Small, light, crisp - I love my Nikkor 50mm f1.8 D AF
Discussion
Chaps,
Cutting a long story short, I bought a NIkon D80 a couple of years ago (secondhand) with the kit 18-135mm Nikkor lens. I was a keen photographer many years ago with an F601 and a couple of sigma lenses, but was never any good at it. The D80 was sticking my toe into the water of the world of DSLR's ...
... and I struggled to get photos that I liked. In fact, I struggled to get photos that didn't make me want to thump my computer screen and throw the camera out of the window. They were blurred, uninspiring, un-clear, un-crisp. I don't fully know the reasons for these poor results, but I am a firm believer in the priciple of making things simpler if they are too difficult and splashed out just over £60 on a second hand 50mm Nikkor F1.8 D AF lens.
And ... I love it! It's smaller and lighter. Which makes the camera easier to handle and easier to carry. It is also MUCH simpler to use, MUCH crisper and MUCH MUCH better in low light than the zoom. The ISO Auto system suddenly makes sense (you can set it so that the shutter speed is never slower than 1/focal length - it only goes up to 1/125 on the D80, it may be higher on other cameras) and the results are enough to make me happy! These are from the last week or so:
I now understand what bokeh is ....
Crisp, to the edges. Impossible before.
... and SO much better in low light. This was in a dimly-lit aquarium in light levels I thought would make photography impossible.
I know I am not much of a photographer, and I'm sure these photos show it, but if you could see the dross I was producing before you'd understand my delight!
Oli.
Cutting a long story short, I bought a NIkon D80 a couple of years ago (secondhand) with the kit 18-135mm Nikkor lens. I was a keen photographer many years ago with an F601 and a couple of sigma lenses, but was never any good at it. The D80 was sticking my toe into the water of the world of DSLR's ...
... and I struggled to get photos that I liked. In fact, I struggled to get photos that didn't make me want to thump my computer screen and throw the camera out of the window. They were blurred, uninspiring, un-clear, un-crisp. I don't fully know the reasons for these poor results, but I am a firm believer in the priciple of making things simpler if they are too difficult and splashed out just over £60 on a second hand 50mm Nikkor F1.8 D AF lens.
And ... I love it! It's smaller and lighter. Which makes the camera easier to handle and easier to carry. It is also MUCH simpler to use, MUCH crisper and MUCH MUCH better in low light than the zoom. The ISO Auto system suddenly makes sense (you can set it so that the shutter speed is never slower than 1/focal length - it only goes up to 1/125 on the D80, it may be higher on other cameras) and the results are enough to make me happy! These are from the last week or so:
I now understand what bokeh is ....
Crisp, to the edges. Impossible before.
... and SO much better in low light. This was in a dimly-lit aquarium in light levels I thought would make photography impossible.
I know I am not much of a photographer, and I'm sure these photos show it, but if you could see the dross I was producing before you'd understand my delight!
Oli.
Really like the marble statue ones.
Prime lenses do make you think more about composition, as you usually have to do something more physical than twiddling the zoom on the lens to change what's in the frame (and where in the frame it is).
It's also a good way to get used to M(anual) mode because, for me at least, it seems like there's one less thing to worry about compared to a zoom (especially one with different maximum apertures at different ends of the zoom scale).
Oh, and using manual mode isn' some big aspirational thing in your photo learning process - it's a great way to get you thinking about what sort of photograph you want to take, rather than letting the camera do some of that thinking. For example, do you want a shallow depth of field like you've used in some of the pictures, do you want a slow shutter speed to blur parts of the picture, etc., etc.
So, go forth and enjoy
Simpo Two said:
And of course 25+ years ago almost every 35mm SLR came with a 50mm f1.8 or f2.0 as standard. So it's not new, merely rediscovered
And to think that, all those years ago, I sold the 50mm prime that came on the front of my first Minolta SLR as I wanted a sexy zoom instead ... It's an interesting point. Why did manufacturers start putting zooms on SLR's? Is it because zooms are perceived as being more desirable because they make things easier for the photographer? And am I some kind of out-dated throwback for loving a simple, old-style lens? Come to think of it, who uses primes these days anyway?
Oli.
Zooms give a lot of flexibility as they save you carrying several lenses around and having to keep changing lenses over, but generally they compromise the optical quality and restrict the maximum aperture - usually the fastest primes are f/2.8.
There are a lot of people out there using primes for the larger apertures and improved optics. Most pros will own a selection of them.
There are a lot of people out there using primes for the larger apertures and improved optics. Most pros will own a selection of them.
zcacogp said:
It's an interesting point. Why did manufacturers start putting zooms on SLR's? Is it because zooms are perceived as being more desirable because they make things easier for the photographer?
Thinking back to my first SLR, I was in a camera shop in Holborn with my father when the subject of a birthday present came up. I don't think I'd given it much thought - perhaps it was the assistant's idea - but I came away with a Vivitar 28-50mm zoom (Vivitar was then one of the better independent makers). I loved the way a simple tug would pull in the view, and it was my usual lens for many years - paired with a 70-210 f3.5 Vivitar Series 1. Although film speed was generally 200-400 ASA, shutter speed never seemed to be a problem and I didn't miss the fast aperture.So zooms just seemed to be a step on from a fixed standard lens. It did more.
SimpoTwo,
I had a just about identical introduction, although came about via a different route; the camera was a manual-focus Minolta with aperture-priority automatic exposure and a 50mm f1.8 (I think) lens. I splashed out on a Sigma 70-210 zoom and later traded the 50mm in for a 28-70mm Vivitar zoom. I loved the lot, but always ran 100ISO film and hence had big problems with wobble and blur and shake.
That lot was all traded in at a local Jessops for a Nikon F601 AF 35mm body, which I loved but which wasn't much of a camera. I still have it, on my desk beside me here, but haven't used it for 10 years or more. That came with a 28-70 Sigma lens, and I bought a 75-300 Sigma zoom as well, later on. My memories are hazy, but I don't recall taking many photos I was proud of with that camera (I think I did better with the Minolta). I do know that I never had really enough money to afford to buy the film and get it processed, so I never experimented with things as much as I should. In retrospect I should have kept the Minolta and spent the spare cash on film, and actually enjoyed taking a lot of photos.
Interestingly, the two Nikon-fit Sigma lenses I bought for the F601 fit the D80, and work with it too! With a crop sensor, 300mm focal length gives quite a significant amount of zoom ...
Oli.
I had a just about identical introduction, although came about via a different route; the camera was a manual-focus Minolta with aperture-priority automatic exposure and a 50mm f1.8 (I think) lens. I splashed out on a Sigma 70-210 zoom and later traded the 50mm in for a 28-70mm Vivitar zoom. I loved the lot, but always ran 100ISO film and hence had big problems with wobble and blur and shake.
That lot was all traded in at a local Jessops for a Nikon F601 AF 35mm body, which I loved but which wasn't much of a camera. I still have it, on my desk beside me here, but haven't used it for 10 years or more. That came with a 28-70 Sigma lens, and I bought a 75-300 Sigma zoom as well, later on. My memories are hazy, but I don't recall taking many photos I was proud of with that camera (I think I did better with the Minolta). I do know that I never had really enough money to afford to buy the film and get it processed, so I never experimented with things as much as I should. In retrospect I should have kept the Minolta and spent the spare cash on film, and actually enjoyed taking a lot of photos.
Interestingly, the two Nikon-fit Sigma lenses I bought for the F601 fit the D80, and work with it too! With a crop sensor, 300mm focal length gives quite a significant amount of zoom ...
Oli.
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