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Hi I'm looking at buying another lens for my Nikon D5000, I have a 18-55mm & 55-200 lens. I was looking at the Nikon 50mm f/1.8 D AF Lens but don't really know much about lenses, I do know it’s cheap and as I'm a beginner thought it would be an ok start lens. Also is it compatible with my DSLR D5000 VR. I do find this website so useful especially the techniques video so much I decided to sign up to 10 weeks evening classes for an DSLR beginners to help me improve.
Any help appreciated.
On your camera, being a DX format camera the 50mm will be a short telephoto, just like the 55mm setting on your existing lenses. The advantages are that it will give better image quality than your existing lenses, and having a maximum aperture of f1.8 means you can do very shallow depth of field, and shoot in lower light than your zooms allow. It's a good lens for portraits on a DX camera. The main disadvantage is that it won't autofocus on a D5000.
Steve has covered the main details regarding the lens.
Taking on board the fact that your a beginner and having decided to sign up for a 10 week course, It might be a good idea to get some experience with your current lens, Before buying another lens.
You say you don't know much about lens, So what made you consider the Nikon 50mm f/1.8 ? ? ?
As Steve has pointed out, On your D5000 it will not autofocus, As a beginner you will have enough to learn without having to manually focus your lens as well.
I would consider completing your 10 week course, By which time you may have a better idea on what other lens ( If any ) you might need.
Whatever, The Nikon 18-55mm VR or non VR, Is not a bad lens to start out with, Its also a lot more flexible than a 50mm prime, Chances are than when used at f/5.6 and below, You would be hard pushed to notice any real world improvement using the rather old Nikon 50mm f/1.8 D option.
Thanks Steve & Cameracat for your reply and advice. As for why chose that lens its cheap and thought I would get better photos. I do use my 5000 as much as possible but as a beginner I find it hard to know where I’m going wrong and how to correct it.
I use the shutter, aperture and manual setting as much as possible and have to say I do have success with shooting some photos, one of the problems I find is that after taking a photo I view it with the histogram but because the LCD is small even more so with the histogram on show the photo taken looks very small. I did much research into which camera to buy and concentrated just on the DSLR my mistake was to ignore the lens that comes with it. Paying the extra for the 55-200VR lens it wouldn’t have been much more if I had bought the D90 with the 18-105 lens. I really like my 5000 and enjoy using it, once I do the course I’m sure I will have more knowledge and be more confident.
Thanks again both and will take your advice and wait until I finish the course before buying any lenses.
johnmac
Quote: I really like my 5000 and enjoy using it
John,
This is very important. You need to feel comfortable with your camera to get the best out of it, the more you know your camera, how it works and it's unique idiosyncrasies, the less likely you are to miss a shot fiddling with settings.
Where in the world are you?
ePz'ers are everywhere and a couple of kind words will surely get personal help from someone local.
If someone from here wanted to try this lens and they were local to Birmingham, I'd certainly offer to meet up as this site is about meeting other 'togs.
I hope the majority feel the same.
Dom
Once you've mastered the basics of your camera and feel comfortable with it and you feel you really want another lens, try the 35mm f/1.8. It will be the equivalent of a 50mm (52.5mm) and will autofocus on your camera. I recently photographed my nephew's christening and used that lens on my d300 for about 90% of the shots. I was very impressed with the results. Good luck.
Nick
Don't buy lenses just because they are relatively inexpensive if you don't know what you want to do with them. The 35mm is not wider than your 18-55, no - it falls in the middle of the range (35mm is more than 18mm and less than 55mm....). Set your 18-55 lens to the 35mm point - that is the view the 35mm will give you.
What is the 35/1.8 for? On 35mm film cameras (don't confuse 35mm film with a 35mm lens), and on full frame DSLR's in which the sensor is the same size as a 35mm frame, 50mm is considered 'standard' focal length, and used to be the lens that came with a camera. So the 50mm f1.8 D is a standard Nikon lens, and on film and full frame, 35mm is modest wide angle. But because non-full frame cameras like the D5000 have a smaller sensor, the image is cropped and 50mm is no longer standard, but the equivalent of a 75mm short telephoto. So now Nikon make a 35mm f1.8 as a 'standard' fast (wide aperture) lens for these cameras, because the angle of view of 35mm on the smaller sensor equates to just over 50mm on the full frame, as pointed out by Nick Thompson. It is a 'standard' lens for DX format cameras. They are useful because being a prime and simple construction, they can give better image quality than a cheap zoom, and because they are 'fast', ie. the maximum aperture is wide at f1.8, you can get very shallow depth of field and be able to use higher shutter speeds in low light, at a wide aperture.
Much is written about so called fast lenses i.e lenses with a wide aperture. Saying they are grat in low light etc. There are a couple of points to bear in mind @ F1.8 the dof is very very small so focusing is critical not easy in low light even with a fast lens, your talking critical DOF of mm's.
Also no lens I know is at it's best wide open, they are far better stopped down 1-2 stops. It is often far better to increase ISO and work at F5.6 say.
I wouldn't say the 300mm f/2.8 is as it's best wide open. It is superb wide open of that there is no doubt, but it gets better slightly stopped down. Of course that in itself depends upon the body it is used on, a 300mm f/2.8 wide open is not the same on a FX body as it it is on DX body.
Quote: On your camera, being a DX format camera the 50mm will be a short telephoto, just like the 55mm setting on your existing lenses. The advantages are that it will give better image quality than your existing lenses, and having a maximum aperture of f1.8 means you can do very shallow depth of field
Something that a lot of people never talk about on here is the fact that irrespective of what ever aperture you have set on say an f1.8 lens, it will always focus wide open and only close down to the set aperture at the time of taking the picture. This also means a much brighter viewfinder, handy in low light.
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