Nikon 50mm f/1.8 AF Nikkor Lens

I don't even know where to start. This lens produces sharp pictures and great color and contrast. I initially get this lens for low light action and sport photography. 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.

Let me mention some of the limitation that you would see:

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 a DSLR (which I assume most of you use nowadays), 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. On low light, 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.

If you are wondering whether you should get a fast lens or a lens with VR, here's my take: VR does help a lot (and produce better/sharper picture than equivalent faster lens without VR) if the object is static. If the object is moving (sports/action) then VR feature doesn't really help and fast lens will be a far better solution. Using tripod (and a remote) will substitute for the need of VR feature.

Here are the summary of pros and cons:

Pros:
1. Very fast (f/1.8)
2. Very sharp pictures
3. Great for sport/action photography
4. Great for indoor and low light situation
5. Great for portrait
6. Bokeh is good
7. Fast autofocus
8. Good for wedding photography (or no-flash event)
9. 75mm equivalent which can be considered a short tele lens
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 DSLR (many people find this is an odd range for normal lens. I actually like it)

Bottom line: This lens is so versatile that I think everyone should own it. 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.

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!

I needed a fixed focal lens for my Nikon D70. This lens gave me everything I wanted from a lens like this and the price was great