Nikon 50mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras

Manufacturer: Nikon
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List Price: $195.00
Sale Price: $124.95
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Product Description

Lens making is an art - Nikon artisans craft Nikkor optics from the finest materials, taking pride in adding their intellect and technique to bring the world's finest lenses to life. They push the leading edge of lens making, harder and harder, in their effort to provide the "glass" that makes the world's greatest pictures.PRODUCT FEATURES:D-type lens design provides distance information as part of flash and ambient light exposure processes;Classic normal lens provides speed and compact design;Multi-layer coating minimizes flare and ghosting;Exceptionally lightweight and compact - ideal for travel photography;Stops down to f/22 for excellent depth-of-field control.

Product Details

High-speed normal lens
Great for travel and for shooting full-length portraits in available light
Distortion-free images with superb resolution and color rendition
Provides high-contrast images even at maximum aperture

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Customer Reviews

One of the best lens for portrait and low light photography.

Review Date: October 9, 2006

Reviewer: Sidarta Tanu, Richmond, VA USA

I don't even know where to start. This lens produces sharp pictures and great color and contrast. And for its price (which seems to climb recently), it is worth more than 5 stars rating. I initially get this lens for low light action and sport photography (as this lens is famous for being one of the fastest lens together with its brother 50mm f/1.4), but I also found out that this lens is also perfect for portrait and other general purposes (macro etc). This is definitely a very versatile lens.

As much as I want to encourage everyone to buy this lens right away, let me mention some of the limitation that you would see (which I think will be helpful to go over before deciding to buy this lens):

First, being a prime lens, you will need to move your feet a lot to compose your picture. If you are used to zoom lens, don't underestimate this limitation. It takes me a while to get used to it, and sometime I still find people looking at me wondering why I am moving forward and backwards. the good news is that most of the time, they don't think I'm weird, but they are actually wondering if I'm a professional photographer.

Secondly, the focal range of 50mm, which is considered the normal lens and great for portrait lens. but on many DSLRs which is not full frame (unless you have a full frame Nikon DSLR like the D700 or D3, then 50mm is 50mm), this lens become a 75mm equivalent which is in the border of a short tele lens. I actually like the 75mm equivalent though I often have to move backwards when taking picture of a group of people.

Third, in some situation the autofocus might not able to focus (which is common for many other lens too). It is hard for the autofocus to lock when aiming at a wall that is one color (usually black or white), or on a clear sky (day or night). This kind of makes sense to me actually. IN these situations the AF assist light doesn't help either so you can opt for manual focus or set the focus to infinity when you can't find focus lock on scenic/landscape or sky photography. So far I don't have many problems with the autofocus.

Sharpness increases as you stop down to f/2.2 or f/2.5. I actually use f/1.8 most of the time and the results are still nice. Personally, I'd rather use f/1.8 aperture settings than stopped down (e.g to f/2.8) and compensate with higher ISO setting which often gives me grainy picture. But if your object is not moving (static) then it is better to stop down to f/2.8 or more.

If you are wondering whether you should get a fast lens or a lens with VR (Vibration Reduction), here's my take: In overall, VR does help a lot (as it will reduce camera shake) and will produce better/sharper picture than equivalent lens without VR (especially if the object is static). If the object is moving (sports/action) then VR feature alone might not help (depending on how fast the object is moving and how much light is available), and a fast lens often end up being a far better solution, even without VR feature as it will allow much faster shutter speed to freeze motion. Using tripod (and a remote) will substitute for the need of VR feature. In general I would recommend getting a fast lens with VR feature (and usually it is expensive) such as the 70-200 f/2.8 VR, but if one can only get for one or the other, then find out what do you want to use the lens for and then use the guideline mentioned here.

If you are wondering whether you will get the benefit of buying f/1.4 lens over a f/1.8 lens, just remember that the f/1.4 lens is about 60% faster than f/1.8 at its widest aperture setting. With this information, you can decide if the additional speed will justify the additional cost. The bokeh is nicer as well in f/1.4 lens but I think speed is usually the main factor in deciding whether to get the more expensive f/1.4 lens.

Here are the summary of pros and cons for this Nikon 50mm f/1.8D AF lens:

Pros:
1. Very fast (f/1.8)
2. Very sharp pictures (especially when stopped down to f/2.2, f/2.5 or more.)
3. Great for sport/action photography
4. Great for indoor and low light situation
5. Great for portrait
6. Bokeh is almost as good as many expensive Nikon tele-lens
7. Fast autofocus
8. Good for wedding photography (or no-flash event). However, if this is your main objective then you might want to get the 50mm f/1.4 version or 28-70mm f/2.8 lens)
9. 75mm equivalent which can be considered a short tele lens (I actually like the fact that it's 75mm equivalent vs 50mm in DSLR. if you need more zoom, you can get the Nikon 85mm f/1.8, or the 70-200mm f/2.8 VR). If you have full frame DSLR(like the D3 or D700), then this #9 pros is not applicable.
10. Inexpensive

Cons:
1. Being prime lens, you need to move your feet a lot to adjust/compose
2. Autofocus issue on some situations (read detail above)
3. Plasticy build
4. Autofocus is not the most silent but very reasonable
5. 75mm equivalent with 1.5x multiplier on non full frame DSLR (many people find this is an odd range for normal lens. I actually like it). If you have full frame DSLR(like the D3 or D700), then this #5 cons is not applicable.
6. Autofocus does not work with D40, D40x, D60 and D5000. The newer 50mm f/1.4G AF-S lens or 35mm f/1.8G AF-S lens will autofocus with those cameras.

