Best Nikkor prime for panorama?

I am just starting to shoot panoramas. My kit consists of:

50mm 1.4 Nikkor (bought for indoor natural light portraits)
D200 (w/MC30 using Mup)
RRS Pano elements package. (nodal slide and pano-clamp)
Gitzo 1325

I am shooting portrait mode so 50mm seems OK. But, I want the sharpest image I can get.

Would the 50mm 1.8 be a better choice since I shoot panoramas @ F11?

Is there a sharper Nikkor prime?

Thanks,
--
Visionary Imagery, inc

Sharpness is a relative term now that we shoot digital. Even those images shot on a tripod with a D2X are sharpened with software. But I know what you mean. My nikon 24mm 2.8 was my sharpest lens and I used it hundreds of times out in Monument Valley. Great color! Good luck!

Dana

quickclick said:

Would the 50mm 1.8 be a better choice since I shoot panoramas @ F11?
Is there a sharper Nikkor prime?

Click to expand...

I have tried just one serious panorama so far; I used the 50/1.8. I took 15 D70 RAW images in portrait orientation on a simple tripod. For assembling the JPG versions I used Autostitch.



The final original has a size of 17102 x 2774 px. I had to choose a high JPG compression to stay below the 48 MB / image limit of Smugmug.

The 50/1.8 belongs to the sharpest primes in its focal range for distant objects, I am not aware of any sharper lens. But as you already have the 50/1.4 I'd stick with it. In the center it's actually better than the 1.8 but at the edges a bit worse. Here's an MTF comparison performed by Miljenko Devcic:

iotatau said:

The 50/1.8 belongs to the sharpest primes in its focal range for
distant objects,

Click to expand...

Nikon's full aperture MTF are at http://www.nikonimaging.com

These confirm compared to the DX lens the f1.8 is poor, and the f1.4 has easily the worst full aperture performance of any Nikon.

That said most lenses improve dramatically to their best (with little between lenses) at the f11 to be used.

I am intrigued with the MTF produced. Canon reckon for sharpness (usually the red line at 10 lpm) and for fine detail (usually the blue line at 30 lpm) above 80 is needed for excellent results - and 60 is satisfactory on 24x36 format. As DX needs extra magnification 85% and 66% are usually the accepted standards.

The lpm is unclear in your example but if it is 10 or 30 lpm results do not reach 60% anywhere - implying neither lens is up to critical quality at any aperture.

--
Leonard Shepherd

Usually skill in using equipment has more to do with good photography than the equipment itself.

quickclick said:

I am just starting to shoot panoramas. My kit consists of:

50mm 1.4 Nikkor (bought for indoor natural light portraits)
D200 (w/MC30 using Mup)
RRS Pano elements package. (nodal slide and pano-clamp)
Gitzo 1325

I am shooting portrait mode so 50mm seems OK. But, I want the
sharpest image I can get.

Would the 50mm 1.8 be a better choice since I shoot panoramas @ F11?

Click to expand...

A small difference between the theoretical MTF for the lenses for a single frame may not translate to sharpness of the stitched image once corrections for distortion are made. (the image is going to get "stretched" - resampled, and the more stretching the more loss of sharpness).

As the 50mm 1.8 has extremely low distortion (lower than the 1.4), then I suspect that it may outperform the 1.4 for stitched panoramas.

I'm not sure that f11 on a D200 is ideal - haven't checked, but you are probably at the point where at least some contrast/detail loss to diffraction will be evident. Probably not much, and contrast loss mainly recoverable in pp, but if you are getting very fussy...

Leonard Shepherd said:

These confirm compared to the DX lens the f1.8 is poor,

Click to expand...

Please name DX primes in the normal focal length range. The OP was specifically asking about primes .

Leonard Shepherd said:

These confirm compared to the DX lens the f1.8 is poor, and the
f1.4 has easily the worst full aperture performance of any Nikon.

Click to expand...

Wide open, yes. But how many Nikon lenses go to 1.8 or 1.4 wide open? None of the "pro" DX zooms.

Leonard Shepherd said:

That said most lenses improve dramatically to their best (with
little between lenses) at the f11 to be used.

Click to expand...

"Most lenses improve dramatically" towards f/11: of course. "With little between lenses": no.

In case you didn't notice: Nikon plots distance from center on x and contrast value on y axis. In the chart I posted Miljenko plots aperture on x and resolution on y axis which I find more useful.

BTW: the sharpest lens Miljenko found so far was his 70-200 VR copy at f/4, 100 mm which was better than, for instance, 50/1.4, 50/1.8 and 85/1.8.
http://www.pbase.com/miljenko/image/40969110

FWIW, after a lot of testing of my 17-55, 50 1.8 and 55 2.8 micro, I've settled on the 55 micro for the most detailed panos. It just slightly outresolves the 17-55, and while the 50 may have just a hair better center micro contrast, the 55 has a superior image side to side and into the corners (as it should as a flat field corrected lens). People forget that you are seeing a lot of the edges of a lens in a pano. For exacting lanscape panos with lot's of detail, I'm planning to use the 55.

Having said that, the differences with the 17-55 at 55 are slight enough that I wouldn't stop to change lenses if it was dusty or blowing.

The other thing about the 55 is that you get a great macro lens too. When I'm traveling, I can leave home the 50 1.8, the60 micro and have a great macro lense plus razor sharp distance lens in a smaller package than the 60.

YMMV

David in Phoenix

perhaps the performance of the 50mm f/1.4 is not at it's best wide open, what lens is?, but I would bet that stopped down 2 full stops to f/2.8 it is as sharp as any DX lens made. Bjorn Rorslett even has the af 50mm f/1.4 on his "best of the best" list and rates it a 5 on a scale of 1-5 as to sharpness this is what he has to say "It delivers crisp and sharp images even set wide open, and by f/4 the sharpness is all you could wish for"

Leonard Shepherd said:

These confirm compared to the DX lens the f1.8 is poor, and the
f1.4 has easily the worst full aperture performance of any Nikon.
--

Click to expand...

Edward

Lenses listed in profile

iotatau said:

The final original has a size of 17102 x 2774 px. I had to choose a
high JPG compression to stay below the 48 MB / image limit of
Smugmug.

Click to expand...

The Smugmug limits are 48 megapixels and 8 MB/image.
http://www.smugmug.com/aboutus/limits.mg

The pano version I uploaded to Smugmug has 47.4 megapixels and 7 MB after strong JPEG compression (7/12 in Photoshop). The original JPEG has 22.8 MB.