One of the really great things Nikon shooters have these days is access to the Nikkor f/1.8 G prime lenses. In my opinion, they’re the best bang-for-the-buck of any group of lenses in photography. This is the exception to that, since this lens is much pricier than the other f/1.8s. That has to be because of the difficulties of making a lens at this focal length, because it’s definitely not better than the others.

It’s quite sharp in the center wide open, but has a fair amount of longitudinal chromatic aberration and complex coma distortion wide open. It really has to be stopped down to f/5.6 to eliminate those and give you good corners. However, stopping down to f/3.5 or f/4 brings up some very clear focus shift and a resultant tendency to backfocus at those apertures. If you need to shoot at those apertures, I’d recommend using Live view rather than autofocus – or use point autofocus on something in front of your intended subject.
May 2013