This Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 was among Nikon first AF lenses of 1986. It was replaced by the very similar AF 50mm f/1.8D in 2002, which is almost identical.

This was Nikon's least expensive lens selling new at about $90, and was also probably one of the best. It was made in China when it was discontinued in 2002. Its optics are unsurpassed; today's Nikon 50mm f/1.8 G AF-S might be a tiny bit sharper, but has far more distortion and costs three times as much.

It is unchanged since 1990. It is not a "D" lens, which is an almost meaningless feature anyway. In fact, the lack of this pointless feature means a great low price for you if you find a used one.

The very first version introduced in 1986 had the nasty hard focus ring seen in these pictures, and a plastic window through which the focusing scale was displayed.

Filter threads are just plastic, which is fine for an inexpensive lens like this.

This lens has the same build quality as the farmore Nikon 50mm f/1.4 AF-D, and this f/1.8 has much less distortion!

This is an FX lens, and works especially well with on FX, 35mm and DX Nikons like the D7000, D700, D3X, D300s and F6. It works fantastically on manual-focus cameras like the F2AS, F3, FE and FA, since it has real manual-focus and aperture rings that work exactly as they should.

The 50/1.8 AF works great with almost every film and digital Nikon camera made since 1977. If you have a coupling prong added to the diaphragm ring, it's perfect with every Nikon back to the original Nikon F of 1959.

The only incompatibility is that it will not autofocus with the cheapest D40, D40x, D60, D3000, D3100, D5000 or D5100, but if you focus manually, everything else works great. These cameras have in-finder focus confirmation dots to help you.

Specifications

This lens has six elements in five groups.

It focuses down to 0.45 meters or 1.5 feet.

It takes 52mm filters and the HR-2 hood.

It weighs only 5 oz. or 155g.

It's 2.6" (65mm) around by 1.7" (43mm) long.

It has a seven-bladed diaphragm and stops down to f/22.

Performance

AF action is really fast on an F100. One full turn of the AF screw focuses the lens from infinity to 6.'

Although it appears multicoated and has a very simple design it has more ghosting than most other Nikkor lenses. Watch it if you have the sun in your image.

The autofocus seems completely accurate on an F100, so shoot away at f/1.8 all you want.

Here's the performance by aperture:

f/1.8: some light falloff. Some coma in the corners and a little less contrast all around seemingly due to spherical aberration
f/2.8: almost no falloff and the coma seems to be gone. Sharp all over
f/4: no falloff. Very sharp all over
f/5.6: great, same as at f/4

Bokeh is fairly nice. It's better than a $10,000 400mm f/2.8 AF-I.

Even without the stupid "D" feature fill flash and metering work flawlessly on an F100. The "D" feature only is for people who insist on making flash photos directly into mirrors. Otherwise the "D" means nothing.