I picked up one of these via a great seller on FredMiranda.com about a week ago. He’d had it about five years and I got a very good price of $250 shipped.
I bought this to replace my 50mm f/1.8 D lens, which I’ve purchased three times over the years. I wanted something faster to shoot my daughter’s Tuesday night ballet classes with. Having used it for that last Tuesday, I may go back to my 85mm f/1.4. But today’s experience at a park has cemented this 50mm f/1.4’s position in my gear bag for general photography. It’s so contrasty, autofocuses reasonably fast on my D810 and the colors are awesome. Bokeh for daylight shots was okay. (Might not be very good at night, but I’ve got the 85mm Cream Machine if I want stellar bokeh.
I was stunned at how much I liked the shots with this lens at the park today. It was my first daylight outdoor shooting with it.
I had ordered a different 50mm f/1.4 lens the other day. It was a cosmetically superb but slightly soft in the middle D lens. I didn’t care for it. It went right back and I’m very glad I replaced it with this G lens. The big selling point for me on this lens was Ken Rockwell’s comparison here. I loved the contrast and sharpness demonstrated by this lens in that comparison. I may still keep my Nikkor f/1.2 MF Ai-S, but I’m somewhat on the fence now that I have this f/1.4.
27 May 2018 Update: This beauty is still welded to my D810 body. I just love it. What a terrific combination for my needs.