Dan Kerin

Nikon 50mm F/1.4 S.C

Another lens with a great history behind it. The Nippon Kogaku Nikkor – SC F1.4 50mm was the world’s first F/1.4 lens for the 35mm film format. The lens was produced in Nikon S mount to fit their rangefinder cameras produced between 1948 and 1964. The lens is very small for a fast 50mm being smaller than anything Leica or Canon had to offer. The lens has seven elements in three groups making it a very simple lens, like many produced during this time period. It has 12 aperture blades which can make for some very dreamy looking out of focus areas.

I primarily used this lens on my Leica M4 and it made for a good pairing. Focus is nice and smooth and the focus throw is very long making precise focus easy. This does have the knock-on effect of making focusing slower so if you are looking for a lens to use for fast pace street photography you may want to pass on this. Another oddity to this lens is the uneven spacing of the aperture markings. As you stop down the clicks get closer and closer together. I didn’t find this to be an issue when shooting but it is worth mentioning.

If you are planning on using this lens on a Leica you will need an adapter as the lens does not have a built in helicoil like Leica rangefinder lenses. From doing a little research I finally settled on an Amedeo Nikon S to Leica M adapter. Luckily for me Amedeo had one left on eBay. These adapters are expensive. Mine set me back £267.00. If you are in the U.S they can be had on CameraQuest for $299.00. As these are difficult to manufacture Amedeo only makes a couple a year so bare that in mind.

Before I developed the film, I was very open to what to expect. For a lens of this age, I was expecting performance similar to the Leica Summarit f1.5. When I took a look at the negatives through a loupe, I could tell already that this was not the case. As I began to scan the film, I was amazed with the centre sharpness and how the lens rendered the out of focus areas. To say this lens has character is an understatement. The lens performs very well wide open giving good centre sharpness but softens towards the edges. When stopped down the performance only increases making it a very competitive lens in my opinion and one that many people overlook.

Overall, this is a great lens and performed really well. If you like how older lenses render or are looking for a great 50mm portrait lens this is worth checking out. It will be interesting in the future to compare this lens to the Canon 50mm f1.4 and see how they compare side by side. Both come in at a similar price point however the Nikon does require the adapter which can be difficult to find and costly.