Bottom line: This lens is so versatile (and inexpensive) that I think everyone should own in addition to all the lenses that they already have. Being a very fast lens, it enables me to take pictures in low light (sport/action photography) that I otherwise wouldn't be able to do.
After knowing its limitation, I would predict that 99% of you that decides to buy this lens will find this lens very useful. And if you decide that you don't like it (which I think not more than 1%), I'm sure there will be a lot of people who wouldn't mind buying it from you (with some discount of course).

Again, I would recommend everyone to get this lens. In some ways I can say that this lens makes me a better photographer.

Happy Photographing!

Sidarta Tanu

Dollar for dollar the best buy in a bright sharp lens

Review Date: November 28, 2004

Reviewer: Albert J. Valentino, New Jersey

This lens is probably the sharpest lens that Nikon makes--see lens reviews/specs at www.photodo.com. I use this lens for low light situations outdoors and indoors so I don't need a flash. also, small dept-of-field. Using this at f/2.0 I will get at least four-six times as much light (which means four-six times faster shutter speed) as my zoom at around f/4.8 and also have a sharper image. For $99.00 this f/1.8 is a steal and a much better buy than the f/1.4 which is almost as sharp a lens and costs about $250.00--it's a no brainer.

I use this with my Nikon D70--remember, with a digital SLR this is equivalent to a 75mm lens for film which it a pretty good portrait lens.

Just buy it--for the price you can't go wrong.

Will make you a better photographer

Review Date: November 11, 2004

Reviewer: R. Rosener, St. Louis, MO United States

This is the lens to get for any Nikon SLR, from the simple N75 all the way to the Digital D70. It's faster than a zoom and much, much sharper. That's right, no zooming! If you want to make the image bigger, move closer. Want to make a wider view? Step back. This is the lens that all photographers should start with. Most of Henri Cartier Bresson's photos were taken with a 50mm lens. It forces you to think about perspective, composition, and arrangement. You can take more pictures without the intrusive light of a flash. It's cheap too. This lens is a classic and will make you a better photographer by enabling you to make creative choices. It works on almost every Nikon ever made. What more do you need to know? Get one.

Excellent inexpensive 50mm lens from Nikon

Review Date: July 30, 2005

Reviewer: John Kwok, New York, NY USA

Personally I would opt for the 50mm f1.4 Nikkor lens, but if you are tight on a budget and don't need the additional speed, then this 50mm lens would be ideal for you. I have owned several 50mm f2 and f1.8 Nikkor lenses which were all very capable performers and this autofocus version of a Nikon Series E 50mm f1.8 lens is no exception. It is without question still sharper and contrastier than a zoom lens in the equivalent 50mm focal length, since it has substantially less barrel distortion than any zoom lens. Even if you own a zoom lens covering the 50mm focal length, I would still recommend acquiring either this lens or the 50mm f1.4 lens since either would be fine normal perspective portrait lenses for photographying friends and family. If you work primarily in digital photography, then this lens wouldn't be a normal perspective lens in the 45mm to 55mm range, but instead, offer a slight telephoto perspective at a 75mm focal length; this would yield more of a head and shoulders portrait and may be more pleasing to the eye than the normal perspective taken with a 50mm lens.

A must have for any collection

Review Date: February 24, 2007

Reviewer: Mikel N. Daniel, Fairchild AFB, WA

I purchased this lens to supplement my kit 18-55 which I found wasn't fast enough to capture indoor shots of my two little girls without flash. I have to say that EVERYONE should buy this lens. As one of the first additional lenses I purchased for my Nikon D40, I was absolutely stunned and blown away by the tack sharp images and speed of this tiny little gem. While it is manual focus only with the D40, everything else works just fine. It even tells you when the image is in focus via the green focus light found inside the viewfinder. Keep in mind that at 1.8 its easy for your main subject to slip out of focus. For portrait shots, 2.8 is usually plenty to get a fast shutter speed with plenty of bokeh. For those split between this and the 1.4, if the price difference wasn't so big, I'd say go for it. But at 1.8 you're getting an extremely fast and capable lens at a price that just cannot be beat. I'm filling up my hard drive every day with pics that I simply could not have captured with my kit lens. There are some shortcomings like the manual zoom, manual focus with the D40 and that it's small plastic casing probably won't survive a fall (my 70-300 VR is MASSIVE next to it) but it more than makes up for its shortcomings with the amazing shots it takes. I promise you, you'll be hard pressed to find any other quality glass in this price range.

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