My Nikon 100mm f/2.8 Series E lens review

This is my first extensive review of a lens and I hope to make it a series, because I had a lot of fun making it. The goal here is to give you my opinion from a real world experience point of view. I will share some specs and data, too, but not too much. So let's get into it.

Basic overview

Made for: Nikon SLRs (F-mount)
Use on Nikon Z: Yes, via adapter (any kind)
CPU lens: No (how to identify a CPU lens)
Status: Out of production (EOL)
Price (used): 60-150 USD on eBay

Weight: 215g
Length: 48mm (60mm when focusing close)
Filter size: 52mm
Focusing: Manual
Closest focus distance: 1m
Material: Metal
Aperture range: f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, f/22
Aperture blades: 7

The outlook

This version of the lens is all metal with a few plastic and rubber elements. An older version has a silver ring around it, and that one it's not very easy to get in mint condition. It feels very nicely built, very sturdy. It's also fairly light and very small for that focal length, and that's probably the most attractive part about it. Here are some pictures (click on it for a larger version).



As you can see it makes my D810 look relatively small. Most of Nikon's modern 100-105mm lenses are larger and significantly longer. The total weight of this setup is 1195g which is on the lighter side for every D810 shooter. Bottom line: The size and weight and build quality are the biggest positives of this lens.

Impressions



Performance

Now here's the part that might differ from most other reviewers of this lens who usually praise it. This is not a well performing lens. Sure, it's usable, no doubt, but when I bought it a year ago I was immediately disappointed. I read a lot of raging reviews, and expected a really great lens, but it's actually below average in terms of performance. I guess because it was a cheap lens when it was launched, missing coatings to keep the cost down. But the first issue I had was the focussing ring: My version has an extremely tight ring, you need to apply a lot of strength to move it. I ordered it from Japan via eBay and I even thought of returning it because of that, but the guy claimed that it was normal and he was not eager to refund me. At the end I said to myself "Whatever, I will keep it". The lens looked good on the outside, it's perfectly minty, and it cost me around 140 USD (with shipping cost to Taiwan). That's on the expensive end for this lens, but because it looked so good I wanted to keep it as a collector's item. I then didn't use it for a year until I took it out for this review. The stiffness of the focusing ring still bothers me (and I am planning to go to a local repair shop in Taipei to check if it can be fixed), but this time I was able to take some better photos. Maybe it's due to me growing as a photographer, or maybe it was because I went on a few photo walks only with this lens. I spent hours shooting with it, learning all the strengths and weaknesses, and I can confirm again: This lens is not well performing, it's below average, but in some situations it could be useful and good enough. It's a very niche product and a lot depends on your skill level. If you're very well versed in manual lenses, you will be able to produce better pictures. I definitely don't recommend it to beginners.


A small bokeh test (click on the image for a larger version)

The lens is really bad at f/2.8 in most situations where you take pictures of objects in the distance. It's soft, there's almost no sharpness (in low light the raw file sometimes falls apart in the center), and there's a lot of purple fringing. If you take images of closeup objects (like the blossom I snapped below) the bokeh can be pleasing and creamy. That's the best use case scenario when the lens is wide open. At f/4 it's slightly better, but still very bad. Sharpness is decent at f/5.6 and best at f/8 and f/11. I did not shoot at lower apertures, as I am not really interested in f/16 and f/22. I tested this lens mainly at f/2.8, because that might be one of the main reasons why people might consider buying it. So I can see two main use cases for this lens: Take images of close objects at f/2.8 or f/4 (objects at around 15 feet or 5 meters away from you), or take pictures of objects at a long distance at apertures f/8 or f/11 (objects at around 30 feet or 10 meters away). Before I talk further and share my final opinion, check my photo samples first.

Photo samples

I think the best way to evaluate a lens is through samples. I am not able to share the original RAW photos (7360px × 4912px) so instead I went to Lightroom and converted the RAW files into JPEGs without any additional processing. Once uploaded to Blogger, Google downsizes these images to a maximum of 2048px and compresses them, so these shots are just meant as a reference for you. I have also provided a link to a larger detail in 1:1 under every photo, so you'll get at least a tiny bit of the original 36 megapixels large picture. All these samples have been shot with the Nikon D810 in manual mode with auto ISO (that is limited at ISO 6400 on the higher end), as that is my preferred way of shooting street photography. The pictures were taken in 3 different suburbs of Taipei with the intent to test the lens, and not to produce great art, but sometimes both things were achieved.

"Blossom" — 100 mm, f/2.8, 1/160, ISO 180 (click for a larger 1:1 detail)

"7 Eleven" — 100 mm, f/4, 1/160, ISO 280 (click for a larger 1:1 detail)

"Street plant" — 100 mm, f/2.8, 1/200, ISO 640 (click for a larger 1:1 detail)

"Lantern" — 100 mm, f/8, 1/160, ISO 1600 (click for a larger 1:1 detail)

"Small lane" — 100 mm, f/5.6, 1/160, ISO 640 (click for a larger 1:1 detail)

"Old house" — 100 mm, f/8, 1/125, ISO 450 (click for a larger 1:1 detail)

"Searching" — 100 mm, f/8, 1/125, ISO 800 (click for a larger 1:1 detail)

"Colors" — 100 mm, f/8, 1/125, ISO 450 (click for a larger 1:1 detail)

"Temple" — 100 mm, f/8, 1/160, ISO 100 (click for a larger 1:1 detail)

"Incense" — 100 mm, f/2.8, 1/125, ISO 200 (click for a larger 1:1 detail)

"Washing" — 100 mm, f/4, 1/125, ISO 72 (click for a larger 1:1 detail)

"Spire" — 100 mm, f/8, 1/125, ISO 64 (click for a larger 1:1 detail)

"Paifang" — 100 mm, f/8, 1/125, ISO 90 (click for a larger 1:1 detail)

"Roof Gods" — 100 mm, f/4, 1/250, ISO 64 (click for a larger 1:1 detail)

"Pillar" — 100 mm, f/2.8, 1/200, ISO 80 (click for a larger 1:1 detail)

"Resting" — 100 mm, f/2.8, 1/200, ISO 1250 (click for a larger 1:1 detail)

"Lucky tags" — 100 mm, f/2.8, 1/200, ISO 64 (click for a larger 1:1 detail)

"Prayers" — 100 mm, f/2.8, 1/200, ISO 900 (click for a larger 1:1 detail)

"On a call" — 100 mm, f/2.8, 1/250, ISO 64 (click for a larger 1:1 detail)

"Yes, We Can" — 100 mm, f/5.6, 1/125, ISO 125 (click for a larger 1:1 detail)

"Headscarves" — 100 mm, f/4, 1/320, ISO 140 (click for a larger 1:1 detail)

"Statue" — 100 mm, f/4, 1/200, ISO 64 (click for a larger 1:1 detail)

"Going home" — 100 mm, f/2.8, 1/125, ISO 6400 (click for a larger 1:1 detail)

"Waiting" — 100 mm, f/2.8, 1/125, ISO 6400 (click for a larger 1:1 detail)

"Food Panda" — 100 mm, f/4, 1/100, ISO 5600 (click for a larger 1:1 detail)

"Tree" — 100 mm, f/4, 1/200, ISO 6400 (click for a larger 1:1 detail)

"Plushies" — 100 mm, f/2.8, 1/100, ISO 6400 (click for a larger 1:1 detail)

"Snoopy" — 100 mm, f/2.8, 1/100, ISO 6400 (click for a larger 1:1 detail)

My gallery

Check out My Nikon 100mm f/2.8 Series E photo gallery that shows some of these and other images in my preferred post-processed versions so that you can see how the final product could look like.

My recommendation

I would not recommend this lens unless you get it dirt cheap (50 USD and below) and you have a very specific use case and very low expectations in terms of picture quality. It is a usable street photography lens, and quality will be acceptable for social media with some good post processing, but if you're into pixel peeping or print, avoid this lens. I also think this could be a nice option to pair with a DX camera (like the D7500 or the D7200), as it will give you an equivalent of a focal length of 150mm on FX in a very small footprint. If you need that for a specific job, get this lens. Otherwise don't buy it. There are much better options out there by Nikon around this focal length, pretty much every D and G lens.