Nikon's latest prime lens!

Nikkor 58mm f/1.4G

Nikon announced this new 58mm prime lens earlier this month, and it has a lot of photographers scratching their heads. Wondering, why a 58mm prime?

Most photographers will be very familiar with the good old "nifty fifty" the 50mm f/1.4 and 1.8. No professional or serious amateur photographers bag should be without one. Great value great quality.

So with this understanding among most photographers and the popularity of the 50mm prime, why then a 58mm? It's only 8mm more reach and that would hardly give you a different perspective at that focal length. So what can we make of this lens release? Why was it even released and who is it intended for?

I have a theory and i'm not alone on this. Nikon has over the last 2 years realigned their camera lineup, and introduced a tightly packed DX sensor range. They introduced what was at the time the smallest full sensor (FX) camera the D600. A sort of affordable FX camera for the serious enthusiast photographer. Nikon knows that if you are a D7000 or D7100 owner that you may very well aspire to a FX camera like the D600 or it's latest incarnation the D610. Now on a DX camera 50mm is equivalent to about 75mm and that is very close to a great focal length for portraits, generally accepted as 85mm or there about. 50mm on a FX camera is close to what your normal eye perspective is of the world. Basically it seems Nikon made a good FX prime lens that would work great as a DX portrait lens. See the connection here... I believe that Nikon is targeting this lens at DX owners that may want to upgrade to FX soon or to those who already have. Or the FX owner that has a DX backup body and would love to own a good portrait lens for their DX while still have a normal good prime for their FX camera.

The way I see it is that Nikon is covering a new segment of DX \ FX camera owners that swop between both sensor sizes but would like 1 good lens between both. It's not the most amazing idea bit I think this shows Nikon is paying attention to the serious enthusiast market.