing a good Job there the main problem is we get Really distracting ghosts you can see
Them here just big purple blobs and as You stop down the aperture it just gets More and more noticeable so you Definitely want to watch for that when You got bright light sources in your Frame or just outside your frame now as Far as Sun stars go this isn't really a Kind of lens that you'd worry about Sunstars for Landscapes but certainly in A cityscape you might want to get little Pinpoints giving you nice star shapes The sun stars are kind of washed out Muddy you know not very distinct so not Very pretty Okay so next let's talk about Loca Longitudinal chromatic aberration that's Where you get the color fringes and the Foreground and background out of focus Areas remember it's hard to remove and Post so you don't want it if you can Avoid it so traditionally what we've Looked at 0.95 lenses they've exhibited Heavy Loca and even other Ultra fast Lenses this tends to be an issue so is This lens the same not so fast this Actually has pretty decent Loca Characteristics I mean if you look at The samples you can see that color Fringing in the foreground and Background areas but it's not that bad It's really well controlled and I was Impressed to see that on such a bright Lens so what if you're a videographer And you're inspired to make movies like
Nocturnal animals or jackass movies Starring Johnny Knoxville or knocked Feratu Classics or knocked up because You like comedies well does this lens Have some Merit making videos I think Absolutely for certain shots where you Want that very buttery soft bouquet and Shallow depth of field this could be a Good choice however let's keep in mind That the manual focus throw is very long And if you're doing it by hand that Would become a pain certainly if you had A geared Focus ring that might be more Doable also the lens does breathe a fair Amount so for Focus pulls it's not going To quite give you the nicest results but For specific shots where you want that Shallow depth of field look this could Do a very good job well this lens does Say knocked on it so we should probably Go do some night shooting here so you Know enough of this beautiful sunny Still below freezing Winter Day stuff Let's go really freeze our asses out in The dark Okay so as you can see now we're out Here at night we're at our favorite Rock Just outside Okie dokes and we're here Because normally when I shoot out here I'm using an ultra wide lens but now That we have a 58 millimeter that's Capable of this very low light shooting I thought why not visit our favorite Place but with a bit of a different look
That being said it's a really good night For astral and we've got lots of clouds Again but hey we'll get what we get now At night time there is a nice thing here With the display the fact that it does Light up means that I can easily see my Aperture or my distance scale you know You're not going to see it on the paint Here in the dark so that's a really nice Touch as well nice big manual focus Throw makes it very easy to get precise Focusing on the Stars I happen to be Using the z72 because my body it has a Great punch in manual focus so I can Really focus on one point of light make Sure that it's exactly in Focus so first Off I'm finding this focal length a Little bit challenging for a few reasons Okay so normally when we're shooting This rock I'm using Ultra wide lenses And I am getting still a fair amount of Depth of field plus just the fact that We're getting such a wide field of view That I can really make use of the rock Structure and although it's out of focus It's still recognizable I can use some Of the angled bits as interesting Silhouettes for example against a bright Starry Sky but with this 58 millimeter Although I do get interesting Compositions I'm finding that if there's Anything in the foreground The shallow depth of fields here even if You're not shooting wide open is just so
Soft that any of these features these Rocks just kind of become big dark blobs So I am finding it challenging somebody Had more Talent than me which is not Hard to do I'm sure they could get some Nice stuff I could absolutely see this Though being really useful for more Distant kind of shots like you know if I Had a bright Aurora behind a barn in the Distance I think then this folk length Would shine really nicely or if I was Trying to focus on certain star clusters Or cities at night I think this would be An excellent choice but what about Optically how is it going to perform Shooting in low light situations like This so when we're shooting stars in the Sky or City Lights we can often get Strange things going on especially in The corners of our frames one of the Things you'll often see with a lot of Lenses is coma where light sources will Kind of give these Comet like Tails Behind it going away from the center of The lens but you'll also get sagittal Coma astigmatism you know things where Specks of light will actually kind of Grow wings and they'll sort of spread Across and make these weird shapes in The corners and again it's hard to get Rid of not very desirable so how does This lens work in that well it actually Handles it very well I mean even wide Open at 0.95 where it is at its worst
Trying to deal with these issues it Still has pretty minimal sagittal Como We're not seeing any sort of comet Tails Or anything like that you do get some Funky shapes in the corners but as you Stop The Lens down that gets much better And I wanted to do an experiment here I Tested the knocked doing a cityscape at F 1.2 and then the 50 millimeter 1.2 s At 1.2 to see how they handled that and You can see with the 50 millimeter 1.2 s We're getting a little bit of coma we're Also getting that sagittal coma that Astigmatism against weird shapes in the Corners whereas the noct handles that Much better you only see it more at the Extreme Corners if I was going to do a Lot of night photography with the knot I Do think I would still want to stop it Down whenever possible even just a Little bit 1.2 1.4 to improve its Capabilities but for nighttime shooting It handles this stuff very well Okay we're back it's day three and we've Got our great friend Nathan Ellison back On the show thanks for hello hello it's Been so long it's great to see you it Has been it has been a while absolutely And we have Sharice our model she's been Helping us out today uh Nathan does Beautiful portrait work so definitely Check out his channel and today you're Going to help us take some great model Shots of trees so here's the knocked
It's very lightweight thank you so much Light light and compact yeah turns out At uh 0.95 there's not a lot of the wiggle Room even far away there's yeah there's Zero leeway sort of just like directly Out this way yeah just like that Nice Oh it's tack sharp yeah just like that Yeah it's almost like I know what I'm Doing Beautiful yeah just like that [Music] Yeah getting both eyes and focus is Incredibly tricky But you did it right no this lens is Heavy as well it's actually one Knocked exactly Nathan and One knocked too many one knock two how Are you doing yeah yeah I'm standing Talking all cold and Teresa's in like a Sheer shirt like whatever It's a beautiful piece of gear but it is Also Not easy to use Weighs a ton and uh Is incredibly expensive when there's Just that slight little bit of movement Especially when you're shooting wide Open oh yeah you have to like readjust For everything totally So definitely slows things down a bit All right Nathan we're taking a quick Break here in the sun just warm up a
Little bit you've had a chance to shoot With lens a bit I have what do you think About the look of it I mean it's got a Very unique look to it and the terms of Just like the ability to separate your Subject from the background it's it's Interesting it's something that I can't Do with the lenses that I currently have Right yes right right what about bouquet You know I did some tests ahead of time Just for specular highlights which you Always do and you know wide open you get Like lots of cat's eye effect almost to The center of the frame which could be Cool but even stop down and I found that The highlights wide open of course nice And round but as you stop down they kind Of get polygonal so first I'm like for Specular highlights maybe not the best But what I want to talk to you about Specifically now that you've shot with It is what do you think about the Transition from in focus to autofocus That's the thing with this lens is that Transition is actually gorgeous right It's it's super creamy it gives you that You know 0.95 look that you would expect Where you're just getting these Beautiful transitions from your sharp Areas of your image to your autofocus Area so could you see yourself as a Portrait photographer utilizing this Lens for those kind of shots I mean does That have value to you yeah like I mean
If you're going for that very unique Look this is The lens to do it with especially when You're shooting full body this almost Makes it look positive what about the Manual focused experience here I know You're normally using eye detect right Different way of shooting how did that Change your process I mean it slows Things down but not in A good creative right way not like four By five yeah like when you're shooting This wide open even that slight little Bit of movement especially when you're Working with a subject who's used to Moving to give you different angles and Right like every shutter sound they do a Gift different pose yeah You're like no you can't move you need To hold very still because I've got Focus and every time you move I have to Refine it sounds like you're not finding It frustrating at all so let's keep Shooting let's go So one thing with the focal length Of this though is that it actually is Perfect for both full body And in nice and tight Whereas I usually use a 50 and an 85 so 50 for my kind of more full body Environmental and then 85 for the Tighter work this is actually kind of a Perfect balance between the two all Right well thank you guys both for
Helping us out today really appreciate It Tracy did a great job thank you so Much definitely check out our work you Can see the information below you Definitely want to check that out Nathan We'd love to have you back on deep Riverview TV I would love to say but We're not ever going to see you again uh Until we start petapixels maybe you'll Join us on that yeah but we'll get that Done thank you so much for working with Us today absolutely all right well we've Had an interesting Journey with the Nikkor knocked 58 millimeter and it's Come full circle now from one of our Earliest videos to our last piece of Gear review so is the Nightcore knocked An exercise in just Optical engineering Yeah sure absolutely and is it a very Impractical and very expensive lens yes Absolutely it is as well but at the same Time I don't think we can just discount It because of that because the fact Matter is it is doing something very Unique and it's doing it very well there Were a lot of f .95 and F1 lenses out There and they largely suck at those Apertures point where they're basically Unusable and even lenses that do get Some claim to fame like leica's 0.95 I Still feel like this is probably the Nicest .95 lens that we've used as far As Optical quality goes it's incredibly Good at 0.95 I mean still very sharp
Lots of detail beautiful fall off to the Bouquet and so this is a lens where you Can absolutely use it at the widest Apertures and really benefit from that Unique look at the same time I still Feel like I would shoot this lens stop Down a lot because it just gets even Better and as far as resolution goes on Optical performance this is a fantastic Choice as well I think if you were going To do astrophotography or like portraits At night and cityscape stuff like that This lens would absolutely Excel so it Does have a lot going for it make no Mistake though the manual focusing can Be frustrating especially when you Couple with such shallow depth of field And I think is this a lens that I would Buy I'd probably look at the 50 Millimeter 1 point to ask for most Situations even though it is in a lot of Cases optically inferior to this I feel Like it's more practical for more Situations this is absolutely a lens I Would personally not buy but rent for Certain shots yes definitely I think It's got a lot of possibilities there so We've got an odd lens here which makes Some strange promises but largely Delivers on those promises it was a lot Of fun to use it and a poignant way to End our deeper View tv Gear reviews this Is indeed the last one but fear not Although I'll probably never touch one
Of these ever again in my entire life The knocked measurement will live on With the petapixel show and while I'm on That topic you know we've had a great Ride here we absolutely want to give you All a big thanks our viewers for Sticking with us through the camera Store TV deep here View tv and now into Our future Endeavor with petapixel so Please if you haven't already tell your Friends jump over to the petapixel YouTube channel And subscribe today so We can keep this ride going it's going To be the same show that you love and We're excited to get on with new Projects otherwise wise please still Check out our socials those aren't going Anywhere definitely check those out Below leave your comments on what you Think about this very interesting Product we'd love to hear that uh Subscribe well to petapixel please again We would love that and we will see you Soon very shortly with more episodes With Chris Jordan [Music]
