This is one of those lenses that you need to find one in good condition. The front section of this lens is "huge" and can be prone to hard knocks ruining alignment of the front element, and killing the performance. This example is near mint, and has never failed to impress me- whether on a Nikon F2AS or on the Nikon Df.
Recently, I took the Df with the 55/1.2 and the Leica M9 with the 7Artisans 50/1.1 up to the Marine Museum at Quantico, VA. I chose the two lenses as they cost about the same these days. The 7Artisans can be bought new for ~$370, and a near-mint 55/1.2 for about the same. The Ai version of the 55/1.2 has a minimum focus distance of 0.5m, and the optical formula was improved over the previous versions. It is the last version of the lens before Nikon brought out the 50/1.2- which is still in production. The latter is a fine lens, with better corner-to-corner sharpness. The 55 F1.2 is sharpest across the central 2/3rds of the image, the T-Stop is slightly faster, and slightly longer focal length is an advantage in some circumstances.
Wide-Open on the Df:
DSC_1137 by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr
Recently, I took the Df with the 55/1.2 and the Leica M9 with the 7Artisans 50/1.1 up to the Marine Museum at Quantico, VA. I chose the two lenses as they cost about the same these days. The 7Artisans can be bought new for ~$370, and a near-mint 55/1.2 for about the same. The Ai version of the 55/1.2 has a minimum focus distance of 0.5m, and the optical formula was improved over the previous versions. It is the last version of the lens before Nikon brought out the 50/1.2- which is still in production. The latter is a fine lens, with better corner-to-corner sharpness. The 55 F1.2 is sharpest across the central 2/3rds of the image, the T-Stop is slightly faster, and slightly longer focal length is an advantage in some circumstances.
Wide-Open on the Df: