Nikkor 50 mm AF-D F/1.8 review

29 05 2009

In this review I will take a look at my first lens I got (apart from the kitlens, Nikkor 18-55 F/3.5-5.6 VR). The lens is the Nikkor 50 mm AF-D F/1.8. As I have no other similar lenses to compare it with, I point you to other online resources who go in depth regarding quality etc:

I will focus on how this lens has worked for me.
To start off my body is the Nikon D60 which does not have an autofocus motor build in. This means that in order for autofocus to work the lens needs to have it. In this case the lens doesn’t so I don’t have autofocus. I knew this in advance but decided to took to risk. (It saved about €200). I found that after some practice working without autofocus is certainly possible. It takes some practice but it works fine. Important to note is that the body helps you in focusing. In the viewfinder the indicator which normally shows if the image is over or under exposed now shows weather you are in focus or not. If there are green bars left of the 0 point the focus is too close and if there are green bars on the right the focus is behind the metering point.

Thanks to the large maximum aperture (low F-number) you can easily play with shallow depth of field. (What is depth of field?) As an example at F/1.8 a subject 1.5 meters away has only 6 cm is in focus. At F/5.6 this is 20 cm. Another advantage of the large aperture is the ability to take well exposes pictures in low light conditions. I’ve used the lens to take family pictures inside without using a flash. Not using the build on flash results in better pictures in my opinions since they retain the natural light and no flash reflations etc.

Because it is a prime lens (a fixed focal length) the lens is very compact. The focal length of 50 mm is maybe not the ideal focal length. A wider focal length might be more useful for general photography, but the 50mm is very well suited for making portraits.
Dog portrait
F/1.8, iso 200, 1/200s

Recommendation:
I love having a fast prime lens. This lens is also very affordable. If you have more money to spend and have a D40 or D60 (without build in focus motor) you might want to take a look at the recently announced Nikkor AF-S 35mm F/1.8 or Sigma 30mm F/1.4.

Pros
* large maximum aperture
* compact
* inexpensive

Cons
* No autofocus on Nikon D40/D60


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Quick tip: Which lens? check library

19 05 2009

A repeated question is “which (additional) lens should I buy?” Here is a tip for those of us beginning photographer not sure yet what kind of photographers they are.

Open your photo library. Look at your best photos. Pay attention to what focal length, which aperture etc is used. See if you can see a pattern and base your decision on what you found.

For example. If you have a lot of them at the maximum of your zoom range of your lens and you find yourself cropping them, a longer zoom seems like a good investment. If shallow depth of field is a pattern, a faster lens (What is a fast lens) is a good step.

This tip is of course only helpful if you already have a good amount of photos to sample from. If you don’t have a big library yet, it might be best to start building one first. If you are looking for your first lens, a zoom lens will do fine to start building your library.

Hope it helps you find your next lens. Happy shooting!


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