Shooting with Nikon 24mm f/1.4

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When shooting with prime lenses, you can’t go wrong with the trinity combo made up of Nikon 24mm f/1.4, 50mm f/1.4 and 85mm f/1.4. This is what we used on a recent birthday party. Actually, we did throw in the Nikon 17-35mm f/2.8 and 24-70mm f/2.8 in the mix.

I was using the stunning Nikon 24mm f/1.4 for most of the time. It fitted comfortably in my hand, well balanced on a gripped Nikon D700. The build quality is also good, but it isn’t anything like the 85mm f/1.4 D which would probably make a dent to the concrete floor.

The auto focus is quiet as expected from the AF-S silent wave motor. While the auto focus was fast enough for catching those curious babies dashing around, it was not as snappy as the 24-70mm f/2.8.

One of the features with G lenses is the ability to override auto focus by simply grabbing the focus ring. I didn’t get to use it for this occasion but it is certainly a welcome addition when shooting under low light condition.

When shooting with a wide angle lens, sometimes you need to get fairly close to fill the frame with your subject. The 24mm f/1.4 has a minimum focus distance of 25cm, so you can actually get within inches to your subject. Of cause you won’t get to macro magnification, but you can still get some decent magnification. see samples here. For comparison, the magnification reproduction ratio is 0.18x compare to 0.27x from the 24-70mm f/2.8.

The Nikon 24mm f/1.4 is a special lens that has the ability to create shallow wide angle DoF. It also captures 2-stops more light that the state of art 24-70mm f/2.8. The gives you the ability to lower your ISO or raise your shutter speed. In a recent party. I was able to shoot at ISO800 while keeping a relatively fast shutter speed using aperture f/1.4 – f/2. The sharpness also tends to be better when you stopped down to f/2 or more.

Here are some images.

The settings were ISO800, f/1.4-f/2, 1/125s-1/200s

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