Nikon AF-P 18-55mm kit lens vs AF-S 50mm F/1-8G - lets compare their sharpness!

In this video I compare the sharpness of Nikkor AF-S 50mm F/1.8 G (prime lens) with the Nikkor AF-P DX 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6 G VR (kit lens) at 50 mm focal length. I tested both lenses with Nikon D3400 by photographing various objects and determining center sharpness, edge sharpness and corner sharpness of the photos. I all of my tests the prime lens was as good or better than the kit zoom lens in terms of image sharpness. This does not mean that the 18-55mm kit lens is not good. In fact it was never very far away from the Nikon's 50 mm prime lens. I conclude that the prime lens is preferable than the zoom lens but the zoom lens is very nice and usable, too.
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LINKS:
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Nikon D3400 review in 2023: • Nikon D3400 review - t...
Nikkor AF-P DX 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6 G VR review: • Nikon D3400, D3500, D5...
Nikkor AF-S 50mm F/1.8 G review: • Nikon AF-S Nikkor 50 m...
Nikon D3400 may be better than full frame: • I almost sold my Nikon...
Nikon D3400 sample gallery: • Nikon D3400 is a great...
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[@hurleygreen927]

Thanks for this video! I have the 18-55mm kit kens and I also have a 50mm prime lens, and use the zoom lens most of the time!

[@tom_photo]

Hi! Thank you very much for watching. Both are very nice lenses. Kind regards!

[@Ianf1x]

I like the kit lens. I have sharpness set in camera +2 on SD Picture control and brings it a little closer to 50mm lens. Good comparison thank you.

[@tom_photo]

Hi Ian! Boosting the sharpness on the camera is a good idea, especially if you don't plan to do it in post processing. Thank you for sharing this and thank you for watching!

[@kristersjoblom4025]

Thank you for an another interesting and well performed test! I have both the AF-S 50 mm f/1.8 and the AF-S DX 35 mm f/1,8, which I think are very good, especially when considering their price points. However, I tend to use the 18-55 mm kit lens more often, and I am very seldom not pleased with the results.

[@tom_photo]

Hi Krister! I agree with you that the kit lens is really nice; and you have every reason to like it. Thanks for watching and kind regards!

[@Lejoonn]

I got the VR II version of 18-55 and have also used the 50mm 1,8 but i often tend to use the newer 18-55, its AF is fast and has so good VR improvement and can take really SHARP photos and good overall video quality!

[@tom_photo]

Hi Dragan! Thank you for providing feedback. I agree that this is a very nice lens. Kind regards!

[@HaiTomVlog]

I no longer have my old D3100, but I still have that 50mm f/1.8G! 👍🏼

[@tom_photo]

Hi! Indeed, this lens is worth holding on to. Thanks so much for watching!

[@sclogse1]

Always enjoy your style of presentation. For my own amusement, I studied your turning camera shots starting around 7:44 and just looked at the edge sharpness to see if that objects in the edges improved when they moved to the center..leaves, pillows. No. They were already sharp at the edges. So, naturally I'd like to know what you shot those with. But I'm not buying any more gear, just curious.

[@tom_photo]

Hi! Thank you so much. Great to hear from you. The 7:44 turning camera was filmed with the Fuji XF 35mm F/1.4 R. This lens amazes me on a daily basis. Wonderful optics, indeed. Cheers!

[@hemantkulkarni0212]

So, is it because the prime lenses are fast ones compared with the wide to telephoto lenses and the elements involved in the later one?

[@tom_photo]

Hi! The prime lenses are sharper and brighter because they are built for just one focal length. Components do not move around the way the do in zoom lenses. Their design is simpler and lens elements are more optimized (they don't have to deal with variable focal length). Kind regards!

[@victorboucher675]

Thank you.

[@tom_photo]

Hi Victor! Thank you very much for watching. Kind regards!

[@pakko7416]

There’s something I don’t grasp, i musr be missing something! You compared the 50mm FX prime with the DX kit zoom lens set at 50mm and both lenses on a D3400 camera, i.e. DX cameras. This ended up being a comparison of images between 75mm effective focal length for the prime and 50mm for the kit (zoom) lens. Was that an objective comparison? The settings on the cameras were the same but the images produced were not as they were of different focal lengths. It would have been more balanced if it was between a 35mm prime (35mm x 1.5 = 52.5mm) and the same kit lens set at 50mm.

[@tom_photo]

Hi! Thank you for asking. It's the camera sensor size that determines the crop factor. This is independent of the lens, provided that the lenses you compare have the same focal length. In this case both lenses had the same focal length. Crop factor is calculated as diagonal of the 35 mm full frame divided by the diagonal of your sensor (CF = d(35) / d). It does not matter if you have a FX or DX lens if your camera sensor is a crop sensor (built for DX). Please let me know if you want me to explain in it more detail. Kind regards!

[@pakko7416]

@@tom_photo You're right and that's what I had missed / confused! The lens creates the image the sensor just stores it as it has been created by the lens! The generated images from the two lenses were both from 50mm lenses, indeed! Thank you for the clarification!

[@tom_photo]

@@pakko7416 Hi! Yes, you're is absolutely correct. Thank you very much for watching!