Is my camera lens any good?

Someone I know, a while ago, gave me a lens they had found. It's for film SLR's. It's a Nikon Nikkor 50 mm and appears to be for manual focus. All it says on the opening of the lens is "Nikon Nikkor 50mm 1:18 4183657" and I really don't know what any of this means. It looks oldschool with red, yellow, blue and white numbers, black hard body and a metallic ring encompassing the middle.

Added (1). Yeah, it works fine. I included some pictures.

https://docs.google.com/...ExMjRhM2I4

https://docs.google.com/...Y2YWMwYzM4

Added (2). I just don't know if the quality of a picture would be good, at least in theory, based on the numbers.

Nikkor AI-s 50mm f/1.8. I can't know if the lens is any good because you've not included enough information for me to determine such- what are you asking? If you want to know whether it works, hold the silver ring in the middle, and rotate the aperture ring (just below the silver ring) until the 16 is under the black dot on it, then move the lever on the back of the lens- if it opens and closes the aperture, it works. Rotate the focus ring (just above the silver ring), if you see the front element move in and out, it works. If both of those things work, I'd say the lens works. If you want to know if the lens is good, as in, does it produce good pictures, yes. In the hands of one who knows what they are doing with it, it can produce good images.

This was one of the best 50mm lens they made. I bought one in the mid 80's. Yours looks clean & in great condition.

No, you can't always base how good a lens is just by looking at its specs or name. However, pretty much all 50mm f1.8 are cheap and very easy to design, which also means very high quality.

Nikon Nikkor- the brand for Nikon's lenses
50mm- this is the focal length.higher the number, the narrower the angle of view, smaller the number, the wider the angle of view.
1:1.8- this can also be written as f1.8.it is the max f stop value of your lens. Lenses with smaller values mean that they suck in more light, and allows shallower depth of field.
4183657- this is just the serial